U.S. media before the Iraq invasion. Quantitative analysis of newspaper articles with respect to balance of sources

The role of the media before and during the Iraq war in 2003 in the United States still resonates topic. Journalists are often criticized for failing to fulfill their roles and violations of journalistic standards. This thesis deals with the balance of articles in two national newspapers, The New York Times and The Washington Post, in the period before the invasion of Iraq, specifically from the August 2002 until the invasion on March 19, 2003. The thesis is a quantitative content analysis of the articles from the front pages of these newspapers. The main hypothesis of the research is that, according to criticism that the media received, there should be more sources supportive of the administration of George W. Bush and almost no opposition. The thesis examines, whether journalists followed the norm of balance of sources, or whether is the criticism justified. The result is, that despite the lack of opposition on the domestic political scene, journalist found the opposition sources abroad. Reporting of these two newspapers were, in terms of used sources, balanced