NEWS FRAMING OF THE 2003 IRAQ WAR: A STUDY OF THE SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN PRESS

Abstract

After a two-day ultimatum demanding that Saddam Hussein step down, the United States attacked Iraq on March 19, 2003. The Iraq War generated a variety of emotions around the globe, particularly in the developing world. The sub-Saharan African press viewed it as a war without convincing legal or moral justification, perceiving it to be a tool used by the US to gain global economic, military, and strategic influence. Employing framing analysis, this study investigates how the sub-Saharan African press constructed a number of different social realities of the same war.