Embedded journalism as a strategic enabler in US contentious foreign policy-making domestic legitimization: Evidence from the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

This article argues that in controversial conflicts, such as the 2003–2011 Iraq War, the US government can strategically utilize the influence it exhibits over the information the mass media have access to in order for war reporters to be (primarily) exposed to information that legitimizes war, and subsequently shares the latter with national audiences via their coverage of the conflict; so as to facilitate the (potential) generation of domestic public support for war, which has been demonstrated to be particularly crucial in contexts of contentious conflicts. Through the interviewing of eight reporters who worked as embedded or unilateral journalists during the Iraq War, and the thematic coding of 40 embedded and unilateral articles from The New York Times and the Washington Post published during this period, this study finds evidence suggesting that, compared to unilateral reporters, the information embedded journalists had access to during the Iraq War was controlled and limited by the US military, and was particularly oriented toward the legitimization of the conflict. Moreover, that this resulted in embedded journalists' reporting of the Iraq War being, overall, more justifying of the conflict than unilateral reporters' coverage. This article therefore contributes to the wider understanding of the ways in which the US government can utilize the leverage it posseses over the material the mass media have access to, in order to legitimize contentious foreign policy-making, and possibly gather (critical) favorable domestic public opinion for the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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