Prime Time Politics: Television News and the Visual Framing of War
Anderson, Jennifer Ogg
:
2011-04-12
Abstract
This project is concerned with how televised images of violence on the field of battle affect public support for war. News coverage is a powerful factor in influencing public opinion, but the majority of past empirical work has focused on spoken or written content rather than the visual component of television news. Emotion-laden imagery may evoke powerful reactions that are independent of a news story’s factual information. This dissertation captures the power of war images on television by developing a systematic and reproducible method of coding to measure news imagery. I use this method to conduct an original content analysis of the Vanderbilt Television News Archives, documenting changes in news portrayals of war over time and across news networks. I then examine the effects of violent war images on public support for war, finding that modern televised images of violence dwarf their predecessors in frequency and severity. I also find that the effects of violence negatively influence the public’s view of war. As violent images on television news increase, the public is less likely to support conflict.