The Coverage of the Iraq War 2003 Campaign in Media - Dissertation Example

The media came under the cloud for deviating from the established norms, values, customs, and traditions that had been an essential part of its professional ethics for the last several decades. Somehow, the other school of thought declares the shock and awe policy as a sign of benevolence on the part of the media for saving the world from the possibility of war in the Gulf region. Thus, the media raised a strong voice against the war in order to prevent its obnoxious entry into the cultured and civilized world of the 21st century.

There is no suspicion in the very fact that the US invasion of Iraq served as an astounding event of the modern era, which startled the entire world at large by capturing even the remotest regions of the globe in its fold, the journalists belonging to every country reached in the war zone in order to make unprecedented coverage to the chronicle of events leading towards the horrors of war. Though an overwhelming majority of news channels pretended neutrality, few papers appeared to be supporting one side out of sheer prejudice they maintained for their nation and community. It was particularly the case with the famous Qatar-based Arabic Al-Jazeera Television network and the UK-based Daily Mail Newspaper, as both of them observed the shock and awe policy regarding the conflict between the forces of the USA and Iraq during the former’s war preparations against the latter in the wake of 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre, New York.

It was the era when the entire globe appeared to be undergoing an extreme state of polarization, and conflict between the civilizations appeared inevitable. Then US president George Bush had already declared the terrorists’ attacks on WTC as the beginning of the so-called holy crusade to be launched against the Muslims, who had deliberately targeted the Christian territory. It is therefore, he entered into conversation with the western and Christian powers within a week of the destruction of the World Trade Center, in which he reiterated his ambitions to launch a crusade in order to fight against terrorism everywhere in the world. Such kind of emotions was not confined to George Bush only; rather, he transferred and projected the same extremist sentiments to the political and press allies all over the globe. 

The same feelings were patronized by the press in their campaign were actually the strife to nullify the shock and awe propaganda of each other both sides had launched before the US attack on Iraq. The main objective behind both these media forums was just to suppress and condemn the atrocities of the two for protecting the masses from the horrible effects of war. Shock and awe tremble the nerves of the rival forces and masses, and defeat them psychologically even before the beginning of the war. The US media had already launched a campaign against the war provided the world had witnessed the sorry state of her forces in Afghanistan. Somehow, few channels aimed to create unabated harassment against the so-called terrorist designs articulated by Saddam Hussein in such a way that the American subjects looked for the destruction of Saddam's network for their own safety and protection. The Bush administration added fuel to fire by narrating false tales about the presence of still unexplored chemical weapons to be used against the USA and her interests that the people started demanding the destruction of such weapons for the best interest of humanity at large. Thus, the Allies' war mania forced the extremists among press and media personnel to play an important role in shaping and influencing the policy of pro-Iraqi frightening propaganda during the war to keep up the morale of the invaded Arabian country and vice versa. The same was the situation with the pro-Saddam press, which also declared the conflict between two war-mongers, i.e. Bush and Saddam, as the Muslims’ Jihad against the so-called infidels.