Honors Thesis Archive

Author	Courtney Huck
Title	Embedded and Unilateral Journalists: How their Access to Sources Affected their Framing During the 2003 Iraq War
Department	Communication
Advisors	Sheryl Cunningham, Molly Wood, and Catherine Waggoner
Year	2017
Honors	University Honors
Full Text	View Thesis (610 KB)
Abstract	With the 2003 United States' led invasion of Iraq, the Department of Defense created an embedded war correspondent program that had never been used to such a broad extent by the U.S previously. Immediately, critics of the program claimed that embedded journalists would have a personal bias because of their continuous interactions with the soldiers, and, as a result, critics claimed that stories from embedded journalists would only present the Unites States in a positive light. This study examines articles from two embedded journalists and two non-embedded (unilateral) journalists throughout the first four months of the invasion (March 20, 2003-July 31, 2003). Through examination of the articles that emerged during the chosen time-period, findings show that embedded and unilateral journalists' access to specific kinds of sources during different periods of the invasion greatly shaped the direction of their stories.