Final Copy-Public Opinion.docx

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Abstract: This content analysis examined the media’s coverage of ISIS (Islamic State in

Syria and Iraq) throughout the three journalist beheadings committed by the terrorist group.

Specifically analyzing 20 New York Times articles, our research showed there was a variety of

ways the Times identified who the group was to the American people. We looked at four select

terms (described later on) and the accuracy and aggression used by the Times while writing

about the group during the four month span of the beheadings.

Since, the American media has a big influence on what citizens know and feel is

important, the writers of the Times could be more aggressive or less aggressive while describing

ISIS, therefore the people believe that they are becoming more of a threat, or less of a threat

depending on which route the journalists’ take. In America, there are only a couple of well-

known newspaper companies that cover international news, which means that these news sources

have an even bigger influence on the thought of what has happened in the Middle East, and how

serious of a threat this terrorist group is. Our research (Coding) showed that the coverage by the

media on ISIS was more aggressive at times, but overall it only moderately increased after each

beheading.

The hypothesis for this project was that as each beheading occurred, the coverage of ISIS

by the media (the Times) would distinctly increase in levels of aggression toward the group, and

the accuracy which the media described ISIS would also increase greatly. The Agenda-Setting

theory was used as a reference during this content analysis because of the media’s ability to tell

the people what is important and newsworthy. The results showed that our prediction for how the

media covered ISIS as the beheadings occurred was incorrect, and for the most part, the media

did a sufficient job in portraying ISIS the same way throughout the four month period.

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Intro: This content analysis takes a look at the language of 15 articles by the New York

Times, written within the time period of the first three journalist beheadings; in order to

determine the accuracy and aggression of the media toward the militant group of Iraq and Syria,

also known as ISIS. In preparation toward the study and analysis of the language background,

research was done to: explain coding examples of other content analysis, find information on the

militant group, explain decapitations as a political statement, normal media coverage and

depictions of the Middle East, and examples of increased accuracy and aggression toward ISIS

as the number of beheadings increased. However, this research differs from other content

analyses because it will not just look at the words themselves, but the meaning behind them.

Since the Agenda-Setting theory is used by news media to increase the importance and

relevance of specific topics, we thought it would sufficiently support this study that shows media

setting the agenda for U.S. citizens and influencing their attitudes toward ISIS.

The methodology of this study includes: a number of specific words that the media used

throughout the duration of the first three beheadings, and a defined scale of aggressiveness each

of those words fall into. We will count the number of times each word is used, then determine

the level of aggressiveness (Ranging from one to four) used by the media. The reason of this is to

show that the media becomes increasingly aggressive while writing about ISIS after each

beheading, which means that to prove this is true there should be a higher amount of four’s after

the last beheading then there was before/after the first and second beheadings.

Lit Review: The American media have a great influence over what the majority of

American people know and what they believe. Since everyone cannot be eye witnesses to every

event all over the world, people rely on the media to inform them about what is occurring not

only locally or nationally but internationally as well. While there are many news sources that

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cover local and national news, few American news outlets cover international news adequately.

This is the case in the Middle East, more specifically, the current conflict of beheadings in Iraq

and Syria. Since this conflict involves America, it is big news, but there are only a couple news

outlets that regularly cover international conflict. These media sites are the few that provide

access facts about this escalating conflict, allowing Americans to be given the facts; so what is

written, and how it is written in the articles can impact the knowledge and opinion of the public.

Therefore, because media plays a large role with public knowledge in foreign affairs, the

Agenda-Setting theory is the theory we selected to support this study.

Before going into detail about the militant group ISIS itself, it is important to understand

the specific coding that content analysis’s like this one use. In content analyses that are taking a

look at individual words and phrases in articles and reports it is necessary to look at other

examples to see what works and what can become too complicated. Alessandro Bigi (2013) used

a coding method that is a great example to look at for this content analysis. He counted the uses

of specific words in political blogs in Italy over the course of an election. The study that he

conducted was just to look at the difference of language that bloggers used over time to see if

there was any change over the course of the election. His content analysis is beneficial to look at

because it counts words over time. This is similar to Lori Young and Stuart Soroka (2012)

because their research looked at the contexts of words and how meaning could change with the

use. Their findings will be helpful to this content analysis because increased aggression is not

only shown through different words, but the context in which they are placed. “Militant group”

sounds less imposing than “terrorist organization,” but if the whole phrase was “The incredibly

dangerous and well-armed militant group with genocidal intentions,” that might show more

aggression than the phase “the small terrorist organization poses no threat to anyone.”

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Before ISIS began posting the videos showing proof of their beheadings of U.S. and

British journalists, the media portrayed the group in a variety of ways. It was somewhat

unknown as to who was initiating these violent attacks on innocent people, Kareem Fahim

(2014) provides an article exemplifying just that. Detailing an attack on a University in Baghdad,

Fahim describes the terrorist group we now know as ISIS, in a number of ways, including:

militants, gunmen carrying the Islamic State of Iraq, Sunni extremist group, and others as well.

By using different terms to identify the perpetrator, readers can’t point out one distinct person or

group to blame, which creates a less threatening presence. Our content analysis will show that

the wording used to describe ISIS becomes more direct and ultimately portrays them as a group

becoming an increasing threat to America after each beheading. However, the reason for using a

few different names to label the group now known as ISIS could also have been because of the

timeliness. This article was written before any of the beheadings, and the damage done by ISIS

prior to that hadn’t directly impacted the U.S. in any way; which means the media isn’t going to

blow it out of proportion to the American people.

Both Diana Ibrahim (2009) and Simon Wilson (2008) took a look at the media coverage

and portrayal of the Middle East before the ISIS beheadings. Most of the media coverage was

scarce and definitely not on the front page of any news source unless some major attack took

place. Research like this is important to this content analysis paper because finding out what

coverage is like in times before something major, like the beheadings, is important to set a

baseline for further research. What Ibrahim and Wilson both found is that coverage in the Middle

East was often inaccurate or narrow minded, thus presenting a particular view to the American

people, not really showing a wide or realistic view of what life is really like, or what the majority

of people are like in that region.

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Rod Nordland (2014) provides an article that begins to show ISIS as a more serious threat

leading up to the first beheading. In the article, Nordland shares the statements from an adviser

of the prime minister who explains that the U.S. failed at leaving the military forces in Iraq

properly trained to effectively control an emergency. Since the U.S. did not properly train the

Iraqi soldiers, they must look to Iran for aid with further military force in handling ISIS. An

article by Kareem Fahim (2014), which was published only a week prior to Nordland’s, shows a

much different outlook, as the terrorist group ISIS, is now clearly identified by Nordland. The

U.S. denies that it didn’t sufficiently train the Iraqi soldiers as they put forth $25 billion in an

effort to do so. This type of information will be critical in our content analysis because of the

identification and portrayal of ISIS by the American media leading up to the first beheading.

The Middle East has been a conflict zone for a long time; whether it is a religious war,

the ousting of a dictator, or a violent coup, there can be struggle found. In 2001, the United

States had been in a renewed conflict with several terrorist and militant organizations, starting

with Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban, then Saddam Hussain in Iraq, Al-Qaida, and now ISIS.

The Islamic State of Syria and Iraq began beheading American aid workers in an attempt to force

America and her allies out of the region. The United States responded by bombing suspected

ISIS strongholds, escalating the conflict. While many Americans blame ISIS for dragging the

United States into a new war with terrorism, Adil Shamoo (2014) writes, “The Islamic State of

Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a symptom--not the cause--of turbulence in the Middle East. It is a

symptom of oppressive, corrupt, and undemocratic regimes supported and manipulated by the

United States, Europe, and Iraq's neighbors, including Iran, to serve their own interests.” This

statement explains why the conflict in the Middle East in not being solved, because instead of

treating the heart of the problem, the United State and its allies continue to try to slap Band-Aids

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on the wound. Taking out a terrorist organization and forcing a region into democracy is not

solving the problem, which is why ISIS and organizations of its ilk continue to pop up and

spread havoc. Alborn (2010) goes into further detail in explaining the political and religious

history of the Middle East. With this history it is easy to see why democracy and individual

freedom cannot just be handed to this region by an outside force, there have been too many

dictators to make an abrupt political change. Islam has been a dominate religion in an area where

religion is so important for too long for religious equality to come naturally. This is why there

has been so much resistance to foreign powers making changes to places that they do not

understand. A key to understanding the religious and political history of the Middle East to

understand why ISIS and other militant groups are fighting the United States.

An article published after the first beheading of American journalist James Foley,

discusses why the U.S. didn’t pay the ransom ISIS demanded for Foley. Rukmini Callimachi

(2014) explains that ISIS says Obama is the one who is in control of the number of hostages who

will be executed, based on how he plans to deal with the situation. Unlike many European

countries that have paid ISIS with millions of dollars in order to save their hostages, Britain also

has decided to not pay the terrorist group any ransom money. Callimachi also explains the threats

ISIS is making of killing many more hostages until their requests are granted; which is they will

continue to execute innocent people until the U.S. quits the airstrikes against them. Carol

Giacomo (2014) also expresses the serious threat shown by ISIS in an article published after the

first beheading. However, Giacomo portrays the article in a way to make it seem like the U.S.

has everything under control, and that although President Obama is unsure how he will retaliate

after the beheading of James Foley, he will do whatever is necessary to bring justice where

justice is due.

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Not only is it important to understand the history of the region and militant group, but it

is also important to understand why ISIS chose beheadings as their primary demonstration

against the United States. Peter Marton (2013) researched beheadings by terrorist organizations

and what message they send. He did his research not only on terrorist beheadings, but also on

forces like the United States, and the, as he phrases them, “decapitating blows to terror

organizations.” So not only the messages that terrorist organizations mean to send when they use

violent acts like beheadings, but also the messages the United State and nations like that send

when they attack the organizations themselves. It is important to know the messages that are

being sent both ways in order to understand more about the physiology of the conflict.

Shortly after the beheading of James Foley, a second American journalist was executed

by the Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS). An article published by Julie Davis (2014) explains a

different, more aggressive approach taken by Obama compared to his reaction after the first

beheading. This time Obama pledges that ISIS will face repercussion for their actions, and that

the U.S. will seek and destroy the terrorist group. In the article, Davis describes the group as

ISIL, ISIS, and “militant group.” This is information that will be useful to our content analysis

because it provides an even wider variety of terms used to describe the group. ISIS previously

had stated that it would continue with the executions based on the decisions of President Obama,

and an article from Mark Landler and Eric Schmitt (2014) explains ISIS blames the beheading of

Steven Sotloff on the air strikes in Northern Iraq. The American media includes direct statements

from ISIS; “Just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike

the necks of your people.” Compared to the articles first written on ISIS this is a much more

direct, and harsh approach on the coverage of ISIS.

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This same approach by the media is after the third beheading, this time British aid worker

David Cawthorne is the hostage who is executed. Rukmini Callimachi and Kimiko De Freytas

(Callimachi & De Freytas, 2014) provide an article that quotes the direct message Cawthorne

reads from ISIS on the video of his execution. Much like the U.S., ISIS has Cawthorne say that

his country’s leaders are responsible for his death based on their actions. An article provided by

David Sanger (2014) says that the F.B.I. has identified the man in all three videos of the

beheadings, and also provides what Sanger describes as Obama’s most aggressive wordage he

has used while referring to ISIS.

The sources provided give a sufficient amount of evidence that shows the aggressiveness

of the media’s portrayal of ISIS increasingly grew as each beheading occurred. The way the

media portrays specific events throughout the world, paints a picture to the American people on

how to perceive its seriousness; the media sets the stage on what the people should be aware

about. This is why the Agenda-Setting theory is an adequate reference for the study. As ISIS

continued with the executions, and threats to America, the accuracy and awareness of the

terrorist group was more clearly shown. These sources will be imperative to our content analysis

because of the coding examples used, the analysis of language by the media, and the increased

threat of ISIS after each beheading took place.

Hypothesis: There are three parts to this hypothesis. The first is that during our word

count, the use of the words militant group, Sunni extremists, terrorist group/organization, and

ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State in Syria and Iraq will change over the course of the beheadings. We

predict that Sunni extremists and militant group will be used more before the first beheading. But

ISIS and terrorist group will be used after the beheadings. The second part of the hypothesis of

this study is that the media used an increasing level of aggression to American citizens about

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ISIS as each of the first three beheadings occurred. We will be counting select terms the media

uses, which are: militant group, Sunni extremists, terror group/organization, and ISIS (Islamic

State in Syria and Iraq). By developing a grading scale we will determine the level of aggression

the media uses while describing the group. We should prove this hypothesis by showing that the

media used the select terms in the most aggressive way (labeled as four’s) after the third

beheading, compared to before/after the first two beheadings. The last part of the hypothesis is

showing an increase of accuracy used by the media as ISIS becomes more relevant to American

news. We came across an article that mixed up ISIS and Al-Qaeda, something that is inaccurate,

and we think that this well not be the case as the beheadings increase.

Methodology: Using the Agenda-Setting theory as a reference, we will be looking at

how the media portrays the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq with both literal word and the

meaning behind it. This content analysis will not only be counting and identifying the descriptive

words the New York Times used in 20 articles to describe the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq

before and after each of the three beheadings during the period of June 7, 2014 through

September 25, 2014; but will be looking at the meaning behind each word, and categorizing each

word on a scale of aggression. Our initial research has shown that the most common descriptive

words used are: militant group, Sunni extremists, terrorist group or organization, and ISIS

(Islamic State in Syria and Iraq). There will also be an “Other” category in case of alternative

descriptions of ISIS; all other descriptions will be included in this category because in our

preliminary research the four words previously stated were by far the most common. There will

be four time periods in which we will count the use of these words (We will be using five articles

from each time period for counting purposes). The first time period is from June 7, 2014 to

August 19, 2014, the second time period is from August 20, 2014 to September 2, 2014, the third

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period is from September 3, 2014 to September 13, 2014, and the fourth time period is from

September 14, 2014 to September 25, 2014. These time periods coincide with the three

beheadings, allowing us to capture the words used in the days leading up to the beheadings.

These words will be used to determine if there is a pattern of change in the word use as the

beheadings increased. For instance, we know that the term “Sunni extremist” will be used in the

articles before any of the beheadings because most people did not know who or what ISIS is and

the writer wanted to define what ISIS was. We want to determine if there are any changes in the

wordage used as the beheadings occurred. Will there be as many “Sunni extremists” used after

the last beheading as there were prior to the first?

The second part of the analysis will categorize the aggression shown by the media toward

the Islamic state in Syria and Iraq. We will assign a numerical value to each of the words used to

describe ISIS to determine whether or not there is an increase of aggression as the beheadings

continue. We will assign a numerical grade of aggression to each word based on these

guidelines:

1. Not aggressive = Identifying the organization with no additional description.

2. Mildly aggressive= Identifying the organization as a minor threat to Iraq

3. Aggressive= Identifying the organization as a serious threat to Iraq and the surrounding

countries.

4. Extremely aggressive= identifying the organization as a threat to national security.

We will use these values to determine overall aggression, the total amount of each

number, and the rise or lack of aggressive description used by the media toward ISIS. We will be

using the same time periods as before to categorize the numbers.

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The final part of the analysis is a small one. While reading several early articles,

we noticed that ISIS and Al Qaeda were used interchangeably, which is not accurate. Because

ISIS was not well known to the American Public before the beheadings, articles involving ISIS

may not have been as important to the paper, therefore may not have been given as much effort

as they have after the beheadings. We want to determine the accuracy of writers when using the

terms Al Qaeda and ISIS to see if there was any change over the course of our timeframe. We

expect this to be only a one or two time occurrence, due more to a lack of editing than a

misunderstanding. However, it’s possible there’s a pattern that could get corrected in a certain

time frame, or it may not be corrected at all.

Results: There were three parts to this study, the word count, the agression, and the

accuacy of the media in articles published by The New York Times. We divided the time

surrounding the beheadings into four periods. The first time period is from June 7, 2014 to

August 19, 2014, the second time period is from August 20, 2014 to September 2, 2014, the third

period is from September 3, 2014 to September 13, 2014, and the fourth time period is from

September 14, 2014 to September 25, 2014. For the word count part of our study, we expected to

find that militant group and Sunni extremists would be used more frequently in articles written

before the beheadings, and ISIS and terrorist group would be used more after the beheadings.

This was not the case, as the words ISIS, ISIL, or Islamic State in Syria and Iraq were used many

more times than the rest of the words put together.

Period 1

Militant Group: 3 3%

Sunni Extremists: 10 10%

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Terrorist Group/Organization: 6 6%

ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State in Syria and Iraq: 82 81%

Period 2





Period 3





Period 4





*Graphs 1-4 also show this information in the Index.

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At first glance, these numbers can be misleading, especially the percentages. While it

seems like Militant group increased from Period 2 to Period 3, the actual number of the words

did not increase much, the other words were just used less. ISIS was used 82 times during Period

1 and by Period 4 it had decreased to 42 times used. Sunni extremist was all over the place

percentage wise, going from 10% of all words used in the first time period, to only 4% usage in

the second period. Terrorist organization stayed pretty stead in the 4%-9% range, being our most

consistent word. The biggest find that we had was really unexpected. The actual number of total

words dropped as the beheadings went on, from the 101 total counted words in the first period to

64 in the last period.

The next part of our study looked at the aggression behind each word that was counted.

We hoped to prove that as the beheadings continued, the media would be more aggressive

toward ISIS. Using the definitions of aggression above, we categorized each word into groups,

one through four, with one being the least aggressive and four being the most. Our work shows

that there is a slight increase of aggression as the beheadings continued.

Period1

1: 83 82%

2: 11 11%

3: 4 4%

4: 3 3%

Period 2

1: 63 70%

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2: 12 13%

3: 9 10%

4: 6 7%

Period 3

1: 36 52%

2: 17 25%

3: 9 13%

4: 7 10%

Period 4

1: 31 48%

2: 11 17%

3: 21 33%

4: 1 2%

*Graphs 4-8 also show this information in the Index.

The information shows a gradual increase of aggression by the media. There were 4% of

number threes and 3% of number fours in the first period; 10% of threes in and 7% of fours in

period two; 13% of threes and 10% of fours in period three; and an astounding 33% of threes and

2% of fours in period four. We believe that the reason that period four had such a large percent

of number three is because it was after the last beheading. This might be the boiling point for

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some media members, allowing some of their anger to seep into their writing. The large number

of threes might also account for the lack of fours in the fourth group, probably many of the

would be fours were just sent to the three group by the writers in an effort not to sound overly

aggressive. The other noticeable point is the decrease of ones in as the beheadings continue,

starting out with 82% of the words, but being whittled away to just 48% by the fourth period.

The last piece of research that we were hoping to find was an increase of accuracy by the

writers. We had found one instance of The New York Times mixing up ISIS and Al-Qaeda, and

were hoping to find more inaccuracies before the beheadings, followed by an increase of

accuracy as the time periods passed. We only found that one instance of inaccuracy, and believe

it to be a one-time occurrence. We did not find any other mix-ups, edited or not, in any of the

other articles, so we do not really have any data to report on.

Conclusion: Overall, the Times did an excellent job as journalists covering ISIS and

portraying it with little, to almost no bias to the American people. Our hypothesis, which was

that the media would have a clear increase of aggression and accuracy toward ISIS as each

journalist (especially American journalist) was beheaded, was entirely wrong. As our results

showed, there was only a slight increase in aggression toward the terrorist group, and besides the

one mishap of the media mixing up Al-Qaeda and ISIS, the accuracy of how the Times described

ISIS was steady throughout the time period we looked at. The methodology of counting select

words, and providing percentages that show the levels of aggression and accuracy the media had

while covering ISIS was an efficient way to see how our media tells us what is happening around

the world. Although our hypothesis did not match up with what actually happened, for once, I’m

not mad about being wrong; the journalists are doing their job!

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Index:

Graph 1Graph 2

Graph 3

Graph 4

3%10%6%

81%

Group 1: Percent of Word Count

Militant GroupSunni Extremists Terrorist Group/Organization ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State in Syria and Iraq

82%

11%4%3%

Group 1: Percent of Coded Words Showing Aggression

Not AggressiveMildly AggressiveAggressiveExtremely Aggressive

3%4%7%

86%


Militant GroupSunni ExtremistsTerrorist Group/OrganizationISIS/ISIL/Islamic State in Syria and Iraq

9%

15%

4%

72%


Militant GroupSunni ExtremistsTerrorist Group/OrganizationISIS/ISIL/Islamic State of Syria and Iraq

Batiuk and Giza 20

Graph 5

Graph 6

Graph 7

8%17%

9%66%


Militant GroupSunni ExtremistsTerrorist Group/OrganizationISIS/ISIL/Islamic State in Syria and Iraq

57%27%

14%1%



70%

13%

10%7%



Batiuk and Giza 21

Graph 8

48%

17%

33%

1%



Documents

Final Copy-Public Opinion.docx