Reading Political Media

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Reading Political Media: essay trilogy ……………………………

Reading Political Media: essay trilogy Mikko Kapanen 2010

A few words first

Telling the Lion’s Story : dominant media

on

Darfur

Shooting photographs: images taking sides

Revolution in what: The coverage

of

political

social

media

and

its

significance in modern elections.

Page 3.

Page 4.

war

Page 25.

Page 52.

Mikko Kapanen 2

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/za/







A few words first Seemingly it is rather humane to be obsessed with the flow of news

entering and exiting our lives on daily basis and creating their never‐

ending narratives which we follow like a TV soap opera – we are not

sure why, but undeniably we are interested. It is perhaps seen as

common knowledge or some kind of social capital… “oh, did you not

hear what happened in…” Why do we follow news is mystery to me.

And for at least some time it shall remain as such as I am interested

in understanding what makes news and why, who decides and why.

What kind of relationships media has with politics and what factors

ake it like it is.m

This is a small collection of essays written in 2010 as part of my post‐

graduate studies. The first one of them looks at how two major

broadcasters – BBC and CNN – treat an African conflict in their

coverage from Darfur; who are the heroes, villains and stars of the

ragedy and why?t

The second essay focuses on conflict images and the meaning of

ccess to photo journalism in war zones.a

The last one explores the real impact of the online social media on

the so called Green Revolution in Iran as the elections were unfolding

in 2009.

Mikko Kapanen 19.5.2010 in Cape Town

Mikko Kapanen 3




Telling the Lion’s Story : dominant media on Darfur

Until the lions learn to tell their stories, the history of

hunting will glorify the hunter . (African proverb)

This paper looks into the global media coverage of a conflict area,

specifically focusing on the Sudanese Darfur situation that has been

ongoing in the recent years. My interest is to find out how has the

conflict been dealt with by some of the major international media

outlets; BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) of United Kingdom

and CNN (Cable News Network) of the United States of America to be

precise. I am interested in finding out are these news reflecting the

conflicting ideological factors of the societies of news makers and the

subjects of their news, the political economy of the media

organisation or the news production culture dominant in the two

ountries in question?c

Mikko Kapanen 4

My key argument is that the political economies of both of the

organisations – very different as they are – have a great impact on the

media texts they produce. One of the core values of the BBC is

impartiality, but that tends to suffer as even if facts would be covered

with a sense of objectivity, this only happens after the premise of the

news has been predetermined based on the facts held as true, and on

top of that having selected very western centric angles and narratives

to tell the news. So rather than impartiality, the news are produced

with a sense of impartiality. The licence fee funded media




organisation, however, is able to cover the stories from the conflict

which is not closely linked to the country of its origin. The same

principle does not apply to CNN, which due to its advertising funded

function must focus more on the conflicts and stories more directly

linked with the United States (e.g. Iraq and Afghanistan). CNN did

cover handful of Darfur stories during the sampled period and they

were shorter, quick‐to‐the point reports based on many directly

quoted facts. On top of the influences of the political economy, this is

likely to be a result of their culture of media text production

actices.

Mikko Kapanen 5

pr

The sample that has been used to be interpreted is all the items found

from the web services of these broadcasters during the month of

November 2006. This paper does not claim to be representative

further to its limited sample, although I would like to think it will give

us some indication of potential factors behind geographically uneven

global media production relationships and power struggles. It must

also be acknowledged that the two organisations which traditionally

have been seen as broadcasters, have taken much broader cross‐

media platform role, and the texts used for analysis here are not in

ideo, but as they have been written online.v

I will begin by exploring some debates around the considerations of

media texts through their production influenced by the globalisation

of media and its dominant political economies, after which I write

about the method of this research and before concluding, I will offer

y findings.m




Theorising global media and its political economy.

In this segment I will explore some of the existing literature around

the focus of my research. These themes include media and news

production and its globalisation, and how the political economy of a

edia organisation impacts on its practices and texts.m

Mikko Kapanen 6

Development of news media and its globalisation The news media in the 19th century merely consisted of opinionated

statements printed together with facts, and it was a useful tool in

political communication. Mid‐century the publications started buying

content from the news agencies; a practice which resulted with

centralisation of the news production as few producers started

serving a broad spectrum of publications. As this was taking place a

strong linkage was created between news and global financial

markets, formula for the news became somewhat standardised,

nationally the interests became propagandist and internationally

largely market orientated (Machin and Van Leeuwen 2007: 8). In the

1950’s research proved that the news content had become one‐

directional and siding with the interests of the dominant media

production countries; which generally are the so called western

nations (McQuail and Windahl 1993: 219). In the so called Mowlana

Model the different countries are divided into central and peripheral

ones, and the predominant news are the ones of the centre; those

being also popular foreign news items in the countries of periphery,

but various peripheral areas rarely broadcast or publish news of each

other (Mowlana 1985). For this paper the idea of centre and

periphery divide is very present since it focuses on the so called




western media covering an African conflict, and to a large extend,

etermining the discourse used for the conflict globally.

Mikko Kapanen 7

d

Since the end of the Cold War new alliances have been formed and

the global media environment has changed drastically. Hamid

Mowlana (1996) – the creator of Mowlana Model – also points out

several shifts regarding the communication, for instance it changing

from international into global, but not, however, universal, by the

weakening of the traditional nation states and strengthening of the

corporate and other sectors of societies (193‐9). The technological

advancement has enabled the increased flow of data, which has

helped the production of capital by allowing more rapid distribution

of news and entertainment (Artz 2003: 7). This has also made the

class inequalities to be globally communicated, the control has

become more centralised and the English language even more

standardised (Artz 2003: 8). The privatisation of media has caused a

threat for the public sphere as the commercially driven media tends

to be conservative and protective of status quo, as it tends to be its

beneficiary and this resulting in a form of self‐censorship (Herman

nd McChesney 1997: 6‐7).a

Some African media, namely the New African magazine (June 2008)

has raised concerns of the unhelpful bias of the western media, its

impact on the awareness of the African continent and most of all

unawareness of the ongoing influences of the governments of the

west on the continent. Baffour Ankomah (2008) attributes this to the

dominant media following the flag – giving positive coverage to the

leaders siding with their country’s administration and negative to the




ones who are opposed; the ideological leanings of the media –

especially in United Kingdom the newspapers relatively openly side

ith political parties and finally the historical baggage (12‐4).

Mikko Kapanen 8

w

Media’s role in forming public opinion pro‐government policy is not

simply telling citizens what to think; it isn’t something that it can

necessarily do, however, it has more power to tell what to think

about (Cohen 1960: 165). Methods to indirectly or even relatively

directly influence the people’s actual opinions further include

framing, priming and agenda setting (Semetko 2004: 359‐64). For the

global news this is relevant as the foreign policy needs to be justified

to the voters, which government’s media enabled PR campaigns have

done especially in the United States ever since President Wilson

formed a propaganda commission (Creel Commission), that changed

the rather anti‐war general attitude into readiness to join the First

orld War (Chomsky 2002: 11‐3).W

Noam Chomsky also highlights some problems with one of the

integral aspect of the many modern conflicts; the so called terrorism,

and how its actual definition lacks universality as what is defined as

terrorism by the US government, and almost automatically by most of

the western media, applies only if the offender is other than United

States or one of its allies. In the same way the justification for

response to a so called act of terror depends on who is in its receiving

end (Chomsky 2007: 206‐7). The idea of universality which resonates

Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative (as explored amongst others

by Guthrie 1994) becomes crucial for our topic as the mainstream

media most often fails to raise questions such as these (Ankomah






countries it tends to emphasise the economy more than the politics

(Schudson 1996: 145). One of the key ideas for the political economy

of especially commercially driven media is seeing the audience as the

commodity and the function of the text is to be merely a bait to

attract these consumers to be influenced by the adverts (Smythe

1981). Later this idea was further specified by adding that the

commodity cannot be the audience per se, only their potential

attention time which may or may not benefit the advertisers (Jhally

990: 72).

Mikko Kapanen 10

1

Social inequalities create circumstances where concern for media

ethics can be raised; does the production of the media reproduce and

enhance these conditions if it is influenced by the cultural, political

and economical powers dominant in societies (Hesmondhalgh 2006:

2). According to Chomsky and Herman (1988) even in the liberal

democracies the elite serving media propaganda exists, but it is only

more difficult to distinguish than in the dictatorships (2). Their

writings were, and have been, however, largely ignored by the US

media and politics due to their awkward nature (Schlesinger 1992:

305). According to Golding and Murdoch (2005) this Propaganda

Model, as it is called, does overlook that even the commercially

driven media structures cannot do as they please, but must follow the

appropriate legislations and conventions of their societies. Analysing

these factors is one key part of what is called the critical political

economy of culture (14). Louw (2005) still notes that media as an

industry is constantly moving towards maximising the profit, often at

the expense of investigation, and that news rooms are increasingly

“becoming media release processing centres” (90). This idea was




recently supported by a former BBC News reader Peter Sissons who

described his old employer’s news room as a “factory” (BBC news has

ecome a 'factory', says Peter Sissons. from the Guardian 1.10.2009).

Mikko Kapanen 11

b

Political economy has influenced in the practices of the media

production in the recent past as the smaller production teams must

be more flexible and often work as freelancers. The media producer

has become to be seen as something of a economic resource for his or

her organisation (Ursell 2006: 141). From the perspective of cost

efficiency the permanent staff can be seen very expensive and

bureaucratic, and flexibility brought in by the temporary

employment practices being rather improving the production, than

tretching the production team (Barnatt and Starkey 1994: 253).s

While the influences of the political economy to media productions

are inevitable, focusing on them alone overlooks other important

factors such as social organisation of the media production (Wall

1999: 25) and fact that they can never be “value‐free procedures”

(Schlesinger 1992: 294). Incorporating these kinds of influences

Schlesinger (1978) concluded for instance that the production of the

BBC’s news department is strongly based on routine and existing

ractices, which then further impact the text (79).p

A Public Service Broadcaster such as BBC has got different

considerations in their function outside of purely economic ones,

such as counter discourse, universality, public service and

justification of the licence fee on top of the competition from the

private media sectors (Hesmondhalgh 2006: 79).




Methodological considerations. In order to be able to understand the factors influencing the media

texts of specific major media organisations, I have conducted a

qualitative textual analysis on news items found from the web

services of BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news) and CNN

(http://www.cnn.com) from the time span of one month: November

n 2006.i

Textual analysis is more often used as quantitative research method

to enable categorising messages (Merrigan and Huston 2004: 134),

and to conclude based on the frequency of selected key words or

content (Pierce 2008: 264). I have, however, focused on the

qualitative version of the content analysis while using some purely

quantitative aspects to support my interpretation based on

frequencies of for instance Sudanese names as opposed to the non‐

Sudanese ones to highlight the general dominant angle of the media

organisation in their coverage. But in qualitative content analysis,

which is at the core of this paper, one focuses on, for instance, a

possible bias that may be detected from the news (Pierce 2008: 264).

I have then analysed based on the political economy of the

organisation and other structural factors what relationships there

re between the news, their subjects and producers.a

Mikko Kapanen 12

The significance of the time selected for the sample is the peace

keeping offer of the United Nations having just been declined by the

Sudanese Government as something to compromise the country’s

sovereignty and after the UN representative had been expelled, the

African Union extended its mandate to a peace keeping force that was



Reading Political Media: essay trilogy ……

to move into Sudan (Timeline: Sudan, BBC). These events in and of

themselves offer us an interesting starting point for the western

media to write, since the western solutions to the problems of Sudan

ad been sidelined.

………………………

Mikko Kapanen 13

h

The variables I am specifically looking into are the ratio of what could

be considered as factual information and analysis, treatment of

ideologies conflicting with the ones dominant in the so called west

and the representation of the various groups and individuals within

these texts.

Covering Darfur – Research findings. November of 2006 was part of busy period for global media when it

came to Sudan. The Darfur situation had been ongoing for a few years

and even the debate on rhetoric that was to impact the approach; are

we dealing with genocide or something a little less, was not current

anymore, but the United Nations peace keeping forces had been

denied the access to the area as it would have been seen to

undermine the sovereignty of the nation and its Government in

Khartoum, and the African Union troops were to be deployed instead.

The rebels were moving towards Chad and the humanitarian crisis

as deepening (Kajee 2006).w

Based on the coverage of two globally significant media organisations

– BBC and CNN – on the Darfur crisis, I am exploring the factors

behind these news. Factors such as ideological ones and the

nfluences of the political economy.i




The argument I make here is that the textual content of these media

organisations is highly depended on their political economy, and as

that political economy differs from one to another, the results are

also very different. The impartiality that BBC prides itself with is

problematic and incomplete since it only starts after some very

strong prejudgements of the situations have been established and the

angles that are very western centric have been chosen. Presenting

the facts impartially and fairly after that does not create actually

impartial news, but rather partial news with a strong sense of

impartiality. But because BBC does not rely on advertising revenue, it

can extensively cover issues that are not directly linked to its primary

markets. CNN, however, covers its handful of news from Darfur in a

short and efficient manner, which may have to do with the media

production cultures that are dominant in the United States, but also,

because their main interest at the time of sampling has been with

other, for their country, much more important conflicts in Iraq and

fghanistan.

Mikko Kapanen 14

A

Before even getting into the qualitative analysis of these texts, it has

to be mentioned purely numerically that during the month from

which the sample is , I found three articles from the CNN service that

were primarily on Sudan and Darfur and further four articles where

the situation was covered amongst other matters. The BBC, however,

during the same month had 25 items on Darfur and extensive

coverage of the conflict spreading towards Chad and Central African

Republic on top of that. The content of the articles on these other

countries starts to quickly mould into many matters in the region and

on the continent, and the line becomes very blurry, so I chose to focus




on the stories that were more directly covering the conflict as it was

happening on the territory of Sudan. An explanation for the

comparatively smaller CNN coverage might be the simultaneous

conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both of these conflicts have more

direct impact on both of the countries, but seems to have more

impact on the American media – the commercial one – as far as

arfur news coverage went.

Mikko Kapanen 15

D

BBC – art y impartial. Born as the content providing service of the British radio

manufacturers in the early 1920’s – then known as the British

Broadcasting Company (Crisell 2002: 18), – BBC became the public

service corporation as we now know it in 1927 (Aitken 2007: 9).

Unlike in the United States, the broadcasting was always heavily

regulated in the United Kingdom; this is partly due to geographical

reasons (Crisell 2002 : 18), and BBC was build on the idea of Public

Service Broadcasting, and its funding was based on the licence fees

required – at least theoretically – from its audiences (Benkler 2006 :

189). According to its own guidelines the impartiality has always

been at the corporations core (BBC Trust 2005) and in his rather

uncritical book Robin Aitken (2007) certainly agrees. There have

been, however many dissent voices such as Schlesinger (1978) and

Philo et al. (2005) questioning the practical success of BBC with

mpartiality.

p l

i

The factual premise of BBC coverage of the Darfur conflict is that the

Sudanese Government – while denying it – is supporting, enabling or

at the very least allowing the Arab Janjaweed rebel groups to carry




out an ethnic cleansing of Black Africans in Darfur. Most articles have

nearly identical paragraph with this message and at times it is even

mentioned twice. That angle then seems to continue impacting the

style of writing the content, the interviews conducted (the selection

of interviewees) and the way the answers that did not support these

facts held to be true were presented. In other words, throughout the

whole month, every article was written to prove this point.

Structuring the articles in this manner, creates a distinct sense of

impartiality and sticking to the facts, but actual impartiality it is not,

since the writing seems to be based on predetermined judgements of

the truth, that were never put under questioning regardless of what

any dissent voice would have said. It also contributes into a stronger

sense of the news being provided with clear and holistic context than

hat actually happened.

Mikko Kapanen 16

w

Another aspect that is problematic from the perspective of

impartiality, although to some extent understandable considering the

primary audience of the news, is the angles that are very western; out

of 25 articles only four had any Sudanese names mentioned on top of

the President Omar al‐Bashir. Out of these names – six in total – two

were Government ministers, one minister’s spokesperson, one

human rights lawyer receiving an international award, one rebel

leader and one villager from Darfur. In contrast nearly every story

mentioned people from UN, various European ministers, aid workers

from the European organisations, reporters from BBC and most of all,

of course the UN Humanitarian Chief Jan Egeland who is by far the

most central figure in the sampled news. When quoted, the non‐

Sudanese individuals were given a lot of space where as the Sudanese




views were often covered by quoting an unnamed official, maybe a

press release, but someone representing the Government responding

to various allegations by calling them “lies”. While the sense of

providing context and background by giving the facts was constantly

kept up by referring to what I previously mentioned as the factual

premise of the coverage, the actual context, especially from the

Sudanese side was left a lot less clear. This was demonstrated on few

occasions with a small paragraph explaining the Sudanese denial of

the facts as they were presented by the BBC: “Sudan has always said

that the problems in Darfur are being exaggerated for political

reasons” (Sudan 'begins new Darfur attacks' ). Besides one mention of

the “aid industry”, which then was not explained further, these

political reasons were not really explored or explained during the

ampled month.

Mikko Kapanen 17

s

The distinct lack of Sudanese names and the emphasis of the western

opinion – even if given by a representative of the United Nations –

created a sense where, while it is clear that human tragedy amongst

Africans was the focus of the stories, the more important thing was to

highlight the frustration of the west not to be able to help. This, to

some extent when looking at all the articles at once, resembled

awkwardly the colonial mentalities of Africa being a European

playground. Much like in the colonial stories, also here the news

narrative was based on western individuals and African nameless

masses that were mainly, with one exception, reduced into statistics.

BBC also does not once mention the Britain’s past colonial

elationship with the country during the sampled month.r




While the bodies of the news stories appear to be balances, even if

they actually are not, it is the headlines that jump out the most. Most

stories have sensationalist sounding titles that borrow a small bit of

quote and force it into a context that only very uncomfortably

matches the actual writings. These titles included: Sudan's Darfur

'close to abyss', Darfur 'genocide crosses to Chad' and Darfur militias

'kill children'. It is true that the news items have quotes that allow

you to make the statements of the headlines, but stylistically, they

seem like an attempt to ‘sell’ – although not in the financial sense of

the word – the article to the reader. There is nothing in the idea of

Public Service Broadcasting that would prohibit that, but

instinctively the headlines seem like a mismatch with the bodies of

heir articles.

Mikko Kapanen 18

t

On top of the stories that were based in Sudan, BBC also featured

other stories highlighting the broader global context by providing

information about student’s fundraising events for Darfur, the

solidarity campaign of the Holocaust Museum and American

celebrities generally sympathising with the cause ( Americans take up

Darfur's cause). In this article focusing on the attitudes of another

country, United States, BBC draws attention to the fact that many

Christians were sympathising with the victims of Darfur due to their

shared religion, and even if left unmentioned, their shared threat of

Islam and the Arabs. One could not say whether similar thoughts

from the United Kingdom would have deserved their own sub‐

heading and several paragraphs, however, the story that was covered

purely from the British perspective was the opposition leader David

Cameron’s visit to Sudan (Cameron visiting

war

-torn

Sudan). This



Reading Pol ia: essay trilogy ……………………………

story also manages to create a sense of context, background and facts,

but it, for instance makes no mention in what capacity and why was

he visiting the country. One is left to guess the motives to be

something in between a fact finding mission of a potential future

Prime Minister and a mere photo opportunity for a political player

ith enough access.

itical Med

Mikko Kapanen 19

w

Now that I have looked at the BBC coverage of Darfur conflict, I will

next explore the way CNN treated the same subject matter during the

ame time period.s

CNN – communication or commercialism? Started in 1980 by Ted Turner, Cable News Network or CNN, builds

onto a very different way of structuring and regulating media

compared to the BBC‐model. American broadcast media has always

been mainly commercial, less regulated and aiming for profit making

by selling advertising (Crisell 2002: 18) as it adopted the ways of

perating from the print media (Benkler 2006 : 190).o

The factual premise of the CNN coverage of Darfur is largely similar

to the one of BBC, with the added emphasis on the US administration,

especially the Secretary of State of the time Colin Powell, describing

the situation as genocide; a term that the broader international

ommunity was struggling to find consensus with.c

CNN news stories covering this conflict are more detached, straight

forward stories that are structured around quoted facts – at least it is

a fact that those things were said by someone, which transfers the




responsibility of the truthfulness to the quoted. The style of the

articles might have to do with a differing culture of writing news in

United States when compared to United Kingdom, but the main

difference is the amount of these stories. The news stories by CNN

during the time which I have sampled were heavily focused on the

war in Iraq and Afghanistan; two conflicts where Americans had

much higher stakes having their own army, citizens and even the

reputation of the nation on the line. On top of that, these wars were

also contested by many citizens, so all in all, they were much more

interesting, and therefore profitable topics to cover. Should I have

selected one of these conflicts as my focus, I am certain that the

findings would have been very different, as even the term CNN Effect

(as elaborated extensively by Robinson 2002) has been coined to

describe how in the 1991 Persian Gulf War the CNN became “the eyes

nd ears of the world” in a conflict situation (Miladi 2005: 149).

Mikko Kapanen 20

a

This hypothesis is supported also by the fact that even one of the

Darfur stories (Sudan's president points to Iraq as reason for blocking

.N. peacekeepers for Darfur ) was a hybrid story of Iraq and Sudan.U

Unlike with BBC, with CNN the most telling thing about their Darfur

coverage of the time when a lot was happening in Sudan was not

what they did say, but rather what they did not – and furthermore

what did they cover instead. The Darfur situation is covered – only

just – but because of the political economy of the organisation, and its

dependence on advert sales, the news agenda is not formulated

around the most meaningful – not that Iraq or Afghanistan were not

meaningful – story, but rather the most marketable story, which will




attract the largest audience which then could, as theorised by Smythe

(1981), be sold to the advertisers. For a Public Service Broadcaster,

especially the one with the BBC‐model which does not involve any

advertising, the motivations would be more in line with justifying the

licence fee and to support counter discourse and universality

Hesmondhalgh 2006: 79).

Mikko Kapanen 21

(

Conclusion In this paper I have been looking at the BBC and CNN coverage of the

Sudanese Darfur crisis. My sample period of media texts analysed

was November 2006; selected for its significance as the time when

the United Nations was barred from the country and the African

Union troops were deployed for the peace keeping mission – it was

all around very busy time and vast amount of newsworthy stories

ere coming out of Sudan.w

My argument, based on the research is that the political economy of

these media organisations, which for both is very different, is the key

determining factor of the texts they produce. This argument covers

oth how the stories are covered and which stories are covered.b

BBC has been priding itself with its impartiality, which, of course, in

realistic terms could never be quite absolute anyway, but based on

the articles written on Darfur, the angles and the factual premise of

the situation, that all the stories support, create a circumstances

where instead of actual impartiality, only a very strong sense of

impartiality is created and as carefully as the context of the stories

are given, they are written with so called western narratives and by




and large through non‐Sudanese characters. In another words the

impartiality of BBC regarding to this conflict exists in an extremely

partial context and therefore gets, if not nullified then at least

significantly hollowed for ideological reasons. BBC does, however,

cover these stories extensively, which can be attributed to its political

conomy that is not directly linked with the final media products.

Mikko Kapanen 22

e

For CNN, the political economy determines the selection of stories

covered and therefore it focuses more on the conflicts that are closely

connected to the audiences of United States. During the period of the

sample there was no shortage of those since the more media sexy

conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan were also ongoing. Factual premise

of CNN, in their short, to‐the‐point news items was very similar to

BC.B

One of the reasons the west‐centric news narratives of Africa have

become somewhat of a standard in the global media, is the lack of

contesting media organisations. Cameron Duodu (2008: 20) calls for

an African equivalent of Al‐Jazeera, which has been able to create

competition with the western media organisations not just as far as

the audiences go, but also the messages. The political economy of Al‐

Jazeera is partly subsidised by the state of Qatar, and should this

support stop, it is less clear if it would survive economically purely

based on the advert sales subscriptions (Miladi 2005: 157). It is these

realities of global media that impact the news as they reach us, and it

is not necessarily a question of how truthful something is, but how,

nd from which angle it is told that impact our world view.a




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[Last accessed3 April 2010]

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Chad proposes anti ‐Sudan alliance. BBC 17.11.2006 [online] Available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/‐/2/hi/africa/6157686.stm


Darfur 'genocide crosses to Chad'. BBC 7.11.2006 [online] Available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/‐/2/hi/africa/6124538.stm


Darfur lawyer receives top award . BBC 7.11.2006 [online] Available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/‐/2/hi/africa/6125434.stm


Darfur militias in deadly attacks. BBC 13.11.2006 [online] Available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/‐/2/hi/africa/6144424.stm


Darfur militias 'kill children' . BBC 13.11.2006 [online] Available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/‐/2/hi/africa/6113232.stm


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http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/22/wednesday/index.html?iref=allsearch


Desert nation

encircled

by

conflict .

BBC

27.11.2006

[online]

Available

from

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/

‐/2/hi/africa/6188634.stm


Mikko Kapanen 23




Egeland: 'Meltdown' in Darfur. CNN 22.11.2006 [online] Available from

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Sudan accused of invading Chad . BBC 15.11.2006 [online] Available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/‐/2/hi/africa/6152214.stm


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Janjaweed' .

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‐/2/hi/africa/6188982.stm


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[L

W

[L

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ast accessed3 April 2010]

arning ahead of Darfur AU talks. BBC 29.11.2006 [online] Available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/‐/2/hi/africa/6195114.stm

Mikko Kapanen 24




Shooting photographs: war images taking sides

The way we understand war is informed by a broad spectrum of

influences from media and our cultural conditioning to the personal

and collective relationships with the different sides of the war. Some

of these factors are more emotional and some rational, but since

many of us are lucky enough not to know it experientially, a lot of the

deas of war become understood through media.i

In this paper I have used methods of semiotic analysis to understand

the Guardian newspaper’s photographic editorial line relating to the

representations of the different sides in the coverage of war in

Afghanistan, supported by some quantitative data collected to

provide the context where the more specifically analysed images

exist in. Meanings of images, still or moving, have not traditionally

been as popular field of research as other textual elements of media

(Hansen et al . 1998: 189), and since the practices of production

demand very specific kind of access to the subjects, it is important to

ry to understand what it is that is presented to us.t

Mikko Kapanen 25

My central argument here, is that the key consideration with conflict

images is the access to take them; where can the photographers take

photos and where they cannot and who has permitted or enabled

them to take these photographs. These questions are largely

answered by the media policies of the military forces, as in many of

the modern wars, journalists get embedded in the troops. While the




final images that were produced by photographers working for photo

and news agencies appear to be one sided providing us with an

unmistakable sense of western super armies, it might just be that –

the faceless and cold soldiers who on an emotional level are difficult

to engage with overpowering the civilians appearing weak and

unprotected, that provide us with some diversity in directions of our

sympathies. The double standard of showing the suffering and death

of the ‘other’, very graphically, while the death of the westerners is

absent, is likely to be due to ideological, political and editorial

decisions. It is because of access, and therefore the types of

photographs available, that the editorial line of written text can differ

greatly from images used for a publication such as the Guardian

which is considered liberal quality broadsheet. Very little, or no

context is provided by the photographs as even though they are

almost exclusively establishing shots, they are more about the

scenery where to anchor the news story to than any meaningful

ontext providing journalistic tool.

Mikko Kapanen 26

c

The sample of this paper is small as it covers a selection of images

published online as a photo gallery on the website of the British

Guardian daily broadsheet newspaper (www.guardian.co.uk). It is

not my intention to claim the findings to have further significance on

a any universal level, but perhaps they are able to suggest what the

more common trends and standards in conflict photography are.

Also, I wish to point out that my intention in this paper is not to

‘other’ any culture, but I am analysing the images from the angle of a

so called westerner or a European; much like the target audience of

the publication in question is.




I will next cover the theories around my research topic addressing

images and photography in the news and war situation and how

media framing works as a part of media’s function. After these

debates I will address the methodology of this research and before

oncluding, I will offer my research findings.c

Theorising news images the military ars

In this segment I am looking into the already existing research

relevant to this paper. I have divided this review in three parts: first

exploring the theories of images in general and their usage in the

news journalism, the second part deals with the relationship between

ar and journalism and third covers ideas of media framing.

in w

w

Mikko Kapanen 27

Images and the news Photograph isolates a single moment in time; therefore differing from

video which continuously scans the environment (McLuhan 1964:

205), and due to this characteristics the images – and the codes

within them – are best understood through their historical context,

although that is not a prerequisite of analysis (Lacey 1998: 130).

Many unquestioned clichés suggest the accuracy and truthfulness of

the image (McLuhan 1964: 205). These clichés do, however

uncritically overlook the practices and techniques of photography

such as camera positioning, angle, framing (Hansen et al . 1998: 192‐

3). Besides the practices of producing the images, the history has

known examples of doctoring them in post‐production, but that

practice does not fit in the framework of ethical journalism (Hansen

et al. 1998: 194). After the final images has been produced they still




go through editorial process of selecting the appropriate ones for the

public to see (Hansen et al . 1998: 197), but although traditionally

images have been utilised for specific and often strategic ends, there

are cases, such as the torture images of Abu Ghraib prison from Iraq

which, due to the online distribution, spiralled out of control against

he wishes of media or political establishment (Stein 2004: 110).

Mikko Kapanen 28

t

Private images – like the ones taken in Abu Ghraib as “image

trophies” – can become, even by accident, more important than

professionally produced shots (Stein 2004: 107‐8). The

interpretation of such photographs depends even more than on the

normal, more familiar looking ones, on the receivers personal

experiences and opinions and they caused, for instance, horror

amongst the refugees with similar experiences living in United States

at the time (Levi Strauss 2004: 87), while some others could not see

or understand what they were about due to their unfamiliarity or

uncomfortably awkward nature (Stein 2004: 111 and Levi Strauss

2004: 87‐8). This idea is in line with the concept of a cold medium, as

Marshall McLuhan (1964) theorised; a photograph needs more

interpretation and its meaning depends on the viewer more than

some less active media content. This would suggest that the

interpretation the viewer makes on an image is largely depended on

his/her personal values, experiences and intellectual as well as

motional connection to the subject.e

The fact that the receivers of these visual messages approach them in

a simplified manner and construct the meaning through their existing

values and ideas means that rather than ‘seeing is believing’, we must



Reading Political Med ilo y …………………

say ‘believing is seeing’ (Hansen et al . 1998: 192‐3), although,

especially in the traumatic events that we as people are not used to,

the images ‘convince”’ us to believe in something that seems foreign

to us and collectively helps us to start recovering and making sense

of the events (Zelizer 2002: 52). In the post 9/11 media environment

the significance placed on the images in news media is that they have

ecome the key driver of public opinion (Levi Strauss 2004: 87).

ia: essay tr g

…………

Mikko Kapanen 29

b

On the close distance photographs can act as something to ‘fill in’ in

the chaotic circumstances, such as 9/11 in the United States was. The

still images, even in retrospect, take the individuals and collectives

they are part of to a post‐traumatic space. Still images serve the

purpose of making sense a lot better than moving ones which

disappear almost as soon as they have appeared in front of us

(Zelizer 2002: 49). In the case of 9/11 many still images were

captured from video, which made them less clear, but possibly more

dramatic. The technique used, in order to end up with images in a

case like this, becomes less meaningful together with some other

journalistic conventions (Zelizer 2002: 48). The volume of

photographs and captured still images that went to circulation after

the 9/11 was resonating the events of 1945 liberation of the German

concentration camps (Zelizer 2002: 54), and they similarly acted as

“bearing witness” (Zelizer 2002: 52). The high number of photos in

circulation may have been also due to the media and political power

of United States which was playing crucial role here, where as in

some, although highly politically involved situations less emotionally

so, such as Rwanda, Bosnia and Cambodia the number of images was

a lot smaller, but perhaps they became more iconic in relation




(Zelizer 2002: 54). What was not, however, reproduced from the

concentration camp template of photo journalism was the individual

graphic suffering of human beings and visuals of corpses. Zelizer

(2002) argues this to be because people could already associate the

signs of devastation to the images from earlier examples of death

(65), and perhaps also the zeitgeist had changed in this regard

considerably since 1945. For the purposes of this paper, these are

interesting claims, as I am looking into the representations of

different sides of the conflict in photographs, to see whether this

argument of visual association is valid more generally, rather than

only being specific to the otherwise visually rich coverage of 9/11

primarily targeting the US audiences and only after that the rest of

he world.

Mikko Kapanen 30

t

War and news media In a modern warfare media is not simply an additional and external

reporter of events, but rather an integral part of the crisis.

Participating governments have been looking into ways of controlling

access, and especially providing it to the subjects useful to their

cause, but their characteristic organisation and discipline has not

always matched with the journalistic curiosity and even ‘anarchy’.

Press is not a monolithic entity, but in itself is divided into many

opinions and influences to the point that even the terms used to refer

to conflicts differ from one organisation to another (Tumber and

Palmer 2004: 1‐9); therefore becoming a battlefield of varying

interest and narratives (Saleh 2010 :265). Jonathan Glover (2001)

who analyses the psychological reactions and philosophical

justifications of war in the past century suggests that similarly as the



Reading olitical Medi : essay trilogy

participating soldiers and policy makers, also the press gets

“trapped” in the conflict, waging what they see with what they

assume their audiences will accept, and what their own psychological

reaction to the realities are (169). Journalists are not immune to the

trauma caused by the events they experience and it can impact on

their practices (Rosen 2002: 28). According to Glover (2001) some

reporters also claimed, specifically in connection to the conflict in

former Yugoslavia, the audiences in Britain to have a need to take

sides and a situation that is complex with no clear good and bad guys

is not of interest to the audiences. Also, the ones who report

unpopular things, even when accurate, can be considers as ‘enemy

sympathisers’ (169). Some existing images are simply too brutal to

be published, which, even if many of us are relieved by it, hides the

actual horrors of the war which we may have an opinion on. Editorial

guidelines may not only “sanitise”, but actually “prettify” the conflict

170).

P a

……………………………

Mikko Kapanen 31

(

In the modern war situations that are specifically of interest to the

news media, such as the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan, the

Governments have provided access to the press by embedding their

members in the troops (Tumber and Palmer 2004: 13‐9), and as part

of such arrangement, there has been pressures to bond with the

soldiers and even wear their uniforms which has resulted with the

press finding its independence compromised. Refusal to belong into

such pool of journalists organised by the military has resulted with

limited or no access to interviews and other material, and

overstepping the provided limits of pool reporting have ended up

with confiscated video tapes. (Glover 2001: 173). While CNN had




access to the footage from the US military operation during the first

Iraq war, it was also provided with access by Saddam Hussein who

used it for his own ends as a propaganda tool in an attempt to impact

the American public opinion (Glover 2001: 170‐1). The question of

access becomes crucially important one and certainly something that

haracterises the images this paper looks into a little bit later.

Mikko Kapanen 32

c

Public opinion and media framing n ar The mass‐mediated politics as a whole consists of different key

players which are “politicians as performers, the spin industry, media

workers (journalists and researchers), media audiences, and policy

makers” (Saleh 2008: 75). These form the structure within which the

communication takes place, and the basic methods used to influence

the public opinion include framing, priming and agenda setting

(Semetko 2004: 359‐64). These methods can be very powerful in

impacting the public opinion and the sense of realities of the

udience and voting public (Chomsky 2002: 11‐3).

i w

a

The idea of telling the truth is problematic anyway; what is the truth

and how absolute can it be? While things can be true and supported

by evidence, the arguments can be built by selecting things that are

true – as they are not untrue either – but they are not the whole

truth,

but an interpretation of true things in a way that it can make almost

any case needed. The idea of truth therefore becomes an idealistic

and even pompous concept for any type of news media. The

hypothetical concept of truth especially in the circumstances of

conflict is compromised by practicalities of access; this time not only

by collecting visuals and reporting, but also to do interviews and




have commentaries. The research done by the Glasgow University

Media Group (Philo et al . 2005: 145‐6) on the Israeli‐Palestinian

conflict explains how Israel has on their side a better functioning PR

machinery, technologically more advanced facilities to record

interviews and that majority of media is located in Jerusalem where

Palestinians have very limited access to it. These factors are realities

in the news production practices but cannot be taken for granted to

be understood by the audiences (146). The same research suggest

that that specifically on TV the intense visuals of the conflict provide

very little context for the situation, and that there were serious

shortcomings amongst the audience with understanding the news

items (133). The media privatisation has also influenced the editorial

standards, as the commercial media, as generally more conservative

sector, mostly benefits from the status quo, which can lead to self‐

ensorship (Herman and McChesney 1997: 6‐7).

Mikko Kapanen 33

c

Media frames used to cover stories of conflicts and other troubled

areas are “ancient ethnic hatred” where inaction on the part of the

message receiving society is justified by the perceived tradition of

conflict amongst the subjects of the news story, and “distance” which

as a frame creates an air around the events that is complicated and

lacks passion and human element. Framing can also choose to focus

on the victims of crises as it did with Ethiopian famine 1984. This

coverage, while emotional call to action, often tends to lack in

providing context (Robinson 2002: 28‐9). Some of these frames

clearly support action and others justify inaction. These frames;

narratives that that suggest specific ways of understanding individual

events, sometimes also referred to as bias or slant, rely on likely



Reading Political Media: ssay trilogy ……………………………

interpretations of their audiences (Robinson 2002: 137). The

Governments wishing to create a sense of just war can attempt to

create confusion around information by sterilising the terminology

with phrases such as “collateral damage” instead of “civilian deaths”

(Saleh 2008: 75). This phenomenon, referred to as Fog, generally

results with “hawkish extremism rather than tolerance” (Saleh 2010:

66).

e

Mikko Kapanen 34

2

Methodology

Having now explored some of the useful key theories around my

research question I will cover the methodological considerations to

be able to effectively answer how are the different sides represented

in the British Guardian newspaper in its coverage of war in

Afghanistan. I have selected to look into an online photo gallery from

Afghanistan from February 2010. In order to provide context and

analyse the photo gallery in general, I have conducted a simple

quantitative content analysis focusing on variables such as the

nationality and ethnicity and gender of persons in the image,

photographic framing which I roughly divided into establishing shot,

mid shot or close up, the sense of strength or weakness, and

requency of seeing persons face or expression.f

To more specifically look into the selected images from the gallery, I

ave analysed them using some methods of semiotic analysis.h

Semiotics, also known as semiology, is the ‘science of signs’ (Lacey

1998: 56). It attempts to answer two key questions: how and why do

representations mean what they do (Hansen et

al . 1998: 205).




According to one of the key thinkers of the field, Ferdinand Saussure,

the sign is a sum of signifier and signified ; physical real world form

and the idea it evokes in one’s mind. The recognition of sign itself is

on a level of denotation which often is for instance just associating a

word with its agreed meaning, but on a level of connotation these

meanings can be taken further and many of these connotations have

reached wider consensus within societies. (Chandler 2002: 141 and

Lacey 1998: 57‐9). In order for me to explore the specific

representations in the images of my sample, I have employed the

commutation test, in which I have changed the signs within the image

and analyse the meaning through that (Lacey 1998: 64‐5). In practice

that has meant for instance considering the implications of the dead

aleban fighters being a dead US soldier in the image.

Mikko Kapanen 35

T

The selection of images analysed is not necessarily based on how

common the photographs of that specific style are in the gallery, but

ather to provide diversity of messages.r

Meanings of images: research findings. As I started looking for text to be analysed in this paper, the first

image I came across was not one to become my focus, however it

raised many questions. A Haitian man – a Black man – buried under

rubble of perhaps a collapsed building begging for help in the

aftermath of 2010 earthquake. His image was now used by an aid

organisation in order to, I suppose, create an emotional response in

us, the readers, to send money to that specific organisation and their

efforts to help the nation that was shook so badly. Questions were

rushing to my head. Does the end justify the means? What are the



Reading Political essay trilogy ……………………………

ethics of the aid industry? Was this struggling man asked for his

permission to use his image for fundraising? When last did I see a

uffering White person in a photograph?

Media:

Mikko Kapanen 36

s

None of these questions directly became my research focus and most

of them have nothing to do with it. It is, however the question of

representation of nationalities and ethnicities in news photography

that I am interested in, and in this paper I have focused on the

photographs of the war in Afghanistan in the British Guardian

newspaper.

*******

The war in Afghanistan started soon after the events of 9/11 when

George W Bush and his administration called for the nations of the

world to either be with United States or against it (‘You are either

with us or against us', www.cnn.com). Officially, the war, which to

some extent has been overshadowed by the war in Iraq and seen as a

part of less clear entity of so called war against terrorism, was to

sideline the Taleban control in the country, to provide it with

democratic government and to find Osama bin Laden who was said

to behind the 9/11 attacks and who was now hiding in a cave

somewhere in Afghanistan. The participation of international peace

keeping troops from several European countries that were not in

favour of the Iraq war suggests that the air around this war has been

more understanding and less problematic. More recently the war has

become more contested due to its constant civilian casualties,

asualties from the international troops and length.c




In this paper I am looking into a photo gallery accessed through the

website of British newspaper, the Guardian. The photo gallery called

Operation Moshtarak in Marjah, Afghanistan was uploaded on the

February 16th in 2010 to www.guardian.co.uk. It consists of 32

images providing a narrative on assault targeting the Taleban by 15

000 international soldiers, some of whom were Afghans in February

2010. I am mainly interested in the representation of ethnicity and

the side they are fighting for. Images have been captured by variety

of photographers working for different news and photography

agencies and in all probability, all of whom have been embedded (as

described by Tumber and Palmer 2004: 13‐9) in the international

troops (for them not to would result with no access to most images

shot and on a few occasion even if there was an access, the danger

ould seem rather serious).

Mikko Kapanen 37

w

The key argument that I am presenting here is that the images are a

result of the access their capturers have had, which has been

determined by the media policies of the military forces the

journalists are embedded in. While one sided, to represent the

situation in a more balanced way, or at least attempt to achieve that,

impersonal, faceless and cold representation of US soldiers

overpowering the local people – mostly civilians – can create a

sympathy to the underdogs, or at least a distinct sense of things being

complex rather than a good versus bad fight. The fact that only

Taleban fighters and some local soldiers from the international

troops are shown to suffer, or even to have died, is likely to be an

ideological, political and editorial decision. Since the war is extreme,

we must not necessarily conclude that a paper such as Guardian is




trying to misrepresent the truth, as their written articles are evidence

of providing more context. The photographs, while almost exclusively

establishing shots not focusing on one specific person or thing,

rovide more scenery than any actual context.

Mikko Kapanen 38

p

The Guardian newspaper is a British daily broadsheet paper with a

strong reputation. It has openly sided its editorial line with the values

of the British Labour Party (Ankomah 2008: 12), which was in power

when these images were published, as much as it was behind the

British participation both in Iraq and Afghanistan. Only recently for

the 2010 General Elections the Guardian directed its support to the

Liberal Democratic Party (General election 2010: The liberal moment

has come, www.guardian.co.uk), although for the purposes of this

paper that is somewhat insignificant unless seen as a sign of already

avering support for the Labour.w

It is noteworthy that while supporting the Labour Party, which under

the leadership of Tony Blair had engaged the nation in the conflict in

Afghanistan, the publication also has a broad intellectual readership

and many of these liberal readers have not agreed with the official

Government line in the matter. The Guardian has published several

articles that highlight the problematic nature of the war, articles

talking about the civilian casualties and the casualties from the

British troops as well. The military operation where the images from

the photo gallery on focus here are from, was, for instance, covered

from the angle that it had caused death to twenty civilians (Coalition

continues to advance in Afghanistan as civilian death toll reaches 20,




www.guardian.co.uk); something that is not suggested by anything in

e photo gallery.

Mikko Kapanen 39

th

I will look at some selected images with more specific focus in a

moment, but first, in order to provide the context within which those

individual images exist in, I have done a quick quantitative content

nalysis on the whole image gallery.a

While the introductory texts around the photo gallery had some

emphasis on the international nature of the operation, out of 32

images included in the set in question, 26 had US troops in the main

role, four featured Talebans (whether actual or only alleged), but

they were dead, wounded or captured, and only three had local

civilians as their main focus although more images had them in the

frame. Five images featured soldiers of other nationalities fighting

alongside United States –some of them were Afghans. By far the

majority of images were on some level of establishing or a long shots

which showed people as a whole and served to provide the sense of

their surrounding, but made them feel distinctly impersonal. This

particularly is the case with the almost robot like US soldiers whose

faces are mostly covered by helmets and sun glasses. This series of

images lacked any sense of weakness by the international troops

while it represented the few Taleban it had as fearless – when they

were not dead – in the face of overpowering opponent. The only real

facial image was the one of a local child who then was to be taken

care of by the American troops. Whether the images featured any

sense of danger to the US lead international soldiers is difficult to

analyse; as a war situation one supposes that the threat is always






Image 1. A US marine breaks down the door of a house to search for weapons during an operation in Marjah. Photograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters (from http://www.guardian.co.uk)

Visually engaging action photograph of a US marine about to enter a

house of suspects symbolises a very unbalanced power‐relationship

between him and his opponent. While he does not know what awaits

for him after a few seconds, his combat gear, vest, helmet and

weapon all in an orderly fashion represent the function and

discipline of the US military forces and signify power. The

interpretation to this image, however, depends heavily on the

interpreters personal experiences as it has a distinct resonance with

police raids and therefore can create an association of totalitarian

security forces such as the ones of apartheid South Africa. The

shadow cast on the soldiers face which already is covered by dark

Mikko Kapanen 41




glasses makes him anonymous, almost robot like non‐person who is

fearlessly programmed to do his job. Perhaps it is showing the

imbalanced power‐relationships that can provide the news media

with images not purely glorifying the strong, but to draw attention to

the underdog. Imagining the door to be your own front door and a

faceless man wearing a combat gear kicking it down, we would in all

probability feel uneasy. The soldier is not presented to us as

vulnerable, although he might be entering a dangerous situation, but

rather as a part of machinery that is designed for the job. While he is

alone in the shot, we see the weapon of his peer entering the frame

which suggest that he definitely is not alone and possibly there is a

whole lot, but at least some power behind him. The building with its

flimsy looking door and humble exterior signifies the state of the

people of Afghanistan, but at the same time puzzles the reader; how

s the ‘enemy’ so poor, yet cannot be beaten nor Bin Laden be found.

Mikko Kapanen 42

i

Alternatively if we changed the man in the image to be a Taleban

soldier – or even an Afghan resonating one, we would react to it

differently. Perhaps it would also look unusual to us used to the

western images of masculinity, what this image is oozing, as the

Taleban fighters tend to be presented as less muscular and have

beards which in the west is not part of the military look. Would we be

able to recognise them as the other side of the conflict doing the

same, or perhaps felt that something else, more sinister and

nrecognisable, was taking place.u

The association also possible to make from this type of image is the

one to the civilian casualties that appear in the written news stories




rather regularly. Whatever happens when the door opens, the person

viewing the image cannot quite eliminate the possibility that soldier’s

trigger finger is itching and in a few seconds he may need to make a

decision that might end someone’s life whether or not it is to save his

own, but at the same time the close presence of the photographer,

only evident through the fact that this image exists, suggest that

maybe it is not conceived to be the most dangerous situation after all,

ut a rather a set‐up performed for the press.b

Image 2. A wounded US soldier is evacuated from Marjah. Photograph: Brennan Linsley/AP (from http://www.guardian.co.uk)

Mikko Kapanen 43

The image showing a wounded American citizen in a war area is

somewhat rare, and together with one, a bit more graphic mid shot of

a wounded Afghan soldier fighting against Taleban being looked after

by an American military doctor, it is the only one in the photo gallery




that suggest any vulnerability amongst the international forces. Its

frame is outlined by a helicopter door which communicates a clear

exit and certainly not being stranded. There are also six other

soldiers in the image making sure that the wounded gets safely to

where he is heading – a medical tent perhaps. This camaraderie is

however lacking human element in that we do not get to see anyone’s

face or other characteristics. Only combat gear, camouflage uniforms

and helmets – a look that reminds us more of the sci‐fi than even the

Mikko Kapanen 44

war films.

This image, too, communicates the order and discipline of the US

forces, creating a sense of safety around it. If the framing was

different and the presence of the helicopter would not be known, we

would just see men running in a relatively blank and harsh scenery,

us, the viewers not knowing how far the safety is. The ‘escape plan’

signifies organisation and the security it brings even in an unstablesituation. The image balances the vulnerability the war time situation

causes to an individual with the promise of that individual being

taken care of in these, from our perspective, far away and perhaps

unknown places where they are sent to. Should we know, that

instead of wounded, the person is dead, the sense of security would

disappear soon. We do not often see such images presenting anywestern soldiers that have passed away. The more graphic end of the

images we see is the dead fighters of the other side, such as in the

next example.




Image 3. The bodies of Taliban militants are transported in the back of a police vehicle following an operation in the Enjil district of Heart. Photograph: Reza Shir Mohammadi/AP from:www.guardian.co.uk) (

Mikko Kapanen 45

To have a graphic image of a corpse featured in a broadsheet

newspaper – or its website – is not common, even if it was as a part of

war coverage. The death of two, according to the news, Taleban

fighters should remind us of the seriousness and actuality of the

otherwise computer game or science fiction film like visuals. The

bare chest of the first body; the focal point of the image immediately

draws our attention and signifies fragility of the human life. As

people we are all very similar, but our circumstances differ greatly

and the international troops do not get represented through

vulnerability as their bodies, in images always alive, are covered by

layers upon layers of combat gear and equipment. While other

images symbolise the advancement in military technology in the

western world, this one points out to the extreme end of the other

side. While we have been told time after time about how problematic

the Talebans have been in Afghanistan by the western mainstream




media, whether we believe in it or not, we might be left confused.

These men, lying on the back of a car quietly as dead – instinctively

they do not look threatening. They look like most civilians that the

gallery features. Because of the convention of not showing death of

the international troops, showing the bodies of these two men seem

like a double standard with no particularly good explanation. It has

been theorised (for instance Entman and Rojecki 2000), that

different ethnicities are not treated equally within the media, and this

image seems like evidence to that. The normative whiteness of the

media discourse that we are used to, however allows this image to be

Mikko Kapanen 46

included as a part of the mainstream news coverage.

Should the bodies be ones of half undressed American soldiers with

blood on their heads, we could prepare ourselves for an uproar not

only on a political grounds, but on the one of human rights and ethics.

The same would apply to local women and children. Alternativelythen if the caption would suggest that these men were local villagers

– civilians – we would react again differently. But as the caption says

they are Taleban, we are likely to believe it and whatever we feel

emotionally, somehow in all probability are able to explain the

situation intellectually – for better or worse. For anyone with

experiences from the war or other catastrophes, this type of imagecan possibly be traumatic viewing. Perhaps the darkness and out of

focus background is suggesting the emotional confusion of the image

that otherwise provides no background information or context, but is

left for us to be interpreted based on our own thoughts and feelings

on the matter.




Image 4. US Marine Gunnery Sergeant Brandon Dickinson holds a toddler in Marjah. The marines were approached by the boy's father, who wanted help for his son's skin condition. hotograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters (from: www.guardian.co.uk) P

Mikko Kapanen 47

A young Afghan child held in the arms of, as told by the caption, anAmerican soldier, although the scarf and clothes appear more like the

one of local person’s – perhaps his father who had approached the

soldiers to ask for help with his son’s skin condition. The big eyes of

the boy are looking upwards; somewhat typical look for children who

are shorter than adults, but his expression is very neutral – blank

even. As the caption tells us he is not well, and in the absence of specific information about the skin condition, one is left to guess

whether his face is dirty and the reddish elbow area is infected or if it

is indeed the face that has the problem. The child signifies innocence

and hope for the future, but also the brutality of the war. When this

boy grows up, unless there has been drastic changes in attitudes of

the press and the audience interpretations he might appear to many

westerners who subscribe to such thinking as a potential ‘terrorist’




and a threat. Now he resembles those young boys in the soap adverts

who have had a good play in the mud and now are coming to their

mothers to be washed, but instead, we are aware of the tragic

circumstances he is living in. The power‐relationship here too is clear

and the image accompanied by its caption suggests the international

troops in general and maybe American troops in specific having won

the hearts and minds – the trust of the local people. Perhaps the

father is only desperate. This image represents the locals as the

victims of their own fellow countrymen and the Americans as their

aviours.

Mikko Kapanen 48

s

The light blue piece of fabric entering the frame might be an index of

United Nations; at least creating an association to ‘impartiality’, and

the high technology looking wrist watch juxtaposes the humble

conditions and uncleanliness of the boy, contributing to the sense of

heir power‐relation.t

For a reader ideologically opposed to the American military actions –

although not necessarily supporting Taleban either – a reading of the

image could be that maybe the skin condition is a result of chemical

warfare or a destroyed home. Maybe the dirt on his face is from an

explosion near the playground he was playing as his big eyes make

him appear playful. The boy’s hair, curiously red in the sun, also

draws one’s attention signifying how the stereotypes may not be

applicable automatically to people of region – it forces one to

uestion assumptions.q




Should the child be blond haired with blue eyes even on the ruins of

the World Trade Centre the difference in the reading would not be as

different as it would be with grown men on the same locations. The

nnocence of the child is more universal.

Mikko Kapanen 49

i

*******

All the images analysed in specific, but also the other ones in the

gallery were clearly shot from the side of the international troops.

That left any dissent voices to be heavily depended on one’s own

interpretations. They seem to fit into the idea of ‘distance’ by their

media framing; they are impersonal and lack passion for the most

part. They are not particularly engaging as they remind us more of

the fictional films than maybe anything real that we would know. At

least, I might repeat myself, to the ones fortunate enough not to know

these conditions in the first hand. They are not a call to action to end

the war, but rather present it as something complex and – as

eartless as it may sound – uninteresting.h

Conclusion In this paper I have been looking into the representations of people

in the war photography, focusing on selected photo gallery from the

ebsite of the British Guardian newspaper.w

The argument I have made is that the images are a result of the

access of the press, which depends on the media policy of the troops

the journalists are embedded in. While the images are clearly offering

us evidence of the one‐sided power‐relationship involved here, on



Reading Political Media: essay trilogy …………………………

the other hand depending on one’s own view point the images

without any explanation could also look like a police state military

operation where soldiers with superior equipment use excessive

force randomly against powerless people. Conventions of the news

journalism and media in general create circumstances where images

of White devastation tends to be more subtle and suggestive

establishing associations whereas the suffering of other ethnicities is

hown with more literal and graphic visual expression.

…

Mikko Kapanen 50

s

Ideology within images does not present itself as ideology, but reality

(Lacey 1998: 101), but that reality gets misrepresented in the war

photography where the questions of access become the defining

ones. Gatekeepers and editors cannot select images that do not exists

as the photo journalists have not been able to take them without

access. The same practical pressure is a lot less dominant in written

journalism where you have not had to be on an immediately close

range to tell the story. Therefore these two editorial standards may

be forced to be different, without it proving the ideological leaning of

he publication and that seems to be the case with the Guardian.t

We cannot, of course, assume how the editorial line of the publication

would be should there be better access and the conditions generally

less dangerous for the individual representatives of the press, and

how would the ideological and economical factors then apply. I

suggest that further study focusing on events with less ideological

disagreements, such as natural catastrophes and their images on the

news could provide more and clearer answers to the questions of

media’s treatment of different ethnicities. A good comparative study



Reading Political Media: essay trilogy ………… ………………

could for instance be the one of 2004 Tsunami in the Indian Ocean

and 2010 Haitian earthquake, as one of them, if not statistically, but

based on the media attention dedicated to it, had the emphasis on the

death of White holiday makers and other was impacting by and large

the Black nation of Haiti.

…

Mikko Kapanen 51

_____________________________ Bibliography: Ankomah, B. (2008) Reporting Africa. New African. June 2008.

Chandler, D. (2002) Semiotics: The Basics. Oxon: Routledge.


ed. New York: Seven Stories Press. Entman, R. M. and Rojecki, A. (2000) The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America. Chigago: The University of

Chigago Press.

Glover,

J.

(2001)

Humanity:

A

Moral

History

of

the

Twentieth

Century .

New

Haven:

Yale

University

Press.

Hansen, A. et al . (1998) Mass Communication Research Methods. New York: New York University Press.

Herman, E. S. and McChesney, R. W. (1997) The Global Media : the new missionaries of global capitalism. London: Cassel.

Lacey, N. (1998) Image and Representation: Key Concepts in Media Studies. London: MacMillan Press Ltd.

Levi Strauss, D. Breakdown in the Grey Room: Recent Turns in the Image War. in: Danner, M. et al. (2004) Abu Ghraib: The

Politics of Torture. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books.

McLuhan, M. (1964) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Oxon: Routledge.

Philo, G. et al . The Israeli‐Palestinian Conflict: TV News and Public Understanding. in: Thussu, D.K. and Freedman, D. (2005) War

& the Media. London: Sage Publications Ltd.

Robinson, P. (2002) The CNN Effect: The myth of news, foreign policy and intervenion. London: Routledge.

Rosen, J. September 11 in the mind of American journalist. in: Zelizer, B. and Allan, S. (eds.) (2002) Journalism After September

11. London: Routledge.

Saleh, I. (2008) Violence, Spin, and "Otherness" in Arab Civil Society. The International Journal of Not ‐ for ‐Profit Law. Volume

10, Number 2, April 2008.

Saleh, I. In the Foggy Middle East: Just War Remain the Name of the Game. In: Kumar, A. and Messner, D. (2010) Power Shifts

and Global Governance: Challenges from South and North. London: Anthem Press.

Semetko, H.

A.

Media,

Public

Opinion,

and

Political

Action.

in:

Downing,

J.,

Mcquail,

D.

&

Wartella,

E.

(2004)

SAGE

Handbook

of

Media Studies. London: Sage Publications Ltd.

Stein, C. Abu Ghraib and the Magic of Images. in: Danner, M. et al. (2004) Abu Ghraib: The Politics of Torture. Berkeley: North

Atlantic Books.

Tumber and Palmer 2004

Zelizer, B. Photography, Journalism and Trauma. in: Zelizer, B. and Allan, S. (eds.) (2002) Journalism After September 11.

London: Routledge.

Other sources Coalition continues to advance in Afghanistan as civilian death toll reaches 20. The Guardian. 16.2. 2010 [online] Available from:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/16/civilians‐killed‐afghanistan

[Last accessed 8 May 2010]

General election 2010: The liberal moment has come. The Guardian. 30.4. 2010 [online] Available from:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/30/the‐liberal‐moment‐has‐come [Last accessed 8 May 2010]

Operation Moshtarak in Marjah, Afghanistan. The Guardian. 15.2. 2010 [online] Available from:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2010/feb/15/afghanistan‐us‐military?picture=359343125

[Last accessed

8 May

2010]

You are either with us or against us. CNN 11.6. 2006 [online] Available from:

http://edition.cnn.com/2001/US/11/06/gen.attack.on.terror/

[L

ast accessed 8 May 2010]




Mikko Kapanen

The key argument I make is that the so called western news and

media platforms are pushing the agenda of democratising effect of

social media, with little, or no critical analysis on the context of the

other countries, and the conditions that are crucial for the online to

be a major factor: access, level of skills and broader willingness to

engage online. Therefore the notion of democratic participation is

more idealistic and emotional than actual, and in reality, unlikely to

be as effective as the traditional ways of organising. That, of course,

52

Revolution in what: The coverage of political social media and its

significance in modern elections. By Mikko Kapanen

This paper looks into the branding of political media focusing on

experiences of the Iranian Presidential elections of 2009. It explores

their coverage, analysing the news stories from selected variety of

international media by New York Times, BBC, Al Jazeera and the

Economist as they have been accessed through their web services,

although the content has not strictly been primarily produced for the

nline environment.o

The specific interest I have in this paper is to analyse how does the

traditional media relate and represent the usage of online social

media in events such as major elections. My research question is that

based on this rather visible and plentiful coverage, is the usage of

online social media significant as a political milestone or as a media

vent; is the emphasis on politics or on social media?e




does not mean that at least in theory, the political social media does

not have the potential ability to change the democratic process in a

country like Iran, but for now, the emphasis is on the social media,

rather than the politics – it is a question of broadly publicised media

event, rather than a political change. In the countries with more

access, which are not the focus of this paper, there might be more

political impact, but as the technological savvy of the citizen’s is

increasing, so is the ability of corporations, state and political parties.

In all this media noise the ones with credibility will still make the

biggest contribution. Online political social media especially in Iran

elections of 2009 was a tool of branding, rather than communication

and organising, and even in broader international context, it is very

much additional service rather than taking over of the traditional

ways.

Mikko Kapanen 53

The juxtaposition of largely American owned online companies and

Iranian political system, creates a set up that determines varying views on

the significance of the event, usually serving the one who is interpreting

hem in media.t

I will first look at the existing research on social media and online,

and political media. Then I will explore the method of this research

which is qualitative content analysis, and list the specifics regarding

this paper. Before finally concluding, I will present the finding of the

esearch.r




Theories on online, online media and political communication. In order to understand the relationships between traditional and

online media, and online media and political process, I will now look

nto some theories around these topics.i

The online media has resulted thus far in a steady increase in the

social (non‐market) media production, and therefore participation

(Benkler 2006). It has created a situation where potentially the

media can be democratised (Tambini 1999), although this mainly

concerns the countries with more advanced online access and is not

certain by any standard. As with any internet activity, the access is

the most important factor in viewing. Besides access, certain basic

omputer skills are needed (Nicholas et al. 1998, p.56).c

Internet has been used for political communication by the

governments for some time (as a place for citizens to access speeches

and documents), and it has seen in that sense also to improve the

democracy, although questions of access must be raised. For minority

groups, as demonstrated in this paper, it can be a useful tool to

promote their agenda globally, but generally, the dominant western

consumer cultures become highlighted in the online environment

even regards to the political communication (Zandi 2005: 211‐212).

Therefore the question of access is not purely the one of being able to

read or observe, but also to contribute and to be heard. For uploading

and other input purposes good broadband connections are also an

dvantage, so infrastructure becomes a consideration.a

Mikko Kapanen 54



Reading Political Media: essay trilogy …… …………………

The regulations of separate nation states find themselves less

significant in this information, as the platform does not recognise

borders. State, in many cases finds a way, if it so wishes, to counter

the international content not by limiting its production, but the

people’s access to it. In Iran this had happened previously for

nstance by destroying satellite dishes (Hafez 2007).

… …

Mikko Kapanen 55

i

Noam Chomsky introduces an idea of the two remaining super

powers: the state (United States of America) and the (global) public

opinion (2007), and how in order for democracy to work to benefit

the political elite, the media and specialised class of “responsible

men” need to make sure that it does not threaten the status quo

(2002: 12). The oversight in class based thinking is that classes of

different countries are different and might therefore have varying

agendas, and that classes in themselves are diverse and not purely as

ne agreeing unit (Hall 1996, p.17).o

The impact political media can have to society can be facilitating

(encourages people with an agenda to organise or join organisation)

(Semetko 2004: 355), and using networked platforms, social online

media can have an increasing impact into users trusting civic sector

Semetko 2004: 356).(

To some extend borderless media environment globally is

determined by its dominant cultures, practices and agendas.

Therefore mostly all countries on varying levels get impacted by

those; and through them the culture of their production. A lot of

dominant political media is a result of highly PR‐ised politics and




media relationships (Louw 2005: 148). The online social media is not

immune to this relationship, only it can be more difficult to identify

when it is produced in an environment of social production. These

networked societies do have hierarchies; although they are relatively

flat, they have many centres of influence (Van Dijk 2006: 36).

Mikko Kapanen 56

Methodology Having theorised around my research question, I will now explore

he method of my research, before looking into its findings.t

In order to be able to effectively answer how did the traditional

media relate to online social media during Iranian elections 2009,

and whether the significance of its strong presence was as a political

milestone or rather a media event, I have conducted a content

nalysis.a

Content analysis; also at times known as textual analysis (Pierce

2008: 263) can be divided into several categories (Pierce 2008 and

Rugg & Petre 2007), but for the purposes of this paper, I have chosen

to use qualitative content analysis. Qualitative content analysis is

interpretive method which differs from the quantitative one, in which

the frequency of the selected key words is the focus, in that texts are

analysed to find out their possible bias. For instance article can be

found to be in support of something, against it or relatively neutral

(Pierce 2008: 264). Qualitative content analysis can also interpret the

perspectives of different contributors to a given issue (Pierce 2008:

264). Criticism for such method has been that it allows the conductor

of research to choose a sample that will prove his/her already



Readi g Political Media: essay ……………………………

existing opinion (Rugg & Petre 2007: 153), and I have tried to

ounter this with my selection of sources.

n trilogy

Mikko Kapanen 57

c

In order to be able to find some meaningful clarity to the significance

of social media usage in political process, or how it is presented to us

in traditional media, I chose the elections from the recent years that

have given these practices and technologies a lot of publicity, and

further selected a spectrum of media outlets and then narrowed the

analysis into relevant articles and their reflections on social media –

Twitter, Facebook, blogs, YouTube etc. – in this context. These media

outlets are New York Times, BBC, Al Jazeera and the Economist. They

have been selected to cover different political economies of media as

uch as a variety of target audiences.m

The variables, the characteristics researched (Burns 1997: 118), I

have considered have been the focus on the idea of social media as a

democratic (reflective of the people) tool, its role in communicating,

organising and branding, acknowledging the context within which it

as used and its assumed accuracy.w

This research focuses on a specific case study understanding how

American information infrastructure can work in another country

with a different political system and conflicting ideology to the

dominant western one. It does not attempt to generalise, but deals

ith matters in their own context. w




Iran: social media and the Green Revolution I doubt that the broader global audience had a lot in mind when the

2009 elections were approaching in Iran – most people probably

were not even aware of them. The ones in the know were expecting

for Iran, an uncharacteristically tough race as the standing President

Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was challenged by three high profile

candidates; all of them criticising the defending candidate for making

the country a villain on the global stage and endangering its stability

(Al Jazeera ‐ All up for grabs in Iran vote, 10.6.2009). For us, outside

the country’s borders, the general expectations were probably low –

Iran had been branded as a member country of the so called Axis of

evil – a term used by George W. Bush administration – and it

struggles with lack of press freedom have been widely acknowledged

(fourth weakest ranking in the Press Freedom Index 2009 just before

orth Korea, Turkmenistan and Eritrea, http://www.rsf.org).N

Regardless of the outcome, Iran’s global political brand was not doing

ell as things were.w

It was, however, something much more in line with the zeitgeist that

demanded the global attention to this event; the use of online social

media to communicate the opposition messages globally – to brand

the Green Revolution.

*******

In this segment I will explore the international news coverage

relating to the phenomenon of the new media in the political use in

Mikko Kapanen 58




Iranian election; did it have political significance or was it mainly a

edia event?

Mikko Kapanen 59

m

There is variety of views expressed in the selected media sources –

the Economist, New York Times, Al Jazeera and BBC – but mostly,

with the exception of Al Jazeera, they offer little or no context of how

Iran uses the Internet, and more importantly who, and how many,

have access to it. This distinct lack of analysis enabled the Sea of

Green or the Green Revolution – candidate Mousavi’s supporter’s

social media and street campaign, named after its colour code, to

become a strong brand, and remain what was left in the memories of

people. Perhaps this uncritical approach was an indication of the

dominant ideological opposition by these predominantly western

audiences and media producers, but oversight it was, as without

clarification these audiences are likely to understand the technology

based on their own technological context. It also speaks on behalf of

an effective branding campaign that one platform – Twitter

(http://twitter.com) – received by far the most analysis and

attention, although photographs in Flickr (http://flickr.com), video

clips in YouTube (http://youtube.com), other activities in Facebook

(http://facebook.com) and several blogs were also part of the social

edia campaigning around the event.m

Some journalists see the situation as a battle between social media

and an oppressive regime, and others as a one of social media against

the traditional media, but based on the scarcity of the internet

technology in Iran, or more importantly its uneven divide

geographically, it seems evident that the campaign was more




significant as a media event, and as the Head of Social Media from Al

Jazeera Riyaad Minty calls it a revolution of Twitter – not of people

(Al Jazeera 25.6.2009) – and the ground breaking achievements were

largely in the field of political media branding and grass roots

spinning and agenda setting, rather than organising or even

ommunicating messages.

Mikko Kapanen 60

c

The selected news sources all had an underlying message of social

media, at least potentially to be a force of democratic advancement –

a tool for ordinary people to get their word out. In a BBC online

article The Web Makes Personal Political (www.bbc.co.uk) Rajan

Malhotra even says, although not specifically regards to Iran, “the

web empowers the ordinary citizens and gives a voice to the

masses”, which potentially could be true in a few places, but in many

countries, like in Iran, it is not used by majority (according to

http://www.internetworldstats.com approximately 30% of the

population is online, but not necessarily using social media) and the

usage is based in urban areas. In Iran the majority lives on the

countryside and generally votes for Ahmedinajad (Al Jazeera

25.6.2009). The notion of democratisation impact of social media is

an idealistic one, and as all the sources agree with it being worth

aiming towards, they have a very little analysis on who are the

ordinary people who are supposed to be sending these messages – in

all probability they are part of the political machinery of the

opposition. As much as they, of course, have a right to contribute,

they hardly fit into the description of an ordinary citizens, and in

numbers, we cannot call them as the masses. According to Al Jazeera

– the only organisation to get into such details – they were following




60 Iranian Twitter users posting on the event which then, possibly

due to the Government action, was later reduced into six active

accounts posting about the elections from Iran. In a country of

approximately 74.2 million inhabitants it seems hardly democratic

and reflective (Al Jazeera 25.6.2009). As someone who personally

was following some of these Twitter posters, it has to be

acknowledged that there was, however, a very distinct sense of

urgency in their posts – or Tweets – and a feeling of something quite

big unfolding on our computer screens and mobile devices. It was a

brilliant branding by a group of political activists with help from the

international community of social media users. The activity that the

campaign was organising without a doubt, was an international

online campaign in which for instance Twitter users from around the

world were asked to change their location or time zone to be Tehran,

to confuse the Iranian Government campaign for censorship. While it

might have achieved that, it certainly created confusion in the

numbers of actually Tweeting Iranians making the group look a lot

bigger than it was. The online campaign that was largely conducted

in English also took the focus away from the street campaign that

was taking place and in all probability was much more effective in

organising demonstrations that the San Francisco based company,

witter, took, or at least got the credit for.

Mikko Kapanen 61

T

Out of the media that was looked into, Al Jazeera raises criticism of

election and covers both sides of the story, manages to analyse and

give context. BBC creates an illusion of looking at both sides, not

really doing that, and New York Times speculates in a way that leaves

us to decide what we suspect to be the truth, although poking us to




the “right direction” with hints. Its starting point is that Iran is a

corrupt country. Iran has made it easy for the media to do that; while

it has been painted as a bad apple, the President Ahmedinajad has

also contributed with his statements which we can agree or disagree

with, but they were always bound to cause discomfort in global

politics (e.g. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's attack on Israel triggers

walkout at UN racism conference, Guardian 21.4.2009), but the

problems with the lack of press and human rights do not

automatically mean that the opposition is right, or that the people

could not vote for the ruling party. Or that the elections were rigged.

hese matters received a very little thought in the press.

Mikko Kapanen 62

T

Looking at the general attitudes, as they were described in the media,

it appears that traditional media empathises with the ones who are

effectively using social media in political communication. It is seen as

a more democratic reflection of what the real people on the streets

say, regardless of the questions of the access which demand a closer

look at the demographics, age considerations (online environment

mostly used by younger generations), socio economic factors (access

to equipment and online infrastructure) and technical skills of the

people. This kind of idea of particularly democratic communication

taking place in the social media also supports the idea of broad

participation in media, which may, like said, be compromised by the

lack of access, but also the lack of willingness; not everyone desires to

be a civic activists. In the end – and this seems to be especially true in

Iran – political use for social media is still controlled by a different

kind of elites with seemingly good command of computer and online




technology. Due to the Government’s attempts to censor the online

edia, the demand for technological competence was especially high.

Mikko Kapanen 63

m

The democratising impact of social media is on the one hand rather

an idealistic suggestion in a country like Iran, but also is an emotional

one. Maybe we want it to be true, and we wish that it could be so,

regardless of the facts. It is a question of spinning it and making it

look effective. That was a great success by Mousavi’s supporters.

Media, such as BBC, talks about the impact that specifically Twitter

had in organising demonstrations, while the Economists is a little

more sceptical as it points out that the international users rendered

the feeds relatively useless with their participation (Twitter 1, CNN 0.

18.6.2009). According to the Al Jazeera it was clear that the messages

were targeted for the international audiences as they were mainly in

English, which would not have been an effective language of

communication on the streets of Tehran and elsewhere in Iran. The

company itself, Twitter, postponed its planned maintenance

shutdown in order to accommodate communication in Iran. New

York Times especially talks about this as an act of tremendous

goodwill (Social Networks Spread Defiance Online, 16.6.2009), just as

does BBC (Twitter Iran delay ‘not forced’ . 8.6.2009). Not to take

anything away from Twitter organising the political action in Iran,

but it is left unclear how effective the it was since the most popular of

its activist users were posting in English. Username PersianKiwi

(http://twitter.com/persiankiwi), with 30,970 followers (people

who automatically see the updates on their homepage) updated

nearly exclusively in English, even the call for demonstrations, and

while there might have been other ways of communicating in Iran, it




seems that the use of social media was to build international

pressure, more than arrange opposition activities as it might have

appeared initially. For those activities there must have been more

ffective, but less media sexy, methods.

Mikko Kapanen 64

e

Interestingly the media, especially in the so called west, seems to

assume that social media is democratic and therefore the side that

uses it the most effectively is the popular one. That is not, however,

immediately evident if we look at it critically based on access both

technologically and skills‐wise. While for instance Iranian pre‐ and

post‐election Twitter‐campaigning was no doubt a media event, that

does not yet prove their factual superiority. Many articles analysed

here, left the factual accuracy of information received through social

edia unanalysed.m

The correlation between action that takes place on the social

networks and outside of that is not always clear either. In 2009 on a

separate example in a different media context, in United Kingdom,

BBC in its Question Time TV programme had invited MEP Nick

Griffin, the leader of the British National Party (BNP) as one of its

panellists. BNP is a party far on the right of the political spectrum and

known for its extremely critical views on immigration, oftentimes

stretching – willingly or accidentally – to the statements that are

broadly critical towards other ethnicities regardless of their

citizenship status and history, and several members having links with

neo‐Nazism. Griffin’s presence in BBC panel resulted with extremely

high volume of Tweets online, generally expressing emotions from

disagreement to disgust and criticism of BBC to feature a party in the





Reading Political Media: essay ……………………………

this paper, organising the activities has happened offline, and then

the messages, might have been rather repeated in English in services

ike Twitter.

trilogy

Mikko Kapanen 66

l

The manner in which traditional media addressed the impact of the

social media in Iranian elections in 2009 was focusing on idealistic

potential of the media, which could have been the aim of the

campaign, it having been largely conducted in English; to draw

international attention to Iranian general political situation. None of

sampled media analysed the message too critically; for instance was

the election rigged? The use of social media and the way it was

covered in selected media did not provide us with many concrete

answers or even agendas, but rather dispersed into a media noise

that left us wondering that what was the message.

_____________

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