International Conflict and the Media

ACTIVITY 17: The Media in the Gulf War

Introduction

This activity examines the specific activities of the media during the Gulf War. The Readings examine the activities of the press during the Gulf War--from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait to the Coalition's invasion of Kuwait and Iraq.

Student Objectives

• To understand the activities of the press and media during the Gulf War.
• To examine how media coverage of the Gulf War differed from the coverage of previous wars.
• To examine the ways in which the military manipulated the press during the war.

Time

Two class periods

Materials

Copies of Readings 17A-D for each student

Recommended Procedures

1. Distribute Reading 17A. After the students have read it, ask them to consider:

What did the press and media do during Desert Storm?

What were the mechanisms of censorship employed by the military?

In what other ways did the military control news about the Gulf War?

2. Distribute Reading 17B. After the students have read it, ask them to consider:

Did the role of the media change during operation Desert Storm?

In what ways did the military control news during the air war?

During the land war?

Why did the censorship system break down during the land war?

Why did the military manipulate the press during the war?

3. Distribute Reading 17C. Tell the students that political cartoons are another way that newspapers and news magazines communicate to their readers. Ask the students to consider:

What are the issues behind the cartoons?

What position is the cartoonist taking on the issue?

Does the cartoon agree or disagree with the U.S. position on the Gulf War?

4. In groups, ask the students to make up cartoons about a current international event or crisis. Ask each group to share the cartoon with the rest of the class.
5. Distribute Reading 17D. Ask the students to consider:

Why are there such divergent estimates of Iraqi casualties?

Why would different sources have different "statistics?"

Why would some sources prefer high or low figures for Iraqi losses?





Extending the Lesson

1. Ask the students to copy news articles about the Gulf War from national magazines such as, Time Magazine, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report, published during 1990-91. Magazines and newspapers are often available in the school library or a local community library.
2. Have the students compare the accounts of the war in these newspapers and magazines with the accounts that appear in this activity or other recent account of the Gulf War.

Return to the Contents page for International Conflict and the Media.

Go to Activity 18.

Go to the Bibliography.