DECIPHERING MEDIA INDEPENDENCE - THE GULF-WAR DEBATE IN TELEVISION AND NEWSPAPER NEWS

This article explores the relationship between media form and content in the context of media autonomy in the United States. A functioning d emocracy relies on the media to provide information independent from g overnment sources. We argue that some news formats may lend themselves to such independence better than others. This study examines how the public debate about U.S. reaction to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 was covered by television and newspaper news. Specifically, we analyz e the relative levels of support and criticism of President Bush's pol icy, the diversity of sources evaluating that policy, and the substant ive policy aspects emphasized by the two media. The data show that tel evision and newspaper news coverage differed. Television news was more supportive of the official government line, suggesting that format ch aracteristics were related to the level of independence the two media were able to exhibit. In light of the continuing decline in newspaper readership and the growing power of television, the study calls for re fining the examination of media autonomy to distinguish between differ ent forms of media.