Reporting Iraqi civilian fatalities in a time of war

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In February, 2007, the Associated Press (AP) conducted a poll of 1,002 adults in the United States about their attitudes towards the war in Iraq. Respondents were remarkably accurate estimating the current death toll of US soldiers,...

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Main Authors: Olander William E, Henderson Schuyler W, Roberts Les
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2009-11-01
Series:Conflict and Health
Online Access:http://www.conflictandhealth.com/content/3/1/9
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spelling doaj-af1ff24e8c044c15874acf2865a7f88f2020-11-25T01:17:20ZengBMCConflict and Health1752-15052009-11-0131910.1186/1752-1505-3-9Reporting Iraqi civilian fatalities in a time of warOlander William EHenderson Schuyler WRoberts Les<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In February, 2007, the Associated Press (AP) conducted a poll of 1,002 adults in the United States about their attitudes towards the war in Iraq. Respondents were remarkably accurate estimating the current death toll of US soldiers, yet were grossly inaccurate in estimating the current death toll of Iraqi civilians. We conducted a search of newspapers reports to determine the extent of the discrepancy between reporting Coalition and Iraqi civilian deaths, hypothesizing that there would be an over-representation of Coalition deaths compared to Iraqi civilian deaths.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We examined 11 U.S. newspapers and 5 non-U.S. newspapers using electronic databases or newspaper web-archives, to record any reports between March 2003 and March 2008 of Coalition and Iraqi deaths that included a numeric indicator. Reports were described as "events" where they described a specific occurrence involving fatalities and "tallies" when they mentioned the number of deaths over a period of time. We recorded the number of events and tallies related to Coalition deaths, Iraqi civilian deaths, and Iraqi combatant deaths</p> <p>Results</p> <p>U.S. newspapers report more events and tallies related to Coalition deaths than Iraqi civilian deaths, although there are substantially different proportions amongst the different U.S. newspapers. In four of the five non-US newspapers, the pattern was reversed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This difference in reporting trends may partly explain the discrepancy in how well people are informed about U.S. and Iraqi civilian fatalities in Iraq. Furthermore, this calls into question the role of the media in reporting and sustaining armed conflict, and the extent to which newspaper and other media reports can be used as data to assess fatalities or trends in the time of war.</p> http://www.conflictandhealth.com/content/3/1/9
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Olander William E
Henderson Schuyler W
Roberts Les
spellingShingle Olander William E
Henderson Schuyler W
Roberts Les
Reporting Iraqi civilian fatalities in a time of war
Conflict and Health
author_facet Olander William E
Henderson Schuyler W
Roberts Les
author_sort Olander William E
title Reporting Iraqi civilian fatalities in a time of war
title_short Reporting Iraqi civilian fatalities in a time of war
title_full Reporting Iraqi civilian fatalities in a time of war
title_fullStr Reporting Iraqi civilian fatalities in a time of war
title_full_unstemmed Reporting Iraqi civilian fatalities in a time of war
title_sort reporting iraqi civilian fatalities in a time of war
publisher BMC
series Conflict and Health
issn 1752-1505
publishDate 2009-11-01
description <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In February, 2007, the Associated Press (AP) conducted a poll of 1,002 adults in the United States about their attitudes towards the war in Iraq. Respondents were remarkably accurate estimating the current death toll of US soldiers, yet were grossly inaccurate in estimating the current death toll of Iraqi civilians. We conducted a search of newspapers reports to determine the extent of the discrepancy between reporting Coalition and Iraqi civilian deaths, hypothesizing that there would be an over-representation of Coalition deaths compared to Iraqi civilian deaths.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We examined 11 U.S. newspapers and 5 non-U.S. newspapers using electronic databases or newspaper web-archives, to record any reports between March 2003 and March 2008 of Coalition and Iraqi deaths that included a numeric indicator. Reports were described as "events" where they described a specific occurrence involving fatalities and "tallies" when they mentioned the number of deaths over a period of time. We recorded the number of events and tallies related to Coalition deaths, Iraqi civilian deaths, and Iraqi combatant deaths</p> <p>Results</p> <p>U.S. newspapers report more events and tallies related to Coalition deaths than Iraqi civilian deaths, although there are substantially different proportions amongst the different U.S. newspapers. In four of the five non-US newspapers, the pattern was reversed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This difference in reporting trends may partly explain the discrepancy in how well people are informed about U.S. and Iraqi civilian fatalities in Iraq. Furthermore, this calls into question the role of the media in reporting and sustaining armed conflict, and the extent to which newspaper and other media reports can be used as data to assess fatalities or trends in the time of war.</p>
url http://www.conflictandhealth.com/content/3/1/9
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