AN EVALUATIVE ASSERTION ANALYSIS OF U.S. PRESS COVERAGE OF THE 1979 IRANIAN REVOLUTION (UNITED STATES)

• Other Authors: FARROKHI, ABDOLLAH.
• Format: Others
• Subjects: Mass Communications
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/lib/digcoll/etd/3086124

Assertions related to the 1979 Iranian revolution appearing in editorials and news columns of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Christian Science Monitor were analyzed in this content analysis study. The purpose of the study was to discover whether news reporting of the three papers changed in response to shifts in Iranian-American governmental relationships. === In this regard, by using a modification of evaluative assertion analysis methodology, 2,078 assertions were analyzed. Five hypotheses were tested, four of which were confirmed, and the fifth hypothesis was partially confirmed indicating that similar to U.S. public policy shifts: (1) the three American newspapers treated the Iranian revolution negatively during the period of October 6, 1978 through November 4, 1979; (2) the three newspapers treated the revolutionaries (Ayatollah Khomeini and his supporters) more unfavorably than they did the pre-revolutionaries (the ex-Shah and his government) during the period of October 6, 1979 through January 16, 1979; (3) the analyzed newspapers showed a less negative attitude toward the revolutionaries during the transitional period of the Iranian revolution (January 17, 1979 to April 2, 1979); and (4) the analyzed newspapers switched their attitudes to more unfavorable toward the revolutionaries as time went on after the establishment of the revolutionary government in Iran (April 3, 1979 to November 4, 1979). The Monitor showed the least negative attitude, the Times a moderate attitude, and the Post the most negative attitude toward the revolution. === With regard to the study findings and the Iranian revolution and implications for governmental relationship between Iran and the United States, a model of U.S. foreign policy and press reporting concerning a revolutionary movement was proposed in this study. This model, which was supported by data from this study, needs to be tested further in future research for other revolutionary regimes. === Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-08, Section: A, page: 2116. === Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1985.