Consensus at Home, Opposition Abroad: Officials, Foreign Sources, and US News Coverage of Drone Warfare

Charles M. Rowling; Penelope Sheets; William Pettit; Jason Gilmore

doi:10.1177/1077699017742092

Consensus at Home, Opposition Abroad: Officials, Foreign Sources, and US News Coverage of Drone Warfare

Charles M. Rowling, Penelope Sheets, William Pettit, Jason Gilmore

Political Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study examines the process and conditions under which U.S. news coverage aligns with—or challenges—the communications of government officials, focusing on the issue of U.S. drone warfare. White House, military, congressional, and press communications during President Obama’s first 5 years in office are analyzed to assess how the policy has been framed among officials and covered within the press. Evidence indicates that news coverage was significantly more critical of the policy than what was expressed among officials. In particular, despite near consensus at home, journalists exercised considerable discretion, consistently locating and amplifying oppositional voices from abroad in news coverage.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	886-908
Number of pages	23
Journal	Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly
Volume	95
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699017742092
State	Published - Dec 1 2018

Keywords

drone warfare
foreign sourcing
framing
indexing
news norms
press independence

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Communication

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10.1177/1077699017742092

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