Lule, Jack (2004).  War and its Metaphors:  News Language and the Prelude to War in Iraq, 2003.  Journalism  Studies. 5(2), 179-190.

Lule studies metaphors used by the NBC Nightly News during six weeks of coverage prior to the start of the current Iraq conflict.  He extracted a methodology for studying metaphor use in news coverage.  Metaphors should be studied on a semantic level and a syntactic level according to Lule.  His article looks at the implications of metaphor usage, including the way metaphors work to construct war through “news language.”  He found four overarching metaphors in NBC’s coverage, which included the timetable, the games of Saddam, the patience of the white house and the making the case/selling the plan metaphor.  These metaphors, according to Lule, portrayed a war with Iraq as an inevitable solution to the situation in Iraq.

The use of metaphor in conflict reporting is important because it can reveal bias.  The overuse of metaphorical language can result in overly emotional reporting that lacks rational, analytical description of the conflict.  It is also interesting to note that metaphors can limit the number of rightful solutions to a conflict.

Abstract by Meghan Maskery

Missouri School of Journalism

MA ‘07