Rolston, Bill and McLaughlin, Greg (2004).  All News is Local:  Covering the war in Iraq in Northern Ireland’s daily newspapers.  Journalism Studies 5(2), 191-202.

Northern Ireland has experienced a bloody conflict for many decades.  Rolston and McLaughlin study the ways in which three Irish newspapers in Belfast cover the current war in Iraq.  All three papers, regardless of their political stances, try heartily to find a local connection to the conflict in the Middle East.  The authors examine how each specific paper makes the connection to local issues and relates the content to the paper’s unique editorial stance.  For instance, the nationalist paper covered the anti-war protests and the unionist paper looked primarily to local heroes for their coverage.  The newspapers also often drew parallels between Iraq and Northern Ireland.  This coverage also differed according to the paper’s political allegiances. Rolston and McLaughlin discuss ways in which reporting can be biased based on attempts to draw local connections between the conflict overseas and one’s hometown.  It is a fascinating, concrete example of a less obvious way in which bias can be found in conflict reporting.

Abstract by Meghan Maskery

Missouri School of Journalism

MA ‘07