A Century of War: U. S. Military Interventions Through the Lens of The New York Times, 1895-1992

Abstract

American newspapers have had to change the way they present the news as they compete for the subscribers needed to attract the advertising dollars that keep them in business, I decided to explore the way newspapers covered wars in which America took part. To this end, I have looked at four conflicts relatively small in nature if one considers the countries involved and the territory in dispute. I made use of the availability of The New York Times via the internet in order to see if the way it tells its readers of war has changed with the additions of radio, television, cable/satellite television with its 24/7 news outlets, and finally the internet. I believe that in reading across the century, as it were, changes in the American experience should also become fairly obvious. With all of these reasons in mind I chose to look at the newspaper coverage of the Philippine American War that grew out of the Spanish American War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and finally the Persian Gulf war. I looked only at articles in the Times as I did not want any differences I found to have been caused by the different editorial policies of various newspapers.