Overview

Prominent media scholars have argued that the dissemination of propaganda is an important function of the news media. Yet, despite public controversies about ‘fake news’ and ‘misinformation’, there has been very little discussion on techniques of propaganda. Building on critical theory, most notably Herman and Chomsky’s Propaganda Model, Florian Zollmann’s pioneering study brings propaganda back to the forefront of the debate. On the basis of a forensic examination of 1,911 newspaper articles, Zollmann investigates US, UK and German media reporting of the military operations in Kosovo, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Egypt. The book demonstrates how ‘humanitarian intervention’ and ‘R2P’ are only evoked in the news media if so called ‘enemy’ countries of Western states are the perpetrators of human rights violations. Zollmann’s work evidences that the news media plays a crucial propaganda role in facilitating a selective process of shaming during the build-up towards military interventions. This process has led to an erosion of internationally agreed norms of non-intervention, as enshrined in the UN Charter.

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9781433128233

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This impressive research combines critical theory of media with abundant empirical evidence based on the comparative analysis of media contents in the US, the UK and Germany. Florian Zollmann perfectly blends academic rigor with courageous passion to name the horrors of the politics of intervention and unveil the role of the mainstream media in hiding and supporting the interests of new militarism. Joan Pedro-Caranana, Saint Louis University-Madrid Campus Florian Zollmann's study is a bracing antidote to those who see 'mainstream' journalism through its myths and deny its intrinsic role as an agent of vested power. His powerful dissection of the specious coverage of the crimes of our time, known as humanitarian wars, demands the attention of all aspiring journalists and their teachers. John Pilger, Journalist and Documentary Filmmaker

This impressive research combines critical theory of media with abundant empirical evidence based on the comparative analysis of media contents in the US, the UK and Germany. Florian Zollmann perfectly blends academic rigor with courageous passion to name the horrors of the politics of intervention and unveil the role of the mainstream media in hiding and supporting the interests of new militarism. Joan Pedro-Caranana, Saint Louis University-Madrid Campus Florian Zollmann's Media, Propaganda and the Politics of Intervention presents a thorough, amply documented extension of Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky's original Propaganda Model (PM) of the British and German press while also adding findings for the American press. Not only does Zollmann extend the PM geographically, he also updates it with detailed examination of double standards in elite newspaper reporting of recent atrocities in Syria, Libya and Egypt, as well as less recent ones in Kosovo and Iraq. (Tabe Bergman, European Journal of Communication 33(2) 2018) [...] I would strongly recommend peace activists get hold of a copy of Media, Propaganda and the Politics of Intervention as it is absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the media's propagandistic role in the West's often deadly and counterproductive foreign policy. (Ian Sinclair, Peace News June-July 2018) Read the full review here

Author Information

Florian Zollmann is a Lecturer in Journalism at Newcastle University. He holds a PhD in journalism studies from the University of Lincoln. Zollmann previously worked as a lecturer at the German Sport University Cologne, the University of Lincoln and Liverpool Hope University. Since 1993, he has been working as a freelance journalist for the magazine Publik-Forum. Zollmann’s research has been widely published in international academic journals and edited collections. With Richard Lance Keeble and John Tulloch he jointly edited Peace Journalism, War and Conflict Resolution (Peter Lang, 2010).

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