Print Coverage of Military Conflict: The 'Los Angeles Times' and the Vietnam War. A Content Analysis, 1964-1972
Abstract
In a study of the Los Angeles Times, 135 issues were content analyzed to determine trends in coverage of the Vietnam War and public opposition to the war over a nine-year period. Seven war-related categories were analyzed: U.S. forces in combat, U.S. military activities other than in Vietnam, war-related activities not involving the United States, the anti-war movement, defense appropriations, and non-combat activities involving U.S. forces in Vietnam. Of these, the first two received the most coverage, while the anti-war movement and defense appropriations receive the least. Statistically significant trends were noted. Stories reporting U.S. forces in Vietnam decreased while anti-war protest stories increased over the research period. A total of 1,506 stories, editorials, art items, and photographs was coded. Of these, 1,348 stories were subjected to analysis ranging from descriptive statistics to Spearman rank-order correlations. This thesis also contains an exhaustive literature review and bibliography of references relating to the Vietnam War, public protests against the war, press coverage of wars in general and the Vietnam War in particular, content analysis of newspapers and other media publications, and the interplay of war coverage and protests.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 05, 1979
- Accession Number
- ADA073705
Entities
People
- Richard Paul Holk