Essay Question

Question

Jack Lule states:

We can recognise in news stories the siren song of myth. These news stories offer more than a retelling of common story forms. These news stories offer sacred, societal narratives with shared values and beliefs, with lessons and themes, and with exemplary models that instruct and inform. They are offering myths.

Discuss this proposition with regard to news reporting of the “War on Terror” since 2001.

Summary

The last four years have seen tumultuous changes in the global political landscape which have been reported upon, and in many cases shaped, by news and current affairs.

Post-9/11, the case for conflict in Iraq was manufactured by a meticulous public relations--“public diplomacy”--campaign in which elements of the news media were complicit. A large part of this public diplomacy campaign was the prorogation of certain myths and archetypes that exacerbated the public's fear and swung opinion in favor of an unnecessary war.

The “War on Terror” can be read as a myth to unify the citizens of Liberal Democracies around the world in a motivating cause that has no defined end, its purpose: to use the myth of security to re-establish the authority of politicians in a postmodern age of moral relativism.

My essay will cover the historical roots of the “War on Terror” myth and how public relations, with the aid of the news media, shaped certain mythological archetypes during and after the Iraq conflict in order to frame the conflict as an inevitable “good” versus “evil” battle for survival.

Working Bibliography

Daily News, Eternal Stories, J. Lule

This book explores Lule's argument that news stories can be distilled down to seven mythologic archetypes, which he supports with research of twenty years-worth of New York Times stories.

The Hero with A Thousand Faces, J. Campbell

The work cited by Lule that posits that all mythological narratives share a common master myth. Also draws on the work of GC Jung's unconscious and archetypes.

The Power of Nightmares, A. Curtis

A three part television documentary outlining the history of neoconservativism and islam fundamentalism in the latter half of the 20th Century. His argument that the “politics of fear” is part of a political “myth” of security, with which to bind the populations of liberal democracies with a sense of purpose.

Weapons of Mass Deception, Rampton & Stauber

Documents how public relations, through the media, manufactured the case for the second Iraq war.

Tell me lies: Propaganda and Media Distortion in the attack on Iraq, D. Miller

Written by leading journalists and commentators, it documents the role of mainstream media in legitimizing government action and undermining dissent.

The Security Approach and the Peace Approach, J. Galtung

A presentation given by Galtung in 2004 outlining the differences between the Security Approach and the Peace Approach to “building peace through harmonious diversity.” It highlights the issue of fear in the Security approach.