Iran’s nuclear program development attracts massive international response and more prominence in USA, Britain and other foreign governments and the entire public. The dispute poses major fundamental questions about the nuclear non-proliferation regime given that its result could have a major negative effect on the regional and international security. The news media reporting is the one majorly entrusted with the role of providing a public understanding of most foreign affairs and in this case, the Iran’s nuclear program development. The news media play an essential role in framing the public’s understanding on various matters of interest. The news outlets majorly do this by highlighting particular facets of issues and use them to promote a particular understanding to the public.
“Media Coverage of Iran’s nuclear program” study gave a particular interest to how public perceptions were informed by English language newspapers. A thematic analysis of six influential newspapers during a selected four time periods using qualitative analytical methods gave a quantifiable view of the diversity of sources used, articles published and particular phrases used in coverage. The newspapers selected due to their largest circulation, in the United States and United Kingdom is namely: the Washington post, the Financial Times (U.K., U.S., and Asia editions), the Guardian (U.K. edition), the Independent (U.K edition), the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal ( Siegel and Barfouroush 6 ).
The sample time periods were during the four years in which significant happenings took place in the timeline of the Iran’s nuclear program and its immediate international response. The four periods stretched from September 22, 2009 through to October 1, 2012. The first period included the public revelation of the Fordow Enrichment facility in Iran and the subsequent U.S. –Iranian negotiations in early 2009. The second period was characterised by rounds of economic sanctions on Iran imposed by the U.N. Security council, the E.U. and U.S. lawmakers in response to its nuclear program. The third period included attempts to restart international negotiations with Iran and talks of a possible military attack on Iran. The fourth period saw the release of a new IAEA resolution regarding safeguards in Iran. The four year period was characterised by heightened and comprehensive media coverage (Siegel and Barfouroush 7).
The media coverage indicated a policy debate which drifted greatly from the underlying facts. The newspapers focused the coverage of the nuclear program on the expected international response and the official policy debates. The coverage overlooked Iran’s nuclear intentions and their capabilities and the uncertainties surrounding each. Washington Post on its June 10, 2010 article on the passage of sanctions against Iran, does not mention what Iran did or did not do to warrant issue of additional sanctions referring to the “future of nuclear program”. New York Times’ article on June 9, 2010 notes, “Despite the sanctions already in place, Iran is enriching uranium at ever higher levels and building new centrifuges to create larger stockpiles.” It is clear that the above references do not mention the fact that the nuclear program by Iran is under a strict international policy or they conform to widely agreed nuclear non-proliferation standards ( Siegel and Barfouroush 8).
The newspaper coverage of Iran’s nuclear program was characterised by numerous restatements made by often-conflicting official claims. There was a major lack of precision in explaining the underlying issues, inconsistency in coverage, and much failure in providing adequate and independent sources and claims. This had a major negative effect on public’s understanding of the real happenings. Various newspapers descriptions on the Iran’s capabilities and intentions varied widely despite the centrality of the matter. The commonly used range of terms to reference Iran’s nuclear activities included: nuclear program, nuclear ambitions, nuclear weapons activities and nuclear Iran. The various terms used had different effects on the assumptions made by the newspaper and the general public. It is highly noted that both the Wall Street Journal and the Guardian did not use “Nuclear weapons capability” in any of their work. The term which was used in the other newspapers it majorly denoted the fear showed by the analysts that Iran was almost achieving their ultimate goal. “Nuclear ambitions”, is a term that was often used by the newspapers in context. It is clear that the newspapers coverage gave a divergent opinion to the public on Iran’s capabilities and intentions due to the varied terms used (Siegel and Barfouroush 9).
A major point worth noting is that the newspaper coverage on the Iran’s nuclear program, hardly veered from the various opinions propagated by the U.S., European, Iranian and Other influential government officials. For instance Washington Post’s article on September 27, 2009 wrote, “If Tehran does not respond seriously by year’s end [to U.S. demands], the United States and its partners could begin to push for crippling sanctions.” Newspaper coverage gave particular interest to Iran’s opinion but downplayed them. For instance, after New York Times run a comment from an Iranian official concerning “confrontations” concerning the sanctions, in June 9, 2010 the article skipped and went directly to “two-track policy”. This led to the incomplete assessments of various range of choices to be taken by the policy makers(Atai and Mohammad 257)
In conclusion, it is notable that the newspaper coverage of Iran’s nuclear program indicates a debate which drifts greatly from underlying facts lacks precision and consistency in coverage and majorly propagates the opinions of the powerful states giving little attention to Iran’s responses. This clearly leads to different ideological stances which are embedded in various editorials.
Works cited
Siegel Jonas and Barfouroush Saranaz . “Media Coverage of Iran’s Nuclear Program”. CISSM Report. 2013. Web. November 20, 2013.
Atai, Mahmood Reza, and Mohammad Amin Mozaheb. "The Representation of Iran’s Nuclear Program in British Newspaper Editorials: A Critical Discourse Analytic Perspective." International Journal of Society, Culture & Language 1.2 (2013): 15-33.
