Media Selectivity and U.S. Humanitarian Intervention: Reflection on the 1991 Crises in Iraq

초록

This study examines a selective policy-forcing role of media on U.S. foreign policymakingand presents how the interaction among media coverage, media framingand policy certainty provided a permissive condition for the United States toselectively undertake humanitarian intervention. It focuses on two humanitariancrises that occurred in northern and southern Iraq after the Persian Gulf War in1991 and investigates how disproportionate media coverage and empathy mediaframing, combined with the policy uncertainty over the Iraqi crises drove theUnited States to implement selective humanitarian intervention in northern Iraq. Meanwhile, the southern crisis was left untended, which ultimately degeneratedinto an orphan conflict that remained protracted for years without any internationalrecognition of the suffering of millions. This result implies that in the absence of thepolicy certainty of the United States, the policy-forcing role of the media becomesfar more compelling in making a crisis visible to the public and prioritizing itover policymaking.

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