Crisis Continued: How Cable News Can’t Let a Good Emergency Go

• In Event: ICA Interactive Paper/Poster Session II
  In Interactive Paper Session: Journalism Studies Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

In January 2016, Iran detained ten U.S. sailors who had drifted into Iranian territory, releasing them fifteen hours later after intense diplomatic activity. U.S. broadcast and cable media outlets took similar approaches to covering breaking news of the sailors’ capture and release, while stronger differences emerged during follow-up reporting. This paper explores the discursive choices evident over three days of broadcast and cable coverage to elucidate taken-for-granted ideological stances common to several of the reports, with particular emphasis on two clips from CNN and Fox News that bear significant formal distinctions concealing close substantive similarities. Close examination using multiple discourse analytical tools yields provocative findings on how journalists and their sources positioned themselves, their audiences, and elements of the U.S. and Iranian governments during a crisis that some factions in both countries sought not to end.

Author

• Perry Parks, Michigan State U