“But it is not getting any safer!”: The Contested Dynamic of Framing Canada's Military Mission in Afghanistan

Abstract

AbstractThe Canadian government and military struggled to control its media framing of the war in Afghanistan between 2006 and 2009. This content analysis (n = 900) critically investigates the mediated dynamic of framing Canada's military mission in Afghanistan. This study found that while journalists overwhelmingly indexed their stories to elite sources, they frequently impeached the frames sponsored by government and military leaders. Journalists used elite criteria to fact check the frames of military and government leaders. Most of the coverage was episodic and event-oriented rather than thematic and contextual. While Canadian journalists challenged official claims of improving security, for instance, their coverage lacked context and critical appraisal of Canada's military mission in Afghanistan, raising questions about journalism's normative role in Canadian democracy.