War and Peace Journalism: Representation of Conflict on Afghan Soil through Global Media
The world longest war against terrorism is expected to end. The United States of America is set to fully withdraw from Afghanistan in September 2021.This study, informed by Galtung's model of War and Peace, examines how the New York Times and China Daily depict this war and the recently initiated peace process. Combined method of qualitative and quantitative contents analysis was used and the two newspapers' coverage from September 2018 to August 2019 was chosen. 144 stories were extracted and 73 exemplar stories, which met the selection criteria were studied. The findings show that both newspapers excessively used elite-oriented and visible effects of war frames. The study also found that the NYT uses demeaning language, portrayed the Taliban as a dominant force, demoralized Afghan government and security forces; it also held the Afghan people responsible for the war. Implications of this study are discussed.