Overview

This book forms the basis of a thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Journalism from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada in 2017. It explores the use of the terms jihad, mujahedeen, and jihadists, in relation to the coverage of Afghanistan. The focus is on how the New York Times, a major journalistic actor, participated in changing the connotations of the terms in different political contexts from 1987 - 2015. During the Soviet-Afghan War (1979 - 1989), jihad was favourably depicted as a solution to thwart Soviet presence. However, following the end of the war, the concept has been presented as a violent phenomenon targeting people who are religiously (and also ideologically) different. The notable difference in the coverage during the Soviet invasion and afterward reflects the evolution of the reporting. The theoretical basis of this thesis employs media framing to understand how changes in the language of news stories can establish multiple meanings of the terms. It concludes that journalistic norms and routines, national culture, ideology, and elites have all swayed the framing of the words to fit shifting political narratives. It also observes that journalists often invoke the dominant ideological view that their own societies have about the cultures on which they report, particularly if they have to account for complex historical backgrounds.