ABSTRACT

This chapter begins by noting that recent research on the dynamics of the presidential/media framing relationship in time of war has uncovered a general pattern: As the situation on the ground departs from the president's initial, rose tinted narrative of the conflict's success, early positive news coverage grows more negative as it reflects that more unpleasant objective reality. Even as Obama attempted to achieve closure with a unifying and uplifting narrative of success, the media refused to follow his framing lead, first constructing a far less positive tale of war's end and then virtually banishing the subject from their reportage. Researchers will soon have the opportunity to investigate the framing patterns for the formal end of combat operations in Afghanistan. If, as Obama has indicated, such engagements ought to entail a very different form of remote, high-tech warfare, the endgame framing patterns chapter have observed may not persist beyond America's two post-9/11 wars.