ABSTRACT
The present study provides a comparative analysis of media representation of crisis/conflict both in the Americas and Europe in the new millennium from a communication and media studies perspective. The study attempts to shed light on the role of media in the construction and representation of crisis/conflict within the differing cultural settings of the transatlantic countries where the crisis/conflict takes place. The Euro-American ties have deep historical connections that have accounted for many similarities of approaches towards conflicts and alliances that have worked to curb conflicts and violence in the past decade. However, the media representation of such conflicts and alliances in the various countries on each side of the Atlantic demonstrates cultural trends, value orientation, belief systems, and traditions associated with each of these countries. The chapter, thus, strives to identify, examine, and compare the cultural, political, economic, and ideological factors embedded in mediated conflict representation in the countries that primarily form transatlantic relations. The chapter focuses on revealing any ideological differences and power dynamics in the media representations of the various conflicts in the last decade; kinds of discursive strategies used to construct conflict representation; the types of representation used to label various non-dominant groups within the transatlantic relational pact; and differences in cultural values amongst the different countries involved. The chapter provides a focused review of media studies literature that has analyzed various conflicts occurring in the first decade of the twenty-first century in Europe and in the Americas. The author theorizes that approaches to media representation of conflict will have similarities as well as differences across the various countries; there will be distinct tensions in the media representation as a result of underlying political, cultural, and ideological orientations resulting from national interests and cultures; and that dominant groups within the transatlantic relations will have the discursive power to define, construct, reify, and label the identities of the nondominant groups and partners within conflict contexts.
