ABSTRACT
This chapter reports some results from a survey the authors conducted to explore the contributions of both the war coverage itself and overall amount of television viewing to people's beliefs and assumptions about the Gulf War, What, the authors wanted to know, had the US public learned from the media? With all the coverage, did people become better informed about events in the Middle East and about US foreign policy? The answers to these questions were, the authors discovered, both dramatic and revealing. The chapter suggests that the US media failed quite dramatically in their role as information providers. Despite months of intense coverage, most people did not know basic facts about the political situation in the Middle East or about the recent history of US policy toward Iraq. The media "solution" was to choose the safe option.
