Project Overview

In February of 2003, as another war in Iraq seemed imminent, researchers at The George Washington University teamed up with journalist Arthur Kent to monitor and analyze media coverage of the war. Kent and SMPA Professors Steven Livingston and Sean Aday, had long felt that while general themes and arguments could be gleaned from a cursory look at transcripts and selected programming, what was needed was a 24-hour a day, 7-day a week video news capture. TVNEWSCAN was born. SMPA Graduate Fellows Lucas Robinson and Maeve Hebert joined the project to lend technical, logistical, and analytical expertise, as well as institutional support.

Armed with 15 VCRs and more than 500 VHS cassettes, the team began recording on March 17, 2003. Data were collected by videotaping ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FNC 24 hours, seven days a week from March 17 through April 26, 2003. Also taped during the same time period were: Al Jazeera's 8 p.m. EST, hour-long newscast; Egypt’s 11:30 p.m. EST, half-hour newscast from ESC-1 satellite channel; and Canada’s 6 p.m. EST, national newscast from CBC.

Minor technical problems prevented these programs from being taped on a few dates. When possible, alternative newscasts from the same channel, airing the same day, were recorded in place of the missing program.

In the initial coding stage, comparable programs and time periods from each network were coded. These were: the nightly national newscasts on ABC (6:30 p.m.), CBS (6:30 p.m.), and NBC (7 p.m.); CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Reports (5-5:30 p.m.); and Fox News Channel’s evening report (6-6:30 p.m.); and the newscasts from Al Jazeera, ESC-1, and CBC. One Canadian and three American graduate students coded the American and Canadian newscasts, and an Arabic-speaking American of Palestinian descent coded the two Arabic newscasts.

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