Constructing an image of the United States in the British and French editorials about WikiLeaks

ABSTRACT

In today's globalised world a country's image is an important consideration because it can influence that country's politics and economy (Shimko 1991. Images and Arms Control: Perceptions of the Soviet Union in the Reagan Administration. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; Viosca Jr., Blaise, and Balsmeier. 2005. ‘Country Equity: South Africa, a Case in Point.’ Journal of Promotion Management 12 (1): 85–95). Scholars have noted that the news media are considered to be major players in creating national images and swaying public perception of foreign countries (Entman, 2008. ‘Theorizing Mediated Public Diplomacy: The U.S. Case.’ The International Journal of Press/Politics 13 (2): 87–102; Wanta, Golan, and Lee. 2004. ‘Agenda Setting and International News: Media Influence on Public Perceptions of Foreign Nations.’ Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 81: 364–377). The present study examined United States’ image typologies in news editorials in Britain and France. Using image theory as a theoretical foundation, this present study employed in-depth qualitative thematic analysis of editorials in The Guardian and Le Monde covering the release of classified U.S. diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks. The overarching U.S. image revealed by editorials did not exactly fit in with the normative images of ally, enemy, complex, imperialist, and colonial/dependent. It did, however, approach the complex image that entailed elements of the ally and imperial image.

KEYWORDS:

• WikiLeaks
• U.S. image
• image theory
• The Guardian
• Le Monde

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Ivanka Pjesivac (Ph.D., University of Tennessee) is an Assistant Professor in the College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, USA. A former international correspondent, Dr. Pjesivac's academic research is in international and cross-cultural communication, as well as in information processing from digital media. She has presented her research at national and international conferences, winning the awards for best papers, and has published her work in prominent communication journals.

Catherine A. Luther is a professor and the director of the School of Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota with a primary concentration in mass communication and a secondary area in political psychology. Her main areas of research interests are issues related to global/intercultural communication, media and diversity/inclusion, free press/expression.

Iveta Imre (Ph.D., University of Tennessee) is an Assistant Professor of Multimedia Journalism at University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She received her doctorate in Communication and Information from the University of Tennessee. Her main areas of research focus on the development of broadcast media in countries of former Yugoslavia, international communication, and journalism education.