Discourses of morality: The news media, human rights and foreign policy in twentieth-century United States

The construction in twentieth-century United States of an ideology of human rights was identified through study of the role of human rights in foreign policy in congressional rhetoric and print news media. Critical discourse and narrative analysis were used to study the stories (what they were, how they were told and the story-tellers) of human rights in media coverage, congressional debate and presidential statements in four case studies of American foreign policy: the Paris Peace Talks of 1919; the San Francisco conference of 1945; the Ford-Carter foreign policy debate of October 1976; and U.S. responses to the Tiananmen Massacre of 1989. The role of the news media in foreign policy was also examined. A consistent American discourse of human rights was found across almost a century that focused attention on civil and political rights over other rights. This discourse was one of morality linked with American values and history. Speculation is made about the impact of this highly specific discourse on international discussions of human rights and the interests served by such a discourse.