The domino theory in the popular geopolitics of the U.S. news media, 1989--2009

This dissertation explores the way in which the U.S. news media employed the domino theory as a (or part of a) geopolitical discourse in its coverage of foreign policy challenges facing the United States in the post-Cold War era in a manner that operated to frame the tone and content of it reporting on these issues for American news audiences. This study relies on the use of thematic content analysis of newspaper articles using the domino theory in their reporting on three distinct sets of geopolitical affairs issues appearing in the Lexis-Nexis newspaper database from 1989 to 2009 using a grounded theory-based research approach. This methodology assesses, documents, and illustrates the way in which the media's representations relying on this well known geopolitical metaphor shaped the complexion of news coverage on the crises in Bosnia (from 1993-1995); Kosovo (1999); and Iraq (from 2003-2007). The results of this study advances our understanding of the domino theory's enduring role as a geopolitical discourse that promotes certain political agendas and the role of America's journalists in actively producing geopolitical knowledge about the world through their reporting.;The analysis of the U.S. news media's discourse in these three case studies demonstrates that the domino theory was relied upon in the popular geopolitics produced by the American media on these three foreign affairs issues and revealed a series of patterns in the findings. The phrase most commonly originated from the country's journalists rather than the individuals or groups to whom it was attributed. The American news media often used the phrase as a (or part of a) oppositional discourse to re-interpret arguments for military intervention in these international crises in an overwhelmingly negative light. This finding directly contradicts the claims embedded in hundreds of news articles on these issues that the domino metaphor was being harnessed to rationalize and legitimize interventionist military policies by American officials and their political supporters. This study also assesses and documents themes in the representational strategies used by journalists' to condition their largely critical portrayals of these topics. The conclusions of this research should be of significance to those who are interested in exploring the news media's role as an institution site implicated in the active production and dissemination of popular geopolitical knowledge about world politics and the role of geopolitical metaphors like the domino theory in these processes.