Public Issue Life Cycle: Life Research Proposal

" (Iraq Body Count). To begin to understand the extent of the problem, the media needs to address the following questions about civilian deaths: "Who is killing them? How are they being killed? Who is being killed? How do current patterns compare to earlier periods?" (Iraq Body Count). While these questions can be answered for some of the civilian deaths, many of the murdered are targeted in anonymous killings, like bombings, while others are kidnapped and executed, making it virtually impossible to assign blame for the deaths. The highest numbers of deaths are linked to Coalition and anti-Coalition violence, but the underlying causes of those deaths are too complex to attribute to Coalition involvement in Iraq. The more insurmountable these problems became, the less press coverage they got, despite the fact that actual conditions were not improving. In fact, press coverage became so biased against Iraqis who complained about life in post-surge Iraq that cartoonist Gary Trudeau satirizes reporters addressing that issue in his comic strip Doonesbury.

The very nature of the public issue life cycle is that it emphasizes a problem and calls for a solution, but oftentimes does so in a simplistic way belying the difficulty of finding such a solution. Until a workable solution can be found, the problem is likely to cycle in and out of public awareness, because the public becomes overwhelmed when confronted with seemingly insurmountable problems.Furthermore, sometimes public perception of an issue changes, so that the public might shift from supporting the liberation of Iraq to the wholesale abandoning of Iraq, despite the dangers that would create for the Iraqi people. However, when that occurs, it is generally when such a shift is justified by a change from multiple ethical viewpoints. Because that has not occurred with the war in Iraq, one can expect to see Iraqi civilian living conditions cycle in and out of the news until civilian living conditions in Iraq improve or American civilians believe that they have a solution that they can pressure politicians to embrace.

Works Cited

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Broadcasting System, Inc. 25 Jan. 2009 http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/03/12/iraq.women/index.html.

Iraq Body Count. "Post-Surge Violence: Its Extent and Nature." Iraq Body Count. 2008. Iraq

Body Count. 25 Jan. 2009 http://www.iraqbodycount.org/analysis/numbers/surge-

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MSNBC.com. "Transcript for Sept. 14." Meet the Press. 2003. National Broadcasting

Company, Inc. 25 Jan. 2009 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3080244/.

Shaban, Sehrish. "Iraq in Transition: Iraq under Saddam Hussein." The Online Newshour.

2006. MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. 25 Jan. 2009 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/middle_east/iraq/background/iraqunderhussein.html......