Framing The Humanitarian Operation In Sri Lanka

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Abstract

After 9/11 attack and the "War on Terror" followed by it, many studies were done by various scholars by analysing the journalistic behaviours of conflict reporting. Those scholars mainly focused on the concepts of peace journalism and war journalism to illustrate the media's role in the conflict and followed a similar trend. The final stage of the Humanitarian Operation in Sri Lanka was given a completely different scope to the conflict reporting. This study covers the last 19 days of the Operation and immediate aftermath. There was no space for peace journalism in such a critical and limited period. Only the war journalism was prevailed and it was divided into two aspects according to the way which the Operation was framed. For Sri Lankan media, it was a just war. How this was reflected by the media institutions overseas. This study explores this by exploring the media of the West and the East, according to newly developed two bunches of media frames - the Just War Frames and the Unjust War Frames.

Introduction

1.1. Background

In today’s increasingly connected world there are plethoras of resources available to look into conflict reporting. Traditional interstate conflict may be consciously rare today, but the reverse is true of intra-state conflict (also known as an internal or ethnic conflict). From Eastern Europe to Africa and from Latin America to South Asia, intra-state conflicts are more prevalent than conflict between states. Some of these cases are related to ethnicity while others are not. Causes include internal conflicts occurred due to the reasons ounce as weak states, geography, discrimination, cultural discrimination against minority languages, ideology, inter-group politics, economic problems, and modernization. Even with the end of the cold war and presumable peace in the troubled area of the world, a large number of small wars continued in different part of the world. (M. Brown, 2001).

One of the main manifestations of conflict based on culture and language is the press and the reporting of the conflict. Communication media are thus central to any consideration of ethnic intra-state conflict. Scholars of conflict reporting have focused most of their attention based on the Western media; particularly those are operated in the USA or the UK. Although there are many theories about freedom of expression in a democratic society, to date there has been little empirical data or theorizing about propaganda and censorship in intra-state conflicts in the developing world.

There are many studies investigated the level of congruence between newswires and other news media in written or spoken conflict reporting. Those all studies have been conducted to explore the journalistic behaviour of conflict reporting through the spectacles of peace journalism and war journalism. The final stage of the Humanitarian Operation in Sri Lanka was limited the conflict reporting into one extreme. There was no space for peace journalism. The operation was reaching to its end. The victory for the forces of the Government of Sri Lanka was obvious. Therefore, only the war journalism was prevailed at the every corner of the media theatre. In such a situation, how the conflict journalists behaved? There is no study to explore this behaviour. This study attempts to fill the gap.

1.1.1. Brief Overviews of Humanitarian Operation

Just few days after the mid-May 2009, exactly on 19th, Sri Lankan government successfully defeated the LTTE (the LTTE - Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) and liberated Sri Lankans from the decades-long bloodshed. Though this success was highly celebrated domestically, it was differently accepted by the Western powers. This difference has been reflected by the media at the both ends and especially the Western and the Eastern media behaviour in this regard is worth to examine. This study tries to look into the role played by the Western and the Eastern media after the elimination of the LTTE with special reference to the Western and the Eastern political interference in Sri Lankan affairs. The Western political interference in Sri Lankan affairs can be identified across a very large spectrum. This interference cannot be identified without understanding the historical process of the Western influence in Sri Lanka and the LTTE's evolution into well developed military machinery. Therefore, this study begins with a historical elaboration of those two factors - the Western influence and the evolution of the LTTE. Then, this explains how the Western and Eastern media portray the Humanitarian Operation in Sri Lanka during the last 19 days of the battles and immediate aftermath.

1.1.2. The Western Influence in Sri Lanka

Though Sri Lanka is a country surrounded by the ocean with no land border to any other country, its exposure to the rest of the world is well illustrated in the domestic chronicles as well outsiders' records. Other than to nearby Indian sources, Sri Lanka was portrayed in ancient Rome, Arab and Chinese records. During the course of the history, Sri Lanka was fighting to maintain its sovereignty against many invaders. As a natural phenomenon, it often faced invasions from neighbouring Tamil dominated South India. Those invasions have strengthened the national power of this small country and it could proudly stand on its own feet throughout the history.

In 1505 AD, with the arrival of the Portuguese to Sri Lankan coast, the long prevailed pattern of the country's history started to change. This new invader could not be thrown away easily because of its naval power and modern military strength. Then, Sri Lankan sought the support of another Western power of the period - the Dutch of Netherland to gain the independence. This supporter of independence who had helped Sri Lanka to end 150 years of Portuguese rule, dishonoured its promises and became the new ruler of the country. Finally, the Dutch rule in Sri Lanka was ended by having the support of another Western power. In 1815 AD, the British military signed an agreement with Sri Lankan elites and it marked to beginning of the British rule in Sri Lanka.

Though Sri Lanka could have the independence from the British rule in 1948, it was not the self-ruled country that was enjoyed its sovereignty till the arrival of the Portuguese. The presence of three Western powers in Sri Lanka for 450 years of its history had changed the political and social landscape of the country as never happened before.

1.1.3. The Evolution of the LTTE

Though Sri Lanka was invaded by the neighbouring Tamil Kingdom in the South India throughout its history, the influx of Tamils was successfully assimilated into Sri Lankan culture after each and every time of those invasions. But, the "divide and rule" strategy of the Western powers had stopped the assimilation process and "created" a Tamil minority in Sri Lanka. In addition to creation of such a minority, it was highly awarded and was developed into the new elite of the country. At the dawn of the 20th century, they became the "national leaders" of the country under the blessing of the British rulers. But this honour and privileges were challenged with the introduction of universal franchise in 1931 under the political reforms. The majority - Sinhalese, came to power and Tamils (actually, the privileged elite) "lost" the power. Finally, they formed a racial political party (The Tamil State Party) in 1947 even before Sri Lanka gets its independence.

The independence gained in 1948, was not meaningful because of the "presence of the British" in Sri Lanka in different forms. This presence caused many practical difficulties. Use of English as the national language was such a problem and it was answered by promoting Sinhala language (the majority language) into the official level in 1956. But, this historical correction was labelled as a marginalization of Tamils. The leaders of the Tamil community wanted to stop this and they started to protest and defined a new term into Sri Lankan politics - "the ethnic problem".

By handing over the political power into the hands of well trained "leaders" of the domestic population in 1948, the British expected to maintain its presence in Sri Lanka. But, with its long historical and cultural background, Sri Lankan started to reform the country and the introduction of Sinhala as its national language marked a new journey for a "real" independence. This first step was followed by many reforms during next two decades. Schools were nationalized. Industries were nationalized. Land reforms introduced and the British presence in the country was successfully reduced into nothing. By removing the British crown from the government in 1972, a new republic was established.

Those domestic reforms could be identified as a power struggle of Sri Lankan against the post colonial presence of British power in its domain. The West (here, the British) was not ready to give up gained powers in this centrally located country in the Indian Ocean and it was launching its own strategies to weaken the "enemy". The Western support for the "Tamil Cause" came to presence and various forums and playgrounds for the "Tamil Struggle" were prepared.

As a cultural habit, the West is always ready to rely on its own hard power than the soft power. Therefore, the advent of the LTTE in 1975 was a highly welcomed event for the British. Political asylum to the Chief Theoretician of the LTTE was given in the British soil and LTTE was armed by "unknown" source(s). Eventually, the LTTE was developed into a well armed military organization with a naval wing and an air wing. LTTE was the only organization had capability of air power. LTTE killed more than 60,000 civilians during its struggle for a separate country in the domain of Sri Lanka and destroyed many assets. They were ruthless enough to assassinate the President of Sri Lanka, Mr. Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1993 and the former Prime Minister of India, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. The LTTE could cripple the country's economy to note and weaken the state into a "failed" level as defined by the West. In fact, FBI said to be the world's deadliest terrorist organization in January 2008, the LTTE. (MDFSL, 2011)

1.1.4. The Negotiation Process

The attempt to unarm the LTTE was started with the beginning of its presence. Since the course of the struggle was labelled as an "ethnic" problem, the successive governments tried to give remedies to Tamil "grievances". In 1987, the Government of India also intervened and forced Sri Lanka to introduce two-tier systems of the governance. But day by day, the LTTE was strengthened and no negotiation was successful. Finally, in 2002, the Norway Government involved into the peace process as a mediator and it gave the LTTE an ample space to become more sophisticated military machinery. This situation forced the Government of Sri Lanka to strengthen its efforts to combat the LTTE.

1.1.5. The End of the Conflict

The new armed effort against the LTTE was launched in 2006 and within less than three years, the LTTE was defeated. Most of the leaders of the organization - including its leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran were killed. Hundreds of thousands innocent Tamil civilians lived under the crutches of LTTE were freed. The country was enjoyed with this newly dawn freedom and celebrated it as a national victory.

1.1.6. Media Coverage

Today, all the world events are often reported by the global media. Multinational companies are proliferating media messages in different channels, many of which are untouched national borders and policies. The role of media practitioners and the formation of structures in the opinion and social networks are constantly changing, and added how the media uses technology in conflict, and its ability to design and refine the opinions of the people and their governments. Media is defined as "the several mediums or channels used in an organized fashion to communicate information to groups of people, as a service to the public, where newspapers and magazines, radio and television and the Internet are the main channels (Howard, 2004)."

The media ideal for exploring and questioning the events and politics as neutral as possible, it can also be selective in its coverage, content and messages and to "frame" dangerous situations in a certain way and form the big story and history of the conflict. The media are also a variety of political positions, funding sources or ownership, which can lead to the creation of collective identities and hostility between cultures. Global news can also play a role as an agenda setting machinery.

Any coverage of the conflict in Sri Lanka, then, is not just about the relationship between the conflicting parties in power in society, and also the general opinion, and the international community and the countries responsible for policy responses. Monitoring of content and coverage is essential to understand the nature of the political debate and the cultural dynamics of conflict. News media tend to cover only the dominant discourses of national and leave out content that is of less interest to most of the population.

1.1.6.1. Media in the Sri Lanka

The structure of the most influential media in Sri Lanka is mainly printed and electronic press, radio and television.

The Press in Sri Lanka

Even though the Dutch set up the first printing press on the island in 1737 and the British published the first regular government Gazette in 1802, the first journal ‘Colombo Journal’ was not published until 1832 and the Observer and Commercial Advertiser were published over two years. The first Sinhala press Lankaloka began in 1860. The first Tamil newspaper Udaya Tharakai was published in 1841. Soon after this, several newspapers started to come out in Sinhala, Tamil and English languages (ICES, 1996). The radical newspapers of the 1930s and the 40s represent yet another strand in the links between the media and political change in Sri Lanka during the pre-independent period. The growth of the Sri Lankan press in the period after the independence as represented by the expansion of circulation of newspapers was accompanied by an increase in the number of news publications and a widening of the range of interests to which they cater.

The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd (ANCL) and the Times of Ceylon Ltd dominated the country’s press. Mainstream newspapers are presently published in Sri Lanka by one state owned company, Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (ANCL) and nine (9) privately owned companies, Upali Newspapers Limited (Upali), Wijeya Newspapers (Pvt.) Limited (Wijeya), Ceylon Newspapers Pvt Ltd (Mawbima), Rivira Media Corporation (Pvt) Ltd (Rivira), Sumathi Newspapers (Pvt.) Limited, Express Newspapers (Ceylon) Limited, The Leader Publications (Pvt.) Limited, Ravaya Publications, and United Newspapers (Pvt.) Ltd. Of these, the first three, ANCL, Upali, and Wijeya dominate the market. The first six (6) institutions publish daily and weekly newspapers in more than one language. The state owned ANCL publishes in all three languages (Sinhala, Tamil and English) and the other two publish in Sinhala and English. It is interesting to note that it is only in the state owned ANCL that newspapers are published in all three languages. The daily newspaper published by the ANCL - Daily News is subjected to this study.

Daily News

The Daily News is an English language newspaper in Sri Lanka. It is now published by the ANCL, a government-owned corporation. The present-day newspaper is written as a broadsheet, with photographs printed both in colour and black and white. Weekday printings include the main section, containing news on national affairs, international affairs, business, political analysis, sports, editorials and opinions. It is one of the best circulated English dailies in the country. (DailyNews(SL))

1.1.6.2. The Eastern Media

To compare the media coverage around the globe on the Humanitarian Operation in Sri Lanka, Xinhua News Agency (Xinhua) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) is considered as an Eastern media institution for this study.

Xinhua News Agency

The Xinhua News Agency was established in 1931. With the objective to be a leading world news service in the same league as the "big three"; the AP (The Associated Press), Reuters, and the AFP (Agency France-Press), Xinhua reorganized itself and lengthened its activities after China launched economic reforms in 1978. Twenty years after the reform started, in 1998. Xinhua claimed that it had reached its primary objective. Ten years later, in 2008, while national agencies in many countries have been in an era of crisis, Xinhua has been developing unprecedentedly and successfully. As China has become increasingly integrated into the world economy, significant of Xinhua coverage has also increased to a new height.

Xinhua’s daily news output increased remarkably from only a half million words in 1995 to 80 million words in 2008, with content not only about China but also about important world events and issues. As early as 1986, Xinhua had already started distributing news around the clock and adopted a computerized news transmission system that made it more competitive in terms of timeliness. (Xinhua)

1.1.6.3. The Western Media

For the comparison purpose of this study, The Guardian and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) of the United Kingdom (UK) are taken into consideration.

The Guardian

The Guardian, known until 1959 as the Manchester Guardian (founded in 1821), is a British national daily newspaper. It has grown from a 19th-century local paper to a national paper associated with a complex organizational structure and international media and web presence. In paper form, it was certified average daily circulation of 209,354, behind The Daily Telegraph and the Times. The Guardian is part of the GMG Guardian Media Group of newspapers, radio stations, print media, including the newspaper. The Guardian is popular for its coverage of news around the world, the Spanish Civil War, Post-War, Northern Ireland Crisis, the first Gulf War, the journalist alleged Russian intelligence work, and Kosovo, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. (TheGuardian(UK))

BBC

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcasting corporation. Its primary responsibility of the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man at the fair is to provide public service broadcasting. Its workforce is about 23,000, and the largest broadcaster in the world. It is headquartered in BBC Broadcasting House in London. BBC operates in accordance with the Royal Charter and Agreement of licensed from the Home Secretary. The international BBC content traditionally part of an effective foreign policy tool represented the British government. BBC Online includes a comprehensive news website and archive. (BBC)

1.2. The Study

1.2.1. Statement of the Problem

This study aimed to identify the journalistic behaviour of the UK and Chinese media in parallel to the journalistic behaviour of Sri Lankan media in reporting the Humanitarian Operation in Sri Lanka.

1.2.2. Significance of the Study

This paper is deemed significant and original as below:

This study helps fill scant of literature in the field of framing by identifying similarities and dissimilarities of representation of the Humanitarian Operation in Sri Lanka in the perspectives of the Western (UK) and the Eastern (Chinese) media in parallel to the Sri Lankan media perspectives.

This study offers a quantitative contribution to a topic that has received mostly normative and anecdotal discussion.

This study may be beneficial in shaping public opinion on the existing reality of war reporting in conflict affected areas in the world thereby promoting a culture of advocating professional conduct in conflict news reporting.

This exploratory study will help generate hypotheses for future studies examining the themes of war journalism around the world and its effect towards the general public.

1.2.3. The Objectives

The purposes of this study are to:

Examine representations of the Humanitarian Operation in Sri Lanka through the spectacles of Chinese and the UK media in parallel with Sri Lankan media reports.

Find out the nature of Chinese and the UK news portrayal of the Humanitarian Operation in Sri Lanka.

Examine whether there is a significant difference in reporting the Humanitarian Operation in Sri Lanka by Chinese and the UK media.

1.2.4. Scope and Limitations

The study covers the reporting of Humanitarian Operation in Sri Lanka in the perspective of Chinese and the UK media by selecting one (1) news agency from China and two (2) media institutions from the UK during the period from 1st May 2009 to 31st May 2009. To achieve the comparative purposes of this study, one (1) newspaper from Sri Lanka is also selected.

This study has following limitations:

The study covers only two foreign countries and also only three (3) media institutions from both countries.

A quantitative content analysis of news frames examines only manifest content, rendering any latent evidence present in the news narrative unobserved. It is a challenge for researchers to infer meaning based solely on characteristics of news coverage.

Though this study demonstrates how war journalism frames were manifested in the news reporting in the UK and China, a parallel examination of audience reaction or perception to these news reports is absent due to the inherent limitations of the methodology.

The news items were chosen only from 1st May 2009 to 31st May 2009 in order to get the most debated status of war journalism approach of the conflict reporting.

This only covers the web representations of those three media institutions.

The stories from the UK and China were downloaded from online archives. As a result, the prominence of display on the actual newspaper page (and other forms) could not be discerned.

Many of the coding categories used for assessing narrative content were conceived by Galtung (1998) as a form of prepublication criteria, posing a challenge for this content analysis of published stories.

Also, the study does not follow the coverage over time to determine dominant frames and how they changed during that 1st May 2009 - 31st May 2009.

Because of the situation in Sri Lanka during the underlined period, there was no time to give a space for peace journalism.

1.2.5. Chapter Outline

Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of the research including the introduction, research problem, objectives, scope of the study with limitations, significance if the study and organization of the research.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

This chapter presents the overview of the issue in Sri Lanka and an extensive study of existing literature.

Chapter 3: Methodology

This chapter presents details of the research methodology employed by the study.

Chapter 4: Results and Discussion

This chapter presents the data and the analysis of the data gathered in the study.

Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations

This chapter presents the conclusion of the research and specific recommendations followed by future research opportunities.

Literature Review

2.1. International News Flow

Globalization has another effect in our information society: news has become a global phenomenon (Ginneke, 1998) and its formats, content and style are recognizable worldwide. The role of international news is growing within the context of greater political and economic independence among nations, and the mainstream media’s agenda in reporting international news is consistent with the nation’s diplomatic relationships and foreign policies (Chang, 1988, 1989; Dorigo, 2001; Yu and Riffe, 1988). However, there has been an ongoing debate for years about international news flow is a "free flow" or a "free and balanced flow" across borders, as "free flow" information is: uni-directional and vertical, mainly from North to South (Kumar, 1990) and from West to East.

A dominant theme in international politics, culture and communication in recent decades has been the creation of the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO), which was proposed by the countries in the developing world, but it is also supported by most countries of the world. Having the goal of changing inequality and imbalance in the international flow of information and unfair representation of developing countries in the media of the countries in the developing world, NWICO was planned. But, after the mid-1980s, the NWICO movement was abandoned due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

Among the news agencies across the globe, only a few operate internationally. The three largest are the Associated Press (AP), based in the United States; Reuters, based in the United Kingdom; and the Agence French Press (AFP), based in France. Since the 1970s, news agency studies have experienced ups and downs, corresponding to the rise and fall of the debate about whether the world should establish the NWICO. Although in the early 1980s the NWICO debate declined, now many scholars believe that it is time to renew news agency studies for at least two important reasons. First, the end of the Cold War with its wide and significant influence on world politics and economy and the rise of China as a world economic power and a potential world political giant have had a profound impact on world news agencies. Second, the major changes in news agencies themselves, such as the fall of United Press International (UPI) and the expansion and rise of Reuters, have also considerably altered the global landscape of news services.

2.2. The Peace Journalism and the War Journalism

The peace and war journalism wide spread in the world in present. Due to the availability and accessibility of information about intra-country conflicts, there are wide-spread studies done in different parts of the world with different focuses and objectives on the subject.

Followed by number of seminal works by various authors, the concept of peace journalism has been further developed by TRANSCEND, a non-profit organization founded by Galtung; (1986, 1998) to promote ideas of peace. At the end of 1990, Galtung ideas collected from Conflict British and Peace Forum (CPF), refined their model through dialogue with journalists, especially in a series of annual conferences. After these meetings, the CPF has published four books:

Peace Journalism Option (Lynch, 1998)

What are journalists for? (Lynch, 1999)

Using Conflict Analysis in Reporting (Lynch, 2000)

Reporting the World (CPF, 2002)

These publications are mainly how-to manual based on anecdotes and case studies. There are a number of scientific researches on peace journalism, which are even more important today, in a world plagued by war and conflict. Some of previous studies have operationalized war / peace journalism.

Based on those phenomena, many studies have been done by various scholars. One of the prominent studies, which is related to the focus of this study, is the study conducted by Neumann and Fahmy (2012) on "Analyzing the Spell of War: A War / Peace Framing Analysis of the 2009 Visual Coverage of the Sri Lanka Civil War in Western Newswires". In addition to that, the studis done by Lee and Maslog (2004, 2005 and 2009), Lee (2010), Maslog, Khan (2011), Mirza (2011), and Ozohu-Suleiman & Ishak (2012) are worth to mention.

Since this study is done by covering the final stage of Sri Lankan conflict, the phenomenon of war journalism cannot be applied here. This covers the last 19 days of the Operation and immediate aftermath. In such a background, well orchestrated war journalism could be seen in Sri Lankan media and in media all over the world. There was no space for negotiations or any other peace initiatives. During the last six (6) months of the Operation, almost all Sri Lankan media supported it. The end of the LTTE was visible and country was expecting the final news from the front lines. Therefore, newspapers were controlled by the public agenda. (Another study should be done to explore this phenomenon). This public agenda was clearly reflected by Sri Lankan media.

Before illustrate this public agenda, it is worth to discuss about the theoretical and conceptual framework of this study.

2.3. Theoretical and Conceptual Framework

The process by which the media place reality into frame; and the study of the process of framing is at the core of media analysis, hence the length of this entry. Entman (1993) argues that Media frame building occurs as journalists "select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item described."(pp. 51-58). This can be achieved in the media message by the "presence or absence of certain keywords, stock phrases, stereotyped images, sources of information, and sentences that provide thematically reinforcing clusters of facts or judgments" (Entman, 1993).

Framing constitutes a narrative device. Entman suggests that framing serves four main purposes: (1) to define problems; (2) to diagnose causes; (3) to make moral judgments; and (4) to suggest remedies. These will function varyingly according to the text, but they operate in four locations in the communication process: the communicator, the text, the receiver and the culture.

Tankard et al. (1991) described a media frame as "the central organizing idea for news content that supplies a context and suggests what the issue is through the use of selection, emphasis, exclusion and elaboration". Frames package key ideas, stock phrases, and stereotypical images to bolster a particular interpretation. Through repetition, placement and reinforcement, the texts and images that constitute the frame provide a dominant interpretation more readily perceivable, acceptable, and memorable than other interpretations.

At a practical level, framing is governed by professional conventions, indeed by ritual; newspapers are framed by deadlines and publication times. News reporting is more like telling a story about the world than presenting information, even though there are factual elements in the stories (Gamson, 1989). This story-telling process can be explained by the concept of framing.

The fact that different frames define an event or issue causes this same event or issue to be understood in different ways (Gandy, 2001). Consequently, framing analysis, by identifying the frames the message producers use, provides a way to understand how media structure messages and people’s perceptions of the messages (Miller & Riechert, 2001). Framing analysis is related to the research in gate keeping and agenda setting in that they are all concerned with the selection and salience (Scheufele, 1999).

Global news can also play a role as an agenda setting agent. As noted in a recent publication by International Media Support (2006): "the power of the media coverage has proved stronger than the will of governments. As international competition between increasingly globalized news corporations grew more incense, the international media begun to hunt in packs, seeking the next exclusive".

Drawing on the framing literature, a Transnational Comparative Framing Model (TCFM) was developed by Guo et al. (2012) with a "framing pool" which was composed of various frames (See, Figure 1). A researcher can use this "framing pool" to identify any cross-national frames. There are three categories in the framing pool: (1) generic frames, (2) domestic frames, and (3) issues-specific frames.

Figure 1: The Framing Pool

Framing Pool

Generic Frames

Domestic Frames

Issue - Specific Frames

Human Impact/Interest

Economic Consequences

Conflict

Etc.

Culture-driven

Ideology-driven

Political Position Driven

Media System Driven

News Coverage of Wars

Peace Frames

War Frames

Though a spectrum of frames related to the Humanitarian Operation in Sri Lanka; could be revealed across these all three (3) frame categories, the limited scope is this study forces the researcher to confine with "issue - specific" frames. Hence, more important and related frames that are coming under the "domestic" frames, such as "cultural - driven", "ideological - driven", "political position driven", and "media system driven" frames are not explored in this study. Due to the importance of those given up frames, researcher intends to deploy them during his discussion over the results of this study and in his conclusion. During the date exploration period of this study, as mentioned above, only the "issue specific" frames are investigated.

As clearly indicated in the "framing pool", the frames related with the news coverage of wars can be distinguished into "peace" and "war" frames. Since this study covers only the last 19 days of the Operation and immediate aftermath, searching about "peace" frames is inapplicable. Therefore, this study focuses only on "war" frames and they are resolved into two sub groups; as "just war frames" and "unjust war frames". This will be justified further in the literature review of this study.

2.3.1. Sri Lankan Media Frames

The media frames related to this conflict can be identified through the historical and cultural background of the problem. During the course of its history, Sri Lanka was suffered by many invasions, especially the attacks from the neighbouring Southern Indian Tamils. The traditional homeland of Tamils is considered as the Southernmost State of India – Tamil Nadu (literally, the Country of Tamils). One of Sri Lankan scholar highlighted this particular phenomenon in the country’s history as follows.

"Recorded history states that Sri Lanka was invaded as much as seventeen times by South Indian Dravidian Tamil speaking invaders since 230 BCE. Coming with armies of Tamils from South India they ruthlessly wiped out entire Sinhala villages along their way to Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa the royal capitals of the past. These highly prosperous Sinhala Buddhist capitals were ransacked and plundered and the people subject to untold atrocities. This was a part of Tamil invasions and occupation of our land for varying periods of time in the past. They killed Sinhala Kings or forced them to the retreat to the south. These Tamil invaders sat on the Sinhala throne and ruled over the Sinhala people for about 170 years at different times" (Hewapathirane, 2010).

In such a background, it is very easy to understand Sri Lanka media’s view on this particular conflict as another invasion from the neighbouring Tamil land. Therefore, one particular domestic frame arose from this historical background could be identified as the liberation frame.

The Liberation Frames (or Just War Frames)

The mostly applied frame by Sri Lankan media is the liberation frame. The Northern and the Eastern Provinces were under the LTTE rule for most of time during three decades of the conflict. During the course of history, Sri Lankan armies fought against Tamil invaders to liberate the country as mentioned above. This humanitarian operation was identified as another liberation operation by Sri Lankan media could be justified in such a background.

Defining the Problem

According to this aspect, the problem was defined as an invasion. Though LTTE spearheaded the "invasion", it was backed by the "invaders" in the State of Tamil Nadu and many other international forces who supported the "Tamil Cause". Even the Government of Norway which was acted as the international mediator; was considered as a supporter of the invasion. Suspicion was spread out to a broad scope covering the Government of India, the British Government, and the United States administration.

Therefore, the prevailed problem in Sri Lanka was identified as an invasion that was supported by many international players. Humanitarian Operation was launched to liberate the country from those "invaders".

Causal Interpretation

Though there were many allegations raised against the Governments of Sri Lanka since its independence, those all were not considered as the cause of the conflict. Following highlights the cause of the problem as a different one.

"How many would agree that the Eelaam struggle began in 1923 with Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam which evolved towards the 1931 demand for 50:50 representations when in reality the Tamil representation in terms of population was 70:30. The denial of this eventually led to the formation of Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (Tamil kingdom Party) in 1949." (Waduge, 2012)

Therefore, according to the leading voices in the country, the problem was caused by some other reasons but not discriminations against Tamils. In addition to that, LTTE was so adamant to lay down its arm though the Governments of Sri Lanka had acted their best to negotiate with them. This forced government to raise arms against the "invaders" at the last resort.

Moral Evaluation

In this background, the Humanitarian Operation was identified as a "just war". It has a "just cause". Any war may cause some wrongs to any side, it was followed by the rule of "comparative justice". The Government was the "competent authority". It worked with "right intention". It launched the operation with the "probability of success". Since, LTTE neglected all other options were offered by the Government, it was the "last resort".

Treatment Recommendations

After identifying the Humanitarian Operation as a just war, almost all Sri Lankan newspapers wholeheartedly supported it. Benefits of the Operation were highlighted. Victories were reported by giving priorities to other all "secondary" phenomena. Opposition was mocked. Critics became silent.

Operation was continued, victory achieved. At the end, country was liberated!

Therefore, during this study, this new concept of "liberation (just war) frame" is assessed and related terms will be defined to capture it. These newly defined terms are discussed in the section 2.4 with the relevant terms defined for the Western media frames.

2.3.2. The Western Media Frames

Most of the Western media looked at the conflict in Sri Lanka through their universal spectacles. This can be viewed through Wikipedia's narration about the conflict.

"The origins of the Sri Lankan Civil War lay in the continuous political rancour between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils. Before and during early part of the colonial rule by Europeans, Sri Lanka was under the rule of three separate kingdoms. War and peace was a status quo between nations, unlike the present status quo of war crimes and terrorism between majorities and minorities. During the colonial rule by Portuguese and then the Dutch, the three sovereign states were ruled as separate entities. The final British colonial rule amalgamated the entire island into a single administrative entity and the minorities were handed over to the mercy of the majority who were warring parties before the period of the European colonization. According to Jonathan Spencer, a social anthropologist from the School of Social and Political Studies of the University of Edinburgh, the war is an outcome of how modern ethnic identities have been made and re-made since the colonial period, with the political struggle between minority Tamils and the Sinhala-dominant government accompanied by rhetorical wars over archaeological sites and place name etymologies, and the political use of the national past." (OSLCW, 2012)

Therefore, this was a war between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils. Most of international media those were led by the Western media narrated the Operation through totally different frames.

The Unjust War Frames

The Western media looked at the Humanitarian Operation as an unjust war. According to their narration, the Operation was not a just war. To engage in a just war, the aggressive party should fulfil a criterion of seven elements (Grotius, 1625). He says (1) that there be a just cause; (2) that there is a right authority (legitimate sovereign) to initiate the war; (3) a right intention on the part of the parties using force; (4) that the resort to force be proportional; (5) that force be a last resort; (6) that war is undertaken with peace as its goal (not for its own sake); (7) and that there be a reasonable hope of success. Since the Western media did not highlight one of those elements, it is clear that, the problem was defined by them in a different way, interpreted and evaluated accordingly, and finally treated differently.

Defining the Problem

Because of above mentioned interpretation to the conflict, most of the Western countries - mainly the UK and the USA, did not welcome the Operation. Since the beginning of the war effort, the Government of Sri Lanka was asked to reconsider it and to enter the negotiations with the LTTE. This request was turned down and the Operation was continued. This could be identified with the first reports of the escalations of the fights in 2006. The closure of a sluice gate by the LTTE that was providing water to the farmers in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka, in July 2006, was prompted the first ground fighting since the 2002 ceasefire.

Sri Lankan artillery pounded Tamil Tiger territory hours after the rebels offered to give in to a key government demand to open a sluice gate providing water to government territory. ... Earlier in the day, after meeting peace envoy Hanssen-Bauer in Kilinochchi, Thamilselvan said the Tigers would unblock the sluice gate if fighting stopped and the government increased development in rebel areas. ... Hours later, a Reuters witness saw and heard the heaviest military artillery and multi-barrel rocket barrage for days fired from military bases in Trincomalee toward rebel territory. Smoke rose from a whole section of the horizon and the ground shook. (Reuters, August 6, 2006)

This dramatic news report highlights the views of the Western media since the first day of the Operation. This says "Sri Lankan artillery pounded Tamil Tiger territory hours after the rebels offered to give in to a key government demand". Therefore, as it can be clearly seen from this report, "the Government of Sri Lanka started the war", "it was unreasonable", and "it was not proportionate".

This study tries to capture the media frames were used by the Western media in such a background and those frames are identified here as the "unjust war frames".

Causal Interpretation

In 2002, the Government of Norway brokered a ceasefire agreement (CFA) between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE, Norway was named mediator in the agreement, and it was decided that they, together with the other Nordic countries, monitor the ceasefire through a committee of experts named the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM). Later, the government agreed to lift the ban on the LTTE and paved the way for the resumption of direct negotiations with the LTTE. In October 2005, Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse was elected as the country's president and after one month, the leader of the LTTE stated that the Tigers would "renew their struggle" in 2006 if the government did not take serious moves toward peace. Just days after this speech, a new round of violence was started and it was reached to a new height with the attack on the country's top military general, Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka on 25 April 2006. This incident was reported by the Western media with their interpretation.

The trigger for the apparent collapse in relations [between the Government and the LTTE] was the presidential election last November of Mahinda Rajapakse, who campaigned as a hardliner determined to protect the interests of the majority Buddhist, Sinhalese population. (The Guardian, April 26, 2006)

Hence, the interpretation of the Western media can be identified as "the election of a new Sinhalese president" had been caused to the "growing violence in recent days" [during the first four months on the year 2006].

Moral Evaluation

As the Western media noticed, the new round of violence was caused because of the election of "a hardliner" as the country's president; the Humanitarian Operation could not be evaluated as a just war. According to them, the war that had been launched by the LTTE was to gain the "independence to secure a homeland for Sri Lanka's 3 million minority Tamils" because "they were discriminated against by the majority population" (ibid).

Treatment Recommendations

Since it was an unjust war, as the Western media have seen it, the Humanitarian Operation was a process to be stopped and to be condemned. Therefore, the faults of the Operation were highlighted and it was treated and narrated as a negative exercise.

Because of this background, the new concept of "unjust war frame" is examined and measured. Terms related to this concept are also discussed in the following section with the "just war frame" that was defined for the local media.

2.5. Definition of Terms

The definitions below are premised on the importance of journalists understanding the Humanitarian Operation because what they report will contribute to the momentum toward the professional conducts of the conflict journalism.

Liberation Oriented (LO):

Since the Humanitarian Operation in Sri Lanka was identified as a just war by local media, the journalistic approach was to report it could be identified with the terms related to the peace journalism: a) Peace-orientated; b) Truth-orientated; c) People-orientated and d) Solution-orientated.

War Journalism (WJ):

When a war was wagging against an evil party, the identification with one or the home side of the conflict; military triumphalism language; an action-oriented focus; and a superficial narrative with little context, background or historical perspective cannot be avoided. Therefore, in this study, the terms of war journalism are also explored: towards violence; towards propaganda; towards elites and towards victory.

Peace Oriented:

A war (just or unjust) is not a general win/win operation. Therefore, the peace oriented terms such as general win/win orientation, open space, open time; causes and outcomes anywhere, also in history/culture, making conflicts transparent, giving voice to all parties; empathy, understanding, see conflict/war as problem, focus on conflict creativity (Lynch and McGoldrick, 2000) would not be identified during the last 19 days of the Operation and immediate aftermath. Therefore, in this study, it is not expected to explore such terms.

Truth Oriented:

The expose untruths on all sides of the issue and it uncover all cover-ups (Lynch and Mc Goldrick, 2000). Therefore, in this study, the way of the news coverage was presented by focusing on both sides of the issue is expected to be revealed.

People Oriented:

It focuses on suffering all over; on women, aged, children, giving voice to the voiceless, gives name to all evil-doers, and focus on people peace-makers (Lynch and Mc Goldrick, 2000). In this study, the news coverage that was framed towards the freedom of the people is explored.

Solution Oriented:

It could be highlighted the peace hopes though the reports were mainly focused on a war, and therefore, it is expected to capture the terms related to the culture, the peaceful society, and aftermath: resolution, reconstruction, reconciliation etc. In this study, the news coverage that was focused on what should be done after the conflict issues is also examined because this explores the final few days of the Operation and immediate aftermath.

Violence Oriented:

It focuses on conflict arena, 2 parties, 1 goal (win), war general zero sum orientation, closed space, closed time; causes and exits in arena, who threw the first stone making wars opaque/secret, "us - them" journalism, propaganda, voice, for "us", see "them" as the problem, focus on who prevails in war, dehumanization of "them"; more so the worse the weapon, reactive: waiting for violence before reporting, focus only on visible effect of violence: killed, wounded and material damage (Lynch and McGoldrick, 2000). This study tries to explore the reports of casualties as reported by the domestic and other media under investigation.

Propaganda Oriented:

It exposes "their" untruths about the issue and helps "our" cover-ups / lies (Lynch and McGoldrick, 2000). In this study, the news coverage focusing on one side of the issue and imbalance of facts are presented.

Elite Oriented:

It focuses on "our" suffering; on able-bodied elite males, being their mouth-piece, gives name of their evil-doer, focus on elite peace makers (Lynch and McGoldrick, 2000). In this study, the news coverage focusing on the heroes and famous involved and talking about their enemies and how and what steps they will do about it are also expected to capture.

Victory Oriented:

It highlights the victory is at hand, it focuses on treaty, institution, the controlled society, leaving for another war, return if the old flares up (Lynch and McGoldrick, 2000). In this study, the news coverage on who won in the battle field, and threatens their enemies if this conflict will happen again are also explored.

2.6 Research Hypotheses

H1: There is a significant difference between the war reporting approach of the Humanitarian Operation portrayed by Chinese and the UK media.

H2: Chinese media portrayals of the Humanitarian Operation are closer to those of Sri Lankan media than those of the UK media.

Research Design

3.1. Population/sample

The Period: May 2009 (One Month)

This period is selected because of the Humanitarian Operation was concluded on 19th May, 2009.

Media to be assessed:

Daily News (for Sri Lankan media)

Xinhua (for Chinese media)

BBC and The Guardian (for the UK media)

3.2. Data collecting Techniques:

Quantitative

3.3. Data Analysis techniques

Quantitative Content Analysis

The following steps will be followed during the conduct of this research:

Coders:

The researcher will assign two coders to carry out a content analysis of this study.

Content Analysis Procedure:

The coders will be followed the procedures used by Lynch and Peer (2002) on "Analyzing newspaper content: A How-To Guide" from the Readership Institute: Media Management Center at Northwestern University.

Validation of the Codes:

The proponent of this research corroborated the coding sheets against the news articles of the coders for validity of the news content analysis.

Statistical Treatment:

The researcher will tally the codes of the coders using an appropriate statistics that are presented below.

Interpretation of the Codes:

The researcher will carefully interpret the result of the summary of all the codes done by the coders.

Statistical Treatment of the Data

The following statistical tools will be used in the study:

Frequency:

This will be used to determine the repetition of the stories. In this study, the term is used to identify the number of conflict stories in the UK and Chinese media, in parallel with Sri Lankan media reports.

Mean:

This statistical tool will be used to measure the average of the conflict stories according to categories, treatments and approaches.

Percentage:

This is used to determine the fractional equivalent of the frequency of the stories published. In this study, the term is used to get the percentage of the number of conflict stories in all the news of the UK and Chinese media, in parallel with Sri Lankan media reports.

Chi Square:

In this study, Chi-square will be used to determine the significant difference between the number of conflict stories in all the news of the UK and Chinese media, in parallel with Sri Lankan media reports.

Instruments

The code sheet will be divided into two (2) parts.

The coders will classify the reported news according to the following:

Part I: The Just War Frames

Pertained to classify the conflict stories as follows:

Liberation Oriented

Truth Oriented

People Oriented

War Oriented

Propaganda Oriented

Elite Oriented

Victory Oriented

Solution Oriented

Part II: The Unjust War Frames

Pertained to classify the conflict stories as follows:

Violence Oriented

Crime Oriented

Atrocities Oriented

Propaganda Oriented

Rights Oriented

(Note: This code sheet will be further developed before the end of this month - January 2013)

Action Plan of Study

Task - Time Frame

Develop Research Proposal and obtain approval - 20 January 2013

Data collection and analysis - 28 February 2013

First Draft - 31 March 2013

Second Draft - 15 May 2013

Final Research Report - 15 June 2013