1. Media Construction of War
PowerPoint Slide Show
Gulf War

2. Directions
Individually read the handout – “A Short History of the Gulf War: 1991”
As a group, go through the slides. Answer all of the questions on your own piece of paper.
Make sure to answer all questions in complete sentences with evidence.
Individually answer questions 1-16 on the assessment sheet

3. 18. What messages does this cover from December 1990 give about the upcoming
war in the Gulf? What is your evidence?

4. What messages about the Iraqi leader are 19
What messages about the Iraqi leader are
communicated in this 1991 Newsweek cover?
How are those messages communicated?

5. What messages about the war are communicated? What is your evidence?20
What messages about the war are communicated?
What is your evidence?
Why might the U.S. military provide photos
like this to Newsweek?

6. What messages about the war are communicated? What is your evidence?21

7. Is there a pro-war or anti-war bias to this 22
Is there a pro-war or anti-war bias to this
cover? What is your evidence?
Why do you suppose U.S. public opinion shifted
so quickly to support the war once the bombs
started dropping?

8. What messages about the war are communicated 23
What messages about the war are communicated
by this cover showing an American
POW? What is your evidence?
Is it likely that Newsweek would have run a
large cover photo showing the face of an Iraqi
soldier or civilian injured by American forces?

9. What messages about the war are communicated? What is your evidence?24
What messages about the war are communicated?
What is your evidence?
Why might the U.S. military provide photos
like this to Newsweek?

10. How does the inclusion of Saddam Hussein’s image on this page help to justify, or at least explain, the killing of innocent civilians? 25

11. What messages about the war are communicated?
What is your evidence? What does the writer mean that the Gulf War “exorcised the ghost of Vietnam”? 26

12. What messages about the war are communicated? What is your evidence?27
What messages about the war are communicated?
What is your evidence?

13. What messages about the war are communicated in these very different images?28

14. What messages about the war are communicated? What is your evidence?29

15. What does this cover communicate about the 30
What does this cover communicate about the
situation in Iraq in March of 1991?