The Social Construction of Death in the Gulf War

Abstract

Military and media reports indicated that the Gulf War was characterized by a striking absence of death. This article applies a social construction of reality paradigm to explain why and how media reports facilitated denial of death in the Gulf War and suggests a psychological mechanism to explain why this social construction may have been particularly effective. A content analysis was conducted of war-related stories in the New York Times for the duration of the Gulf War, giving special attention to direct and indirect references to death and killing. This analysis reveals four major themes: 1) rhetorical devices that distance the reader from death and encourage denial of death in the war; 2) official denial of responsibility for war-related deaths and reassurance to the public that death would be “minimal,” 3) rhetoric that prepares the public for death in war and to view the deaths to come as just, and 4) ambiguity and uncertainty about the actual death toll from the war.