The media, the Gulf War and Iraq is the topic for next installment of Syracuse University’s Iraqi forum

The media, the Gulf War and Iraq is the topic for next installment of Syracuse University’s Iraqi forumJanuary 23, 2003Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

The way in which the media covered the Gulf War in 1991 and the coverage of the current situation in Iraq, 12 years later, will be discussed during the next installment of the “Syracuse University Forum: War in Iraq” on Thursday, Jan. 30 at 7 p.m. in Studio A of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. The forum is open to the University and greater Syracuse communities. Those attending should use the Waverly Avenue entrance to the building.

“Media Coverage of the War” will feature Joan Deppa and Francis Ward, associate professors in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications; and Frederick “Bill” Smullen, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, deputy director of the National Security Studies Program in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and professor of public relations in the Newhouse School. The moderator will be Steve Davis, visiting professor in the Newhouse School and former national editor of USA Today.

“Given that the American people are getting virtually all their information about a potential war in Iraq from the media, how the press is covering the lead up to the war is important to understand and analyze,” says Joel Kaplan, associate professor and chair of the newspaper department in the Newhouse School and a member of the forum organizing committee.

“Interestingly, the press is being attacked from both sides,’ Kaplan says. “The right is accusing members of the media of being unpatriotic and harmful to America’s interest. The left insists the media is ignoring a growing chorus of anti-war demonstrations and is being a lapdog, not a watchdog, of this administration. Meanwhile, members of the press are trying to report the news from an administration that is considered the most secretive of any in history. The Bush administration has promised more access to the battlefield if war does come. Whether that will actually happen remains to be seen.”

The series will continue on Feb. 13 with “War in Iraq: Implications for Foreign Policy.” Subsequent forums will be held on Feb. 27 (“War and the Many Faces of Civil Liberties”), March 20 and April 3 (topics for both will be determined as events dictate).

Deppa is the principal author of “The Media and Disasters: Pan Am 103” (New York University Press, 1994). The book, written with three of her colleagues in the Newhouse School, examines how the media covered the 1988 crash of Pan Am Flight 103 in Lockerbie, Scotland. Her research since has expanded to encompass issues related to communications about other catastrophic events.

She spent more than 16 years as a newspaper and wire service journalist, including seven years in Europe as a correspondent and editor for United Press International.

Ward has been a member of the Newhouse School faculty since 1990, where he teaches courses in news writing and reporting and journalism ethics. His previous experience includes writing for Ebony and Jet magazines, the Los Angeles Times and the Miami Herald, WHUT-TV in Washington, D.C., and five years as an assistant press secretary in the city of Chicago government.

Smullen joined SU in September. A professional soldier for 30 years, he was a media relations office for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from 1974-77. He served in a series of public affairs positions at the Pentagon, and later became public affairs assistant to then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. William Crowe Jr., and Crowe’s successor, Gen. Powell. Upon his (and Powell’s) retirement, Smullen helped Powell compile his memoirs. “My American Journey” was published in 1995. He continued as Powell’s chief of staff during Powell’s appointments as chair of America’s Promise-The Alliance for Youth and as Secretary of State. Smullen resigned from the Department of State last fall to accept his current appointments at SU.