Agenda Setting Theory and International News: A Comparative Analysis of News Articles Coverage on Iraq War in Malaysian English Newspapers

The main purpose of the paper is to discuss the application of Agenda Setting Theory in the publication of news about Iraq war in - the New Straits Times press (NSTP) and the Star. This study examines a longitudinal content analysis of 535 news through three periods (before, during and after the occupation of Iraq). The result of this study shows that NSTP gave more emphasis to the issue of the policy of unipolar for the United States while the Star gave more emphasis to the issue of Iraqi suffering. Thus, this study can shed some light on how Eastern country views Iraq and this perhaps could help Iraq reform its image by expanding the scope of diplomatic, business and cultural actions. This study provides support to the theoretical proposition that the media are not successful in telling the audience what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling the audience what to think about (first level of Agenda Setting). This study also provides support to the theoretical proposition that differences in media organizations have profound impact on how the important issues are framed.