Scan Lines: The Gulf War, Memory, and the 24-hour News Cycle of Network News

Abstract

CNN’s coverage of the Gulf War is the defining media event of the early 1990s. It was the moment of an unprecedented paradigm shift in how conflict is reported on and broadcast, and on the relationship between broadcaster and the state. The narratives constructed through CNN’s coverage would go on to be lasting parts of the public memory of the Gulf War, and while many of these narratives are contested, even into the contemporary memory of the conflict, CNN’s impact in the creation of that public memory cannot be overstated. Scan Lines explores the impact of CNN’s live coverage from Baghdad and throughout Iraq and Kuwait during the First Persian Gulf War, show how it is challenged and supported in the American public memory of the war, and examines the broader implications of around-the-clock broadcast news on American public memory.