The Armenia–Azerbaijan conflict through the prism of the British media and The New York Times, 1988–1994

Abstract

This article applies discourse analysis to examine the coverage of the Armenia–Azerbaijan conflict by the leading British media outlets, such as BBC TV, The Guardian, The Times, The Financial Times and The Independent from February 1988, which is the widely accepted date of the start of the current stage of the conflict, to May 1994, when a ceasefire agreement was signed, and to compare it with the coverage of the conflict by The New York Times. It argues that the coverage of the conflict by the studied British and the US media outlets was influenced by such factors as the sources of information of correspondents, the Cold War, the Iranian Revolution, riots in the UK and the USA, perestroika and glasnost in the Soviet Union, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the new realities it brought. The article contributes to a better understanding of Western media coverage of different conflicts around the world, Western media practices and their impact on Western public opinion.