Part 2 of 3 completed...
Posted by Jessica in Graduate school, MPA, public policy
As you all know, I passed my master's comps and received a case I have been working on for the last 2 weeks. This morning I turned it in. On monday morning, at 9am, I will present my case to my graduate committee and defend my decisions. Wish me luck!
This weekend I will be putting the finishing touches on a paper that I have been working on all semester in my policy class. The paper started out investigating the relationship between public opinion of the Iraq War and media coverage, but I decided to change the direction of the paper based on an assignment in the class. We started out writing a paper and then turn in this paper, expanded, three separate times this semester. Each time, adding a new area, one of the new areas I needed to add made me realize I needed to change the paper. So, now I am looking at 9/11 and the possibility that it provided a "focusing event" that was used by the Bush Administration to invade and occupy Iraq. Okay, seriously, is there any doubt that 9/11 was used to justify the invasion? Here is an excerpt from my paper:
"Without the attacks on September 11, 2001, would public support have been high enough for the Bush Administration to push the war? The attacks brought the issue of terrorism to the forefront of American minds. Many Americans believed Iraq was connected to 9/11 and terrorism in general. Because of this, Americans were more willing to support the War in Iraq as an extension of the war on terror. An act of terrorism on American soil, a rare event indeed, was a dramatic news event, one that Lawrence and Birkland would include as something that would drive an issue to the top of the governmental and media agendas. Aside from driving an issue to the top of the governmental and media agendas, did the 9/11 attacks and War in Iraq become another example of Kingdon’s three streams theory?"
