I'm trying to assess the degree to which U.S. media coverage of the
war in Iraq provided Americans with information needed to understand
the nature of the war and its likely consequences. One way to assess
this would be to measure how many Americans know the answers to basic
questions such as:

* What is the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite Muslim?
* What are the main ethnic groups in the country?
* What countries neighbor Iraq?
* What rivalries and shared interests does Iraq have with its
neighboring countries?

Of course, this is just a representative sample of possible questions
that could be asked. I'm looking for any surveys that have been done
along these lines, especially surveys that attempt to correlate TV
watching with knowledge of these sorts of facts.

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Request for Question Clarification by politicalguru-ga on 05 May 2003 07:59 PDT

Dear Sheldon,

I emailed a professor who conducted such a survey and I am now waiting
for his response.

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Clarification of Question by sheldon-ga on 05 May 2003 20:09 PDT

To clarify my question: I am NOT looking for answers to the question
of how well Americans understand their own MOTIVATIONS for occupying
Iraq. I am looking for ways to assess how well Americans (or, for that
matter, our leaders) understand the actual cultural, social, economic
and political realities of the country they are occupying.

---

Request for Question Clarification by politicalguru-ga on 06 May 2003 00:54 PDT

I understood your question perfectly, and found some sources. However,
since most of the information I found is not statistically or
scientifically viable, I am still waiting for this professor's answer.
According to an abstract and a news release, his survey found a
correlation between the level of knowledge about Iraq and the level of
support in a military action.

This is not helpful, but I do not think these are "basic questions".
The regular American would never be able to answer them. Surveys done
with Americans about War have much simpler questions than these

If those questions aren't "basic," what are?

Examples of basic questions:

* Why did the U.S. go to war with Iraq?
* Which countries were allied with the U.S.? Which weren't? 
* What challenges lie ahead in the rebuilding of Iraq?

This quiz seems to be on several (mostlt newspaper) websites:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-iraqprofile-quiz,0,167763.triviaquiz?coll=chi-news-hed
and seems to ask some "basic" questions. 
But I didn't see any results on the 3 or 4 sites I looked at.

I would say that those questions are quite a bit LESS basic, and
certainly much less about Iraq, than the sample questions in my
question as posted. "Why did the US go to war with Iraq?" is a
question about US motives that begs an extended essay rather than a
straightforward answer and which moreover can be answered without
knowing anything about the country itself. It's really a question
about the United States, not about Iraq. "Which countries were allied
with the US?" is a fairly straightforward question but still more
complicated than "Which countries neighbor Iraq?" or "What's the
difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?" Once again, it's really a
question about the United States, not about Iraq.

Finally, "What challenges lie ahead?" is so open-ended, subjective and
complex that I don't see how anyone can call it "basic." Among the
list of answers to "what challenges lie ahead," surely even a
minimally informed person would have to say, "preventing an outbreak
of ethnic strife between and within Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish groups"
-- but of course, no one could even POSE that answer without some
understanding of the differences between those groups. It is therefore
obviously a question that is considerably LESS basic in terms of
understanding Iraq than my sample question of "What's the difference
between a Sunni and a Shiite?"

The questions I offered might be answered in an elaborate essay but
not necessarily so. I guess the confusion lies in the framework of the
question. You asked how well Americans understand Iraq, but you then
asked it in relation to the nature of the war. On this basis the
answer would most likely be "negligible".

Most sources did not cover the questions you asked about except in
passing reference. For the kind of in-depth socio-economic and
geographical questions you posed we would need to look to a source
such as National Geographic or maybe The Economist and then pose a
survey to determine how much information was retained.

factsman, "What countries neighbor Iraq?" is an "in-depth" geographical question?

It's not in-depth for me. As you probably know, Geography doesn't only
cover locations of countries, but also it's products, climate, and
inhabitants. Some of the other questions mentioned would crossover
into this category. I would expect the average American to get one or
two neighboring countries correct, but not all of them. Don't believe
me? Take a look at a survey done of 2002 college seniors. The
questions applicable are located under "General Knowledge".

http://www.nas.org/reports/senior_poll/senior_poll_report.pdf

It seems to be that what factsman-ga is saying suggests that most
Americans are appallingly ignorant about the country they think
they're helping liberate and that several weeks of heavy media
coverage have done little to educate them. That's a disturbing answer,
but I'm willing to accept it if it's true. However, what I'm really
looking for is something more than a subjective opinion on this point.
I'm looking for surveys or other research with which to make an
assessment.

Prior to the war, 87 per cent of Americans between the ages of 18 and
24 could not find Iraq on a map in one survey. In a separate survey,
44 per cent believed that a majority of the 9/11 hijackers were
Iraqis, while another 6 per cent believed that at least some were: in
fact, none were from Iraq.

Those results seem to indicate a general intellectual laziness about
the subject.

hlabadie-ga

Hi Sheldon,

Your point is well-taken. 

Those ARE good questions. And there is no 
reason that reporters and analysts should 
not have been talking about those things. 
But, they didn't. 

About the only thing that many Americans
might know, if they/we were watching, are
Iraq's neighbors - maps kept flashing on
the screen constantly.

As for me, I just kept getting chills every
time they mentioned the Tigris. It just brings
back memories of the cradle of civilization and
the fertile crescent - and how advanced that
area of the world was 3,000 years ago. It was
a major center of Western civilization and 
education.

Now, it's people are cloistered and shut out
from the world. 

They may as well be aliens, as far as our frame
of reference is concerned. We will never understand
their perspective - without much attention and 
patience. We can only hope that they can understand 
ours. 

Best wishes

Your TaxMama-ga

Taxmama -- Reporters and analysts in many newspapers did explain those
things. I subscribe to two daily newspapers, and both of them
extensive maps and other background information on Iraq.  The problem
is that too many people get most of their news from TV, which (at
least what I saw) didn't provide adequate background information nor
the variety of perspectives that the print media did.
http://peacefaith.com/articles/media_and_iraq_war0303.html