Authors

• Advisory Board for Defence Information (ABDI)

Keywords

Iraq, mass media, public opinion, war, warfare

Abstract

The survey studied Finnish attitudes towards the war against Iraq and public opinion on the media coverage of the war. The coalition led by the United States had started the war a month prior to the data collection and major battles were already over. Respondents were asked whether they support the attack on Iraq and whether they had been able to get a reliable picture of the war from the media. Respondents evaluated the objectivity of the press (national daily newspapers, regional newspapers and tabloids), radio channels (Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE and local radio stations) and television channels (YLE, MTV3 and NELONEN) in this issue. Background variables included the respondent's sex, age, region of residence, education, employment status, household composition, annual gross income of the household and party choice in the 2003 parliamentary elections.