Said點出文化霸權下的東方主義現象:西方掌握對東方的詮釋權,而在國際傳播的相關研究中亦發現媒體間議程設定現象:第一世界媒體設定各國媒體的議程。在台灣媒體報導國際新聞高度仰賴外電的情況下,台灣三大報對於「美國醞釀出兵伊拉克」的報導是否受到國際傳播中,媒體間議程設定的影響,並進而複製了第一世界媒體的他者再現? 本論文透過新聞主題與消息來源統計,以及批判論述分析進行探究,發現:三大報對於此事件的報導的確受到特定地區、特定媒體,也就是美國媒體,尤其是《紐約時報》及《華盛頓郵報》的議程設定。並且在龐大文化支配結構的影響下,三大報沿用第一世界支配伊拉克的觀點,誤認我們與第一世界同屬相對於伊斯蘭「他者」(the Other)的「同一」(the same)身份位階。不過,三大報亦大量引用本地記者與特派記者的稿件,可見台灣媒體也試圖發展對國際事務的自主性觀點,並非一味接受第一世界的議程設定。
According to Said, the construction of Orientalism is operated under the mechanism of cultural hegemony -- where the West controls the power of interpretation toward “the Orient”. Researches in the field of international communication also found a similar operation in intermedia agenda-setting: the media of First world set agendas for the media of the Rest. While Taiwan’s media highly depend on foreign wire service on international news stories, it is possible that Taiwan’s three major newspapers are also affected by the international intermedia agenda-setting, and therefore duplicate First World media’s “representation of the Other” when reporting the stories on American government’s justification of sending out troops to Iraq. Through the methods of cross-table statistics on news themes and news sources, the applying critical discourse analysis to futher explore the discourse of “the Other” in Taiwanese newspapers reporting on the eve of the second Iraqi War, this thesis found that three major newspapers’ news agendas are indeed set by certain geo-political areas and certain media, which refers to US media, especially the New York Times and Washington Post when reporting this issue. Under international mass media system, the three major newspapers took the viewpoints that the First world have on Iraq, thinking that Taiwan is at “the same” world system status along with the First world, which regards the Islam as “the Other”. However, the three major newspapers also use a large number of articles by local journalists and correspondents, indicating that Taiwan’s media are also trying to develop autonomous viewpoints toward international affairs, not just receiving the agendas set by the First world.