• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.44
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• pp.144-179
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• 2008

This paper explores the formation of global responsibility discourses in the elite US media used in promoting NATO's military interventions in the post-Cold War era. The case study of global responsibility discourses surrounding the Bosnian War (1992-1995) and the Kosovo Conflict (1998-1999) offers an account of the roles of the elite US media in foreign policy. The construction and articulation of global responsibility discourses in the elite US media were closely related to the US government's policy and were formed within the framework of US national interest and domestic responsibility. The cases of military intervention in the post-Cold War period imply that there were more fundamental structure and patterns by which the elite US media approached the 'humanitarian crises': 'benevolent domination' and the subsequent construction of a 'melodramatic national identity' in the war narratives. Presuming that the elite US media's discourse is a primary site for the public for experiencing and understanding distant suffering, this paper concludes that global responsibility discourses within the media may have dangerous ramifications for global democracy because the discourse of responsibility can potentially absorb the creative, progressive energies created by the public's awareness of responsibility on a global scale in order to reinforce the relations of domination.