"We Are Not Getting the Good Stories Out"

Québec Media Coverage and NATO's Strategic Narrative for the International Assistance and Security Force (ISAF)

Abstract

The purpose of NATO’s strategic communications is to inform and influence key audiences into supporting its decisions and operations. High levels of opposition to NATO-led ISAF mission (2003-2014) supported the view held by some observers that NATO had lost the strategic communication campaign in Afghanistan. Within Canada, one of ISAF’s main contributors, the province of Quebec had comparatively higher levels of opposition than the rest of the country. This paper evaluates whether Quebec media effectively relayed NATO’s strategic narrative for the mission. The first part of this study uses NATO internal communications products to establish the core messages of the ISAF narrative in different time periods. The second part surveys the main themes in the coverage of ISAF in Quebec’s main newspapers and TV shows. The major finding of this paper is that there was an effective dissemination of the NATO narrative in Quebec media, yet exposition to this narrative did not translate into higher levels of public support for the mission.