There are a number of interesting media studies about the toppling at Firdos Square. The best was done by a George Washington University team led by professor Sean Aday; entitled “As Goes the Statue, So Goes the War: The Emergence of the Victory Frame in Television Coverage of the Iraq War,” you can download the study by clicking here. Deborah Jaramillo, a Boston University professor, wrote a useful book, “Ugly War, Pretty Package: How CNN and Fox News Made the Invasion of Iraq High Concept,” which is available on Amazon.com. Another useful study is “Shoot First and Ask Questions Later: Media Coverage of the 2003 Iraq War,” which is also available on Amazon.com. Shahira Fahmy, at the University of Arizona, wrote “They Took It Down: Exploring Determinants of Visual Reporting in the Toppling of the Saddam Statue in National and International Newspapers,” which can be accessed here. Svetlana Boym, a professor at Harvard whom I quote in my story, writes insightfully about monuments and memories in “The Future of Nostalgia.” Last but not least, Lucia Allais is a smart Princeton scholar on the history and theory of architecture.
