A study investigated three United States and three foreign newspapers to determine the direction or bias of coverage of the 1983 Korean Airline (KAL) incident and any differences in coverage. It was hypothesized (1) that the amount of space allotted to the story in U. S. newspapers would be greater than that in foreign newspapers; (2) that there would be no significant differences in the direction of the news stories among the six newspapers; and (3) that the percentage of news stories containing harsh descriptions of Soviet actions would be significantly greater than the percentage of stories reporting only the general facts of the incident. The newspapers that met the criteria established for selection (related to size, frequency of publication--and for the foreign papers--geographic location) were "The New York Times,""The Washington Post,""The Chicago Tribune,""The Times" (London), "The Arab News," and "The Korea Herald." One hundred ninety-two news stories that reported the KAL story between September 2 and 11, 1983, were content analyzed and coded. Hypothesis one was not supported. The six newspapers selected gave their readers a total of 6,218 square inches of KAL news, of which 39.1% represented U. S. publications. Hypothesis two was supported--there were no significant differences among the six newspapers in the direction of news stories. Hypothesis three was also supported. News stories containing harsh descriptions of the Soviet action were more prevalent than stories reporting only the general facts of the incident. (Tables of data are included, and notes are attached.) (NKA)