The shooting down of KAL Flight 007, a South Korean airliner, by a Soviet jet fighter, and the resulting deaths of the 269 people on board, has brought into focus the Reagan's administration's equivocal relationship with the Soviet Union, provided insights into the channels of power in the Soviet military hierarchy, and led other nations to concentrate on international codes of conduct for the superpowers. A study explored in detail one of the first news reports about the flight. In addition, the study examined United States representations of the Soviet Union, and more broadly, the relationship of news to cultural life. The first account of the shooting of Flight 007 in the "New York Times" (September 2, 1983) was analyzed by using Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutic approach. The analysis found that in the "New York Times" report, the international incident: (1) was portrayed in the narrow context of United States affairs, (2) was firmly grounded in American culture; (3) gave heavy emphasis to American officials, American reactions, and possible American reprisals; and (4) affirmed a dominant United States role in world affairs. The analysis also revealed that the report could be seen as a drama of victimage that creates and then castigates an enemy shared by a group in a dramatic enactment that offers integration, identification, and social cohesion. (Thirty-one references are included, and the "New York Times" article is appended.) (MS)