Media Change In Mass Media

The understanding that people have of war today is significantly different because of modern mass media platforms. Movies have played a role in the portrayal of the experiences of soldiers in combat. In the beginning of “The Sniper” you can see the soldier in the movie decide to kill a young native child that is potentially a suicide bomber. You can read the thoughts of the sniper just by analyzing the expression on his face and his actions. It’s so realistic that you can feel the suspense of the scene and you can argue the ethics of war in your mind. You begin to think if the soldier should kill the child or not. You can imagine the guilt that he will face if he were to kill the child and the guilt he would face if he didn’t kill the child.

After viewing the documentary film ‘The War You Don’t See’ by John Pilger, my previous feelings towards the war and the way people are treated grew more immense as I felt more informed as to what was going on behind closed doors. I have always found the thought of war pointless, destructive and inhumane, this documentary supports my previous attitudes. The way certain media associations manipulate and hide the truth is a scary thought, this film shows how the media lacks honesty on a destructive level. How can one take a position and make an informed decision towards what they should do or how they should react towards these global issues? They can’t, it is impossible to make an informed decision when one is not told the whole truth. ‘The War You Don’t See’ also informs the viewers to see how poorly the innocent civilians are treated and in many cases how their lack of rights results in cruel deaths. Pilger presents these issues to the viewers of this film in a way which looks down upon the people of the military and media and sympathise toward those innocent civilians of these war stricken countries, which I personally strongly support and am left feeling pleased with Pilger’s work.

Tim O’Brien reminds us that true war stories are never moral. A war story is true if it is obscene and evil, with no virtue. A true war story will have no examples of the way humans should behave (514). The contributing authors absolutely influence the perception of the war, their works are meaningful, powerful. Further, we have the luxury of 20/20 hindsight and a PBS documentary that took 10 years to complete to consider when forming our opinion. Personally, I am grateful for the influence media and writings have on perceptions of warfare. I am coming to understand my grandfather who served in the Navy and the biases he brought home from the war. While I disagree with them, I am beginning to see where they originate from and why even at the

Mass media spreads propaganda about the war to calm the citizens. Jets constantly fly overhead and men die routinely, yet leaders discourage thoughts of war to create the illusion of a perfect society . Cheerful diversion surrounds lies about the

As wars continue, the typical response from people living in the countries involved in the war becomes that the war was a misunderstanding and that they should have avoided it at all costs. This has occurred throughout history, and even becomes a projecting part of today’s literature. The psychological path bestowed in William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, shows that

War is truly a horrific event that unfortunately occurs in our world frequently. There are a variety of ethical questions surrounding war, such as how much should citizens know about the fighting? When it comes to reporting the news, it is the goal of the network to report the news first. The benefit to this is people will turn to them first when it comes to breaking stories. However if the news is delivered based on speed and not accuracy this can be harmful to society. War is a very serious event and should not be taken lightly. Therefore, reporters must make sure facts are correct and unbiased. In both the Vietnam War and our current war we see reporters going to extreme measures to be the first

The Vietnam War was a war of mass destruction, leaving Vietnam to become bitterly divided and claiming the many lives of Vietnamese civilians as well as American soldiers. Out of all the wars in American history, the Vietnam War was the first war to be broadly televised and covered by the media. It came to be known as the first “Television War”. Journalists began to pour into Vietnam from all over the nation, to cover the lives of the American Soldiers as well as Vietnamese civilians. As television brought horrendous images of the war into American living rooms, the perception of an American solider as a hero slowly became the image of the American enemy. Thus, the media is a major factor that

When analyzing the Vietnam war it is clear that the press had a significant role in helping bring the conflict to an end. Largely, this was the result of the gruesome reports and images that the networks chose to air and the public’s corresponding opposition to the war. To understand this relationship, and hence helping to end the war, it is necessary to look at three distinct areas. These include the reason that the press chose to air gruesome reports, specific reports that outraged the public, and examples of the corresponding changes in public opinion.

“Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room.” Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian philosopher of communication theory, told the Montreal Gazette in 1975. Vietnam is often referred to as the television war and it’s been widely said that the outcome of the war was decided not on the battle field but on the television screen. Today I will be exploring the extent to which media reporting on the Tet Offensive influenced US crucial decision making in 1968. The aspects that I will be investigating are; the media coverage of the war and it’s influence on public opinion as well as how the result of these two aspects impacted on how the government formed their decisions.

A socioeconomic development that occurred which greatly contributed to the war mentality found in Europe was the newspaper and press. Newspapers were dated to create a sense of time and to show that multiple events were happening simultaneously in order to create a sense of connection and singularity as illustrated in Imagined Communities documentary. The power of the press was

Technological advancements in the past few decades established tremendous accomplishments and developments in the methods used to distribute information to people in various parts of the world. Whether it be through television news, radio, social media, or the numerous other available sources, most individuals retain access to news regarding the myriad of ongoings around the world. Nevertheless, the sources of these reports are often unknown, and at times unreliable. Well-meaning but misguided consumers of the news often believe all information presented to them and assume its accuracy. However, these assumptions bring great danger, and their continuation will ultimately lead to an ignorant, dystopian society such as the one represented in Brave New World.

The media saw a need to cater to those who opposed the war for the first time. The conflict was taking place in a remote area, and apart from conscription, there was little threat to the security of the citizen or state. (79)

When someone thinks of war they do not think of sunsets and rainbows, they think of death and destruction. The propaganda surrounding war however, tries to make civilians think war is an amazing place. In Stephen Crane’s poem, “War Is Kind,” Crane tells the horrors of war, but then says it is okay because war is kind. Crane makes the reading think about how all this horrible things happen, but yet the media still tries to say war is safe and the military is a great place to make money and travel the world. The media does not tell you the consequences of war, just tries to sell you on the positives.

Since my research deals with a conflict situation in the context of international politics, those studies that have dealt with similar issues are the ones that are most relevant to me. One such study was conducted by Maslog, Seow and Hun and published in Asian Journal of communication. The researchers looked at the how newspapers in five Asian countries covered the Iraq war. The study concluded that newspapers from non-muslim countries emphasized War journalism frame, and generally supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq, while newspapers from muslim counries opposed the invasion and emphasized Peace journalism frame. Reseachers found that ‘religion and sourcing are two important factors shaping the framing of Asian news coverage on the Iraq war.’ (Maslog, Seow, Hun,

Thousands of our nation's men and women were fighting for their country, yet the media limited the amount of information that they chose to pass on to the public. Each day the media is faced with the choice of making decisions of what news to pass on, when that news could make a significant difference in someone's life, or in the fate of our nation.