War Media And Public Opinion Essay Research

War, Media, And Public Opinion Essay, Research Paper

The treatment of the media & # 8217 ; s influence on public sentiment is a complicated one. The ways in which the media negotiations about topics and the spin that they project on the topics frequently changes the manner the public positions certain issues. Everything from the adjectives they use, to the images they show, to the tone of voice they use brings out different emotions in their viewing audiences and readers. It is the same as imagination and sound in the films. For case, in the film Top Gun the same image appears with some slow chilling music and once more with the up round hero music. They each showed the same plane but one scared you the other excited you. This is the manner media coverage has effected public sentiment over the old ages.

In earlier eras the media was non what it is today, with existent clip information being relayed over orbiters to demo you unrecorded images of bombs hitting Belgrade. It started with information being released through newsmans typing on manually operated typewriters, so to wireless shows where households would garner around the one wireless in the house and listen every night to the intelligence broadcast. Then as it was during World War II, it was film tone intelligence that was broadcasted at each film house when you went to watch a show. At the clip the sound was limited more likely than non you were reading the captions off the underside of the screen. However, & # 8220 ; By the 1940 & # 8217 ; s on mean each American went to the films three times a month & # 8221 ; ( Roeder 1993 4 ) . Then into the 1960ss and 1970ss there were the webs, the large determination each dark was which of the large three ( ABC, NBC, CBS ) were you traveling to watch. There was no overseas telegram audience, or no satellite telecasting. They came subsequently. In the 80 & # 8217 ; s the overseas telegram shows made an outgrowth with full intelligence webs such as CNN. There were more options on where your intelligence would come from. Then, in the early 1890ss during the Gulf War there was existent clip telecasting. You could watch a missile hit Baghdad on telecasting if you choose to or you could read it and see the captions on the paper the following twenty-four hours. Now in the late 1890ss there are channels that have round the clock unrecorded coverage of the & # 8220 ; Crisis in Kosovo & # 8221 ; . MSNBC, CNBC, CNN and so away have shows to discourse different options and different positions on this issue. Or if you have what a turning bulk of Americans have, a computing machine, you can travel on-line and be connected to vast planetary cognition of positions and state of affairss. You can talk to people who are typing on there computing machines in Belgrade as bombs explode outside there places, or topographic point of employment. This is the development of media coverage and how it influences which images and thoughts that are brought to the head. The chief inquiry most asked is how and which manner does this coverage impact our public & # 8217 ; s sentiment. This inquiry is often asked, but ever asked during times of war. Since the development of adult male the information he receives has affected his beliefs, we are traveling to discourse merely a brief portion of the history. The period from WW II to show twenty-four hours when war, media, and public sentiment have been intertwined so much.

This paper will get down with CPI ( Committee on Public Information ) used during WWII, Life magazine and film tone intelligence. Then during Korea, how was coverage set uping public sentiment? Was it adversely impacting sentiments or was it positively assisting the authorities? Then we will discourse why newsmans no longer dodge slugs with the soldiers like they did during Vietnam. The 1880ss operations such as URGENT FURY, ELDORADO CANYON and JUST CAUSE will be discussed. Then to the newsman convoys used to transport and place sites in the Gulf War will be discussed. How CNN showed the cartridge holders from the missiles hitting their marks is another recent foremost in the media universe. Then we will stop with the small information and history that we know of the Kosovo incident, or possibly by clip this paper is finished, a war.

The Second World War, was one of & # 8220 ; good vs. evil & # 8221 ; It had to be because of the images the U.S. populace saw harmonizing to Jean Bethke Elshtain & # 8220 ; after analyzing war imagination & # 8221 ; ( Roeder 81 ) . During the clip of WWII the United States media and public were different from today. The people of that coevals had to be because of the fortunes that they faced. The Greatest Coevals, the rubric of Tom Brokaw & # 8217 ; s book about the people of that clip period ( 1930-1950 ) , shines a small visible radiation into a period where work forces and adult females rose to new highs, accomplishments, and forfeits non because they wanted to but because they had to. Society, as a whole was hurt, the Great Depression made it near impossible to last with out happening new ways to populate. Family, the word itself meant something and when the War broke out it meant so much more. Everyone knew, and more likely than non was related to person in the war. Many hung stars of different colourss in their Windowss to demo that their work forces were either at war, coming home shortly, or non approaching place at all. The war touched home many adult females had to travel to work in the mills because the work forces were all at war. Airplanes, guns, and ammo had to be built. Peoples had triumph gardens, can drives, and glass letter boxs to salvage metal for the military. Society as a unit was strong people were good and heart-whole, everyone did their portion to & # 8220 ; back up the war attempt & # 8221 ; .

& # 8220 ; In 1941 the authorities & # 8217 ; s & # 8220 ; informational, promotional, and promotion activities & # 8221 ; engaged the equivalent of 8,433 full clip workers, and their Numberss swelled during the war & # 8221 ; ( Roeder 1993 82 ) . This excessively helped the war attempt. Movie tone intelligence was the moving ridge of the twenty-four hours, there was no webs, no CNN, no MSNBC, no Internet, nil. However opportunities are three times a month people on the place forepart went to watch their version of the intelligence at the film house. If that was non the instance they read the information out of the newspaper which got its information from the authorities that, information that went through three separate censors on the manner place. & # 8220 ; Fifty million viewing audiences a hebdomad saw war information trunkss produced by OWI ( Office of War Information ) or by a gesture image industry and shown as a public service by 14 thousand theaters & # 8221 ; ( Roeder 1993 83 ) . The gesture film industry he speaks of includes Disney and other major film manufacturers. At the clip the media was different. No information was seen existent clip over orbiters, phone lines, or fiber ocular overseas telegram. Public sentiment was non easy changed by telecasting. There was no Television camera operator running through cross fire. There was military images released that went through every bureau & # 8217 ; s censor before being seen or heard by the populace. There was The Office of Censorship, the before mentioned Office of War Information, so The War Activities Committee that encouraged that the gesture film industry produce visuals & # 8220 ; that publicized war demands and goods & # 8221 ; that all censored and reviewed information sent to the eyes of the American People.

Most of the Second World War was censored for the media, but it could be. The media in that clip period was easy manipulated to assist the public sentiment be supportive of the authorities policy. & # 8220 ; Because in wartime the assorted mercantile establishments of popular civilization behaved about wholly as if they were the animals of their authoritiess, it is barely surprising that they spoke with one voice & # 8221 ; ( Fussell 1989 180 ) is the manner one historiographer describes the why WWII media acted. The engineering of the clip was non advanced plenty to demo the people first manus the atrocious face of war without the authorities & # 8217 ; s assist, and it was non assisting. The people of this clip period were stronger and more morally procure so today & # 8217 ; s age. The media could non alter the face of that public drastically even if they wanted to. The media was non strong plenty, and the populace was non seize with teething on any anti-war sentiments. The media could merely make what it did and beef up the populaces resolve.

It played a positive function in the Second World War. Through films such as Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and Bombardier the media gave a positive out expression on the war to a states people who were traveling through the most seeking clip of the states history. However through positive media coverage such as Norman Rockwell & # 8217 ; s universe celebrated picture and others the state & # 8217 ; s positive position of the United States function in the war was enhanced. The lone people who were non being pushed toward a positive mentality were the soldiers who & # 8220 ; knew that despite the advertisement and promotion, where it counted their weaponries and equipment was worse than the Germans & # 8217 ; & # 8221 ; ( Fussell 1989 268 ) . Still people know that the media does non ever have a positive affect on public sentiment during wars particularly the authorities. They know that & # 8220 ; it would be hard to undervalue the importance that American defence and diplomatic staff attach to the imperativeness as a conduit for determining public sentiment on foreign personal businesss & # 8221 ; ( Woodward 1997 167 ) .

As with all wars in this state & # 8217 ; s history the people come together as a state in support of it & # 8217 ; s troops traveling to war. It is still the duty of the authorities to guarantee that the war is fought successfully and/or rapidly to fulfill the populace. They besides apparently necessitate more positive media coverage as clip progresses, the media gets stronger, and the populaces resolve becomes weaker. This started easy with the Korean War.

During the epoch of the Cold War people were on border we had merely ended the largest war of the universe & # 8217 ; s history and were already oculus to oculus with another enemy, the Communist. The spread of communism caused people to go frightened of another major war that would take more immature American lives. This became a major treatment of the media. The onslaught by North Korea South of the 38th analogue brought the U.S. in to another war. This one against a smaller state backed by a major challenger, the Communist. As usual, with the first American military engagement started off with a supportive public position of their authorities & # 8217 ; s policy. However with the addition of American casualties and the rate of casualties ( Mueller 1985 36 ) when the Chinese entered the war the populaces support easy began to drop. Then General Douglas MacArthur Supreme Commander of UN Forces started to do statements to assorted media mercantile establishments that we should drop atomic arms on North Korea and China. The media began giving this war negative coverage due to the fact that the American people were already knowing of the destructive capablenesss of the A-bomb from the Hiroshima, and Nagasaki incidents from the old war. The people were all right with the old usage of the arm because it saved the gratuitous lose of more American Soldiers. However to utilize it once more would intend many guiltless civilian casualties. Then adding to the media fire General MacArthur continued to do statements to the media after President Truman ordered him non to. This difference between the two high profile leaders, received negative media coverage which took support off from the war for the exclusive ground it was a controversial. Finally MacArthur was fired by President Truman which received much imperativeness that took off from positive coverage of the war. Even though the media did non hold much negative intelligence about the war the sheer contention between Truman and Mac Arthur gave a bad image to the Korean War that was non around during the Second World War. Support of this war was melting before the negative media aid, but the media did give it a push down in the polls.

The Korean War, the Forgotten War may be unfamiliar to many of this twenty-four hours and age but is frequently compared to one war that many who today can still savor. The Vietnam War, besides known as the South East Asiatic struggle is really similar to the Korean War. The similarities include both wars were to help the democratic side of a little Asiatic state split between a communism and democracy, both opposing forces were aided by the Soviet Union and Red China. Another similarity was & # 8220 ; both wars were limited: they took topographic point within a reasonably specific country, and in both instances the United States refrained from utilizing the most powerful weapo

ns in its arsenal” ( Mueller 1985 33 ) . However the similarities there were many differences, one of the major 1s was the place forepart. Society itself had weakened. The babyboomers were acquiring older and traveling a side to a new coevals, a coevals that did non turn up with the adversities. This new coevals did non see the poorness of the depression or the atrocious truths of WWII. The household unit itself was no longer as structurally sound as it had to be in the past kids rebelled and no longer grew up working for the good of the household. There was a societal rake between many kids and their parents. Then the Vietnam War broke out and caused even more clash on the place forepart.

During this same period the media was deriving strength. Television sets were in about every place. The major decsion every dark was no longer to listen to the wireless or non, it was which web should we watch. The large three ( ABC, NBC, CBS ) were now in full force with much power behind them. Millions tuned them in every night ; Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntly and David Brinkley were viing for evaluations. Every dark people watched the intelligence on the war and learned the figure of military mans who had given their lives that twenty-four hours to a war that their state wasn & # 8217 ; t behind 100 % . They watched Dan Rather and his camera operator run through the jungle dodging slugs and airing the atrocious face of war to the 1000000s of viewing audiences at place who watched the every night intelligence and saw what war really looked like. The media no longer needed the authorities & # 8217 ; s aid in demoing the public the atrociousnesss that a war included. The state media had grown in size and strength. The nature of the monster had changed.

Equally early as October of 1954 the United States had been back uping, providing and developing the South Vietnamese Military. Get downing in February 1965 the U.S. started playing in active function in the war between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, foremost with air onslaughts so with land military personnels set downing in South Vietnam in March of 1965 to protect U.S. base from Viet Cong onslaughts. Defense Secretary McNamara & # 8217 ; s promise of remotion of all U.S. military personnels by 1965 was over. As ever the public support at the gap of the war was a strong sense of & # 8220 ; mass meeting behind the flag & # 8221 ; . Many thought that even though the war was non directing endangering the United States, the idea of halting the Communist and the so called Domino & # 8220 ; impact & # 8221 ; was ground adequate for directing military personnels temporally to assist an ally. No 1 idea we were come ining the longest and costliest war in the history of the United States. However as the war dragged on the media showed and told of the casualties the public became more and more acrimonious for the thought of war. Unlike the old wars fought the people at place were no longer seeking to & # 8220 ; back up the war attempt & # 8221 ; telecasting and other media installations had damaged the before censored image that the public idea of war. There were no films and service proclamations that told of great victory and heroic Acts of the Apostless by the unselfish. Then a tactical triumph for the military happened as they repelled the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong & # 8217 ; s Tet Offensive. This besides happened to be the United States worse strategic loss of the war. The Viet Cong had brought the war to the streets where U.S. telecasting and newspaper newsmans saw and reported on the horror of the terrorist like onslaughts and the barbarous penalty for suspected enemies. The American people saw adult females and kids burned and killed by bombs planted and thrown in eating houses in the metropoliss through out South Vietnam. Suspected Viet Cong were shoot on the street by south Vietnamese constabulary, this all happened while U.S. cameras were turn overing and aired and shown through out U.S. documents and Television daily. This image pushed an already disbelieving populace over the border, and support of the war was faded rapidly. Peoples could be locating poolside on the roof of the Presidents Hotel in Saigon and see planes dropping napalm merely 30 stat mis off. This war was one that the authorities could non conceal. It was to a seeable war. Just as in the Korean War the Democratic Party lost the presidential term to a Republican who promised a quicker terminal to the war. The election of Richard Nixon caused the size of American engagement became steadily less. Then with the launch of Operations LINEBACKER I and LINEBACKER II the North Vietnamese agreed to peace negotiations that ended with the backdown of All-American military personnels by the terminal of 1972. At this clip the drafted American military personnels that were forced to contend a war and give there lives to a cause that didn & # 8217 ; t believe returned place where they were harassed and labeled & # 8220 ; babe slayers & # 8221 ; by the populace and the media. The consequence: American politicians afraid to come in any military struggle that will bring forth casualties.

Once once more a democratic president lost his presidential term because of a military error. Jimmy Carter and his parts for eight broken choppers that were portion of a bungled military program to deliver U.S. sureties in Tehran Iran. The media quoted his Campaign trough as stating those parts cost him the presidential term. The media one time once more helped alter public sentiment. The following military missions took topographic point during the Reagan Administration, Operations ELDORADO CANYON and URGENT FURY. ELDORADO CANYON were airstrikes launched against Libya for lodging terrorists. URGENT FURY was to salvage one thousand U.S. pupils stuck on the little island state of Grenada when Rebels revolted against the authorities. There the U.S. military succeeded in salvaging the pupils and reconstructing the official authorities. These military actions were extremely classified and recieved really small imperativeness signifier the media. The following action was by Reagan replacement, his vice-president George Bush. OPERATION JUST CAUSE was the gaining control of Nicaraguan drug Godhead Manuel Noreiga. The operation was a success. Media coverage was light once more.

The people of the 1880ss and 1890ss were different from before. These people had grown up with the glooming shadow of the Vietnam War over their shoulder. They were non militarists, but were Vietnam veterans and knew the monetary value of come ining wars half-heartedly. They knew that if you become committed to a cause you back it 100 % . The media had besides changed. CNN, existent clip communications, meant that a camera could see an image and at the same clip convey this image over 1000000s of telecasting sets around the state.

Saddam Hussein with the 4th largest armed forces in universe invaded in a Blitzkrieg manner the little oil exporting state of Kuwait. Unlike Vietnam where we easy committed ourselves, we acted quickly and exactly. Sixty F-15 Eagles were launched from Langely Air Force Base Virginia and flew 17 consecutive hours with aerial refueling to Saudi Arabia where Saddam was now angling his forces. Operation DESERT SHIELD began with the launch of the combatants to Saudi Arabia. Saddam called off his force from assailing Saudi Arabia. This allowed for the U.S. to direct and emplace the capablenesss of the universe & # 8217 ; s greatest military machine the U.S. Army, Navy, Marines and the 1 who played the largest function The United States Air Force. This received positive intelligence coverage from the media and was virtually wholly backed by the populace. Every tree, fencing and auto aerial had a xanthous thread tied around it signaling they supported the military personnels.

Then entered operation DESERT STORM, this operation allowed the media to demo the public the military & # 8217 ; s new & # 8220 ; smart bombs & # 8221 ; . These new arms allowed the Air Force to destruct a mark with a individual plane and a individual bomb, when before it would take a fleet of bombers loaded with 1000s of bombs. The media highlighted these arms as non merely a manner to better war capablenesss, but as a manner to salvage civilian casualties. The Air Force in 60 yearss virtually decimated Iraq & # 8217 ; s military force. With highly low causalities. That is the lone type of war the populace would digest, one with low casualties. That allowed General Schwartzcoph to establish his 100-hour & # 8220 ; hail Mary & # 8221 ; invasion and release of Kuwait. The media and the public wholly supported this war because of the manner it was fought and the images they viewed.

The images they viewed were the tapes from the & # 8220 ; smart bombs & # 8221 ; come ining Windowss and airshaft, all complicate successes. Which resulted in all positive media coverage. The land coverage they saw was non from immature telecasting newsman & # 8217 ; s dodging slugs from the existent conflict. The authorities learned the lesson of what to non demo the populace from the Vietnam. The newsmans in the Gulf War were brought around in media convoys. They needed the authorities & # 8217 ; s aid to see the battleground, in this regard it was similar to the Second World War. President Bush besides learned that to pay an effectual war he needed to hold full support from the state, and must hold a speedy decisive triumph because the state would non stand for a long dragging war. That is what they got. The President had give the military his end and told them to acquire it done rapidly and exactly. The military so ran the war they knew best. This was done because the lessons learned through the authorities ran Vietnam War. When the soldiers returned place they were greeted by clinchs and handshakings from a populace that was thankful for the service they had done. These lessons from Vietnam were learned

A president surrounded by contention, and labeled a bill of exchange fox. The media is already holding a field twenty-four hours. The media has besides changed its face it is no longer merely CNN, and the webs. It is now worldwide on the Internet where information changed custodies daily. MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, CSPAN and many others have twenty four-hour coverage of the intelligence. Then we enter another Vietnam manner struggle between a autonomous state that is in the center of a civil war. Merely as we did in Vietnam we are easy perpetrating ourselves more and more as the struggle in Kosovo continues. The media show images of refugees and broadcasts live from the border of the conflict. Every dark the populace watches the images of 1000s of people fighting to remain alive in & # 8220 ; tent metropoliss & # 8221 ; . Besides like Vietnam we have a president that is fond of reading polls and following the tendency alternatively of making what has to be done. The populace and the media at foremost supported the military action. However as it drags on with no clear terminal in site and no clear manner to specify triumph the media and the populaces support of the struggle lessening daily. The phrase some media have been utilizing & # 8220 ; this is another Vietnam & # 8221 ; scares many people who lived through that atrocious war.

As the media invariably alterations and becomes larger with more capablenesss its strength in commanding the populace will merely increase. More than 60 % of today & # 8217 ; s places are equipped with overseas telegram or orbiter telecasting. More 80 % of today & # 8217 ; s public interact with the Internet in one signifier or another. The media keeps spread outing in different waies tighten its appreciation on the American populace. The public itself is acquiring weaker in its positions. The new coevalss and some of the old are going more depend on the media for it opinions on different issues. The spin that the media puts on issues have more purchase in traveling support towards or off from the authoritiess constabularies. Therefore as clip has proven the media industry has grown in strength over the old ages. More and more people are going extremely dependent on the media for information. This along with the weakening of the populaces ability to apologize and organize independent sentiments outside from the media spin has caused the media to hold more control over the populaces sentiment as clip goes on.

WORKS CITIED

Gary C. Woodward. Positions on American Political Media. Neednam Heights MA: Allyn & A ; Bacon, 1997

George H. Roeder, Jr. The Censored War. Yale University: New Haven, 1993

John E, Mueller War, Presidents and Public Opinion. University Press of America: Lanham MD, 1985

Paul Fussell Wartime. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1989

Tom Brokaw The Greatest Generation. Random House: New York, 198

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