| Eveline Lubbers on Thu, 11 Oct 2001 11:20:01 +0200 (CEST) |
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| [Nettime-nl] 'Total Television' and Future Wars |
War reportage and the military-information society
een recente pagina met een hele lange lijst
referenties naar studies over moderne media
en oorlogsverslaggeving, de rol van intelligence
en het CCN-effect. Veel over de Golf oorlog
en de Balkan.
Ik heb de lange lijst met verwijzingen ook maar
overgenomen, ook al doen de links het niet,
(hoop dat de layout wel een beetje in stand blijft)
omdat het zo aansluit op de diskuzz hier
(en omdat ik zelf meteen zin van kreeg om *alles*
te gaan lezen, ander keertje maar.)
eveline
http://www.disinfo.com/pages/article/id1298/pg3/
war reportage and the military-information society
by Alex Burns (alex@disinfo.com) - June. 12, 2001
"'Total Television' and Future Wars"
Total Television was not the result of Vietnam, Engelhardt crucially stated, but
was the result of "certain mesmeric moments in the eighties" such as the Iran
Hostage Crisis (1979-81), Chernobyl (1986), and the Challenger disaster (1986),
which created a hypnoid effect on mass audiences. [105] Total Television could
only occur because of wider geo-economic factors (the erosion of cable network
dominance, requiring advertising and sponsorship) and global-oriented
military/media planning ("the Gulf War as outside media production). [106] "Hotel
Warrior" journalists in Dharam were likened to the 1980s television programs that
merchandised children's toys, supported by an unspoken U.S. doctrine of
inherent moral righteousness [107] (the Ellulian trigger for immersive propaganda).
The networks' Standards and Practices Department harkened back to the Hayes
Office and Breen Production Code, [108] whilst Generals and war planners
borrowed 'New Hollywood' acting and studio techniques, [109] playing the
archetype of Victorious General and In-Control Spokesperson. And each military
news conference reminded the audience that the conflict was unfolding "on
schedule": "the public was constantly assured by the war's supporters that it
would be clean, manageable, foreseeable, endable—in short, a program." [110]
The meshing of media, sponsorship and low production values [111] laid the
'production blueprint' for Reality TV.
Changes in war reportage since the Vietnam War are a microcosm of the
perception management that is embedded within society. Each conflict must be
approached anew, with a detached appreciation of its historical factors and social
circumstances, not just banal critiques of nefarious institutions. Flaws in the
news-gathering process result from multiple and ever-shifting factors that
prevailing ideological-driven critiques fail to acknowledge. Journalists must
practice self-awareness and ask the utilitarian question of whose ends they are
'serving.' Only then will the media become a real social antenna, and the
journalists an 'early warning system' [112] for the future wars to come.
References:
Mark D. Alleyne. News Revolution: Political and Economic Decisions about
Global Information. London: Macmillan, 1997. Alleyne outlines the co-evolution of
global news media, diplomacy, geo-economics and rogue governments, with a
focus on policy-making. A lucid study that highlights the complexity of
institutional structures, unlike many existing cultural/media studies critiques.
Carolina Acosta-Alzuru and Elizabeth P. Lester Rousahanzamir. "A War By Any
Other Name: A Textual Analysis of The Falklands/Malvinas War Coverage in U.S.
and Latin American Newspapers." In Abbas Malek and Anandam P. Kavoori (ed.).
The Global Dynamics of News. Stamford, CN: Ablex Publishing, 2000. 95-119.
The authors examine four "newspapers of record" and discover that reportage in
each publication is biased by unconscious acceptance of the country's foreign
policy.
Ken Auletta. "The Lost Tycoon." The New Yorker Magazine. April 23 and 30,
2001. 138-163. Auletta's profile of CNN founder Ted Turner focuses on the
skirmishes with Gerald Levin during the AOL/Time-Warner merger. Also includes
details about CNN's Gulf War coverage, "the CNN Effect", and how Turner's
corporate philanthropy has been used to dictate United Nations and nuclear
roll-back initiatives.
Col. John B. Alexander (ret). Future War: Non-Lethal Weapons in Twenty-First
Century Warfare. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. Alexander developed the
concept of Non-Lethal Defence at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and he has
briefed members of the U.S. Congress, NATO, the National Security Council and
the Director of Central Intelligence. This is the most authoritative book for a
general readership on the topic, discussing geopolitical scenarios, military and
law enforcement applications, perception management, operations-other-than-war,
and how the media's 'CNN Effect' has changed both war reportage and military
command-and-control structures.
David Barsamian. "Liberating The Mind from Orthodoxies: An Interview with Noam
Chomsky." Z Magazine (May 2001), 32-40. Noam Chomsky covers the
connection between current geopolitical issues, propaganda, and social activism.
Bruce D. Berkowitz and Allan E. Goodman. Best Truth: Intelligence in the
Information Age. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000. The authors argue
for a shift, within the intelligence community, from a culture of secrecy (Cold War)
to a culture of wisdom (post-Cold War). In-depth analysis of the geopolitical
complexities of intelligence gathering and existing institutions.
Howard Bloom. "The Puppets of Pandemonium: Sleaze and Sloth in the Media
Elite." In Russ Kick (ed.). You Are Being Lied To. New York: Disinfo
Books/RSUB, 2001. 29-38. Howard Bloom critiques journalists' "herd-like
behaviour" and uses several cases from the Israeli/PLO conflict to illustrate his
hypothesis.
Tom Engelhardt. "The Gulf War As Total Television 5/11/92." In Victor Navasky
and Katrina Vanden Heuvel (ed.). The Best of The Nation. New York: Thunder's
Mouth Press, 2000. 148-155. Engelhardt examines the Gulf War as a 'New
Hollywood' style production, resulting from wider geo-economic factors.
Herbert J. Gans. "Multiperspectival News." In Elliot D. Cohen (ed.). Philosophical
Issues in Journalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. 190-204. Gans'
'multiperspectival' model contended that reportage approaching objectivity might
be possible if multiple viewpoints are included. Flawed by a nationalist emphasis,
some of Gans' ideas on "bottom-up" reportage are evident on Internet sites like
Slashdot and Plastic.
Karl Grossman. "Space Corps: The Dangerous Business of Making The Heavens
A War Zone." Covert Action Quarterly, (No. 70) April-June 2001, 26-33.
Grossman's coverage of the US Air Force's push for a Space Corps highlights
why the media is uninformed about many aspects of defense policy. Includes
discussion of U.S. President George W. Bush's "National Defence Shield" is
more important as a gesture in the defence realm, rather than if it is actually
technically feasible.
Karim H. Karim. "Covering The South Caucasus and Bosnian Conflicts: Or How
The Jihad Model Appears and Disappears." In Abbas Malek and Anandam P.
Kavoori (ed.). The Global Dynamics of News. Stamford, CN: Ablex Publishing,
2000. 177-195. Karim outlines how Northern journalists rely on a 'Jihad Model' to
frame their coverage of internecine religious conflicts that involve Muslims. He
contends that this biases reportage, and that religious conflicts result from
complex historical factors.
Michael T. Klare. "The New Geography of Conflict." Foreign Affairs. May-June
2001. 49-61. Klare offers a convincing thesis that resource shortages will re-define
the parameters of 21st Century conflicts. He predicts a growth in flashpoints and
operations-other-than-war. This is a summary of Klare's book Resource Wars:
The New Landscape of Global Conflict. London: Metropolitan Books, 2001.
Michael Krepon. "Lost In Space: The Misguided Drive Toward Anti-satellite
Weapons." Foreign Affairs. May-June 2001. 2-8. Krepon examines why the media
overlooked Donald Rumfield's defence studies, and how "National Defense Shield"
rhetoric may ignite flash-points and hot-spots.
Marshall McLuhan. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Boston, MA:
MIT Press, 1999 [1964]. Although dated by recent advances in communications
theory, McLuhan's research covers important ground concerning how
contemporary warfare is fought, via the media, in the symbolic realm.
Susan D. Moeller. Compassion Fatigue: How The Media Sell Disease, Famine,
War and Death. London and New York: Routledge, 1999. Moeller draws on an
extensive collection of media interviews and press documentation to reveal how
post-Taylorist management, environmental pressures and the rise of editorial
formulae have affected international relations and war reportage. Moeller
contends, unlike other media scholars, that journalists are self-aware of
ideological factors in the news-gathering process, and that their flaws are more
complex than ideological-based critiques would suggest. An important and
overlooked book.
Frank Morales. "Welcome to the Free World." Covert Action Quarterly, (No. 70)
April-June 2001, 6-11. Morales offers an emotional perspective on Non-Lethal
Defence, countering Col. Alexander's assessment, and warning of law
enforcement misuse. Morales is especially concerned with the growth of private
security forces, and his perception that political dissent is being redefined in the
corporate sphere as violent terrorist activity.
John Naisbitt, Nana Naisbitt, and Douglas Philips. High Tech High Touch:
Technology and Our Search for Meaning. New York: Broadway Books, 1999. A
'trends study' about the convergence of technology and the perennial search for
'higher actualisation'. Notable for its chapter on the 'Military-Nintendo Complex'.
Michael Parenti. "The Media And Their Atrocities." In Russ Kick (ed.). You Are
Being Lied To. New York: Disinfo Books/RSUB, 2001. 51-55. Parenti is one of the
most outspoken critics of NATO's air-bombing campaign on Yugoslavia, and he
examines how the Western media shaped their portrayal of the conflict. Some
interesting examples of 'loaded language' are included.
Chris Paterson. "Global Battlefields." In Oliver Boyd-Barrett and Terhi Rantanen
(ed.). The Globalization of News. London: Sage Publications, 1998. 79-103.
Paterson details how media organizations and post-Taylorist management
techniques affect reportage, and suggests that geo-economics is a new
battlefield.
Douglas Rushkoff. Coercion: Why We Listen To What 'They' Say. New York:
Riverhead Books, 1999. Rushkoff's study of perception management techniques
in society includes a brief discussion on Hill & Knowlton's pro-Kuwaiti campaign
during the Gulf War.
Philip Seib. Headline Diplomacy: How News Media Affects Foreign Policy.
Westport, CN: Praeger, 1997. Philip Seib is Lucius W. Nieman Professor of
Journalism at Marquette University. He discusses the intertwining of media,
foreign policy, and the pressures of 'real-time' reportage in Going Live: Getting the
News Right in a Real-Time, Online World (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield,
2000).
McKenzie Wark. Virtual Geography: Living With Global Media Events.
Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1994. Wark examines how journalists are
affected by the events that they cover, examining the Persian Gulf War (1991),
the U.S Stock Crash (1987) and the Tiananmen Square protests (1989).
Ken Wilber. A Theory of Everything: An Integral Model for Business, Politics,
Science, and Spirituality. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, 2000. This book
is an overview of Ken Wilber's "all levels, all quadrants" schema and Don Beck
and Chris Cowan's Spiral Dynamics® model of dynamic biopsychosocial systems
development (which has been applied in business, education, geopolitics and
sports). Wilber discusses theoretical advances in "integral" political models, and
the geopolitical theories of Francis Fukuyama, Samuel P. Huntington and
Thomas Friedman. Useful for grasping the complexity of human motivations,
values and clashing worldviews.
Colonel Paul E. Vallely and Major. Michael A. Aquino. "From PYOP to MindWar:
The Psychology of Victory." In. William Cooper. Behold a Pale Horse. Sedona,
AZ: Light Technology Publications, 1991. 368-380. Widely circulated as
samizdat, Vallely and Aquino's article examines the Vietnam Syndrome, and
propose various media strategies. Many of the techniques that were first outlined
here were used, without the authors' approval, for Gulf War media and perception
management.
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