Transcript War and media

Political Science and International Relations
War and media
Operační program Vzdělávání pro konkurenceschopnost
Název projektu: Inovace magisterského studijního programu Fakulty ekonomiky a managementu
Registrační číslo projektu: CZ.1.07/2.2.00/28.0326
Presentation contents
 Definition of media
 Role, characteristics and functions of media
 Securitization and media
 Media and armed conflict
 Role and influence of the journalist
 Conclusion
Definition of media
 Communication channels through which news, entertainment,
education, data, or promotional messages are disseminated
 Media includes every broadcasting and narrowcasting medium
such as newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, billboards, direct mail,
telephone, fax, and internet, social networks
Role and characteristics of media
 The media is kind of a business whose purpose is to sell
information
 The mission of the media is not procuring „objective information“
but „attractive information“
 Most of the media is owned by private entities whose primary
interest is to generate profit
 Ratings / expense ratio is significant also for public media
 Users contemporary media prefer entertainment to information entertainment programs on TV have higher ratings than news
Role and characteristics of media
 The print media (newspapers) and radio loses the importance
 Readers of printed periodicals are recruited from the older
generation - younger people prefer television and the new media
(internet news, social networks, etc.)
 The historical problem of the mass media has always been the
question of liability for the generation and dissemination of
information
 With the advent of the Internet, the nature of the questions has
changed significantly - while around the end of the 20th century
gained an individual the opportunity to present their ideas in the
media based on the selection criteria, the creation of economically
significant personal position is now allowed access to the mass
media to the broad masses of the population
Function of media
 Orienteering and informational function - as a source of
information × misinformation; determine the priorities that are
discussed
 Interpretation function → interpret correlations and shape public
opinion × manipulate public opinion; forcing people how to
understand the information
 Public control of power through media → important tool for
shaping social and political attitudes
 Socialization function → transmit information to other cultures,
sometimes negatively affect culture
 Entertainment and recreational function → offer the
entertainment to ordinary people × reduce the level of
entertainment - culture in them becoming the subject of
commerce
Securitization and media
 The media play an extraordinary role in interpreting security
issues, because appropriately presented security issues attract
more attention than information from other areas of everyday
events, especially if it can be created in the recipient information,
idea or belief that such security problem has or may have an
impact on its own, personal security
 Attractiveness of topics relating to crime, violence and conflict is
perceived by the media and taken into account (specially targeted
crime reports, key messages in the main news, headlines and
layout of the tabloid press, etc.)
Media and armed conflict
 Armed conflict is for very media attractive source of information,
but only if it is also possible to interpret it as a conflict with binding
to personal security of the ordinary citizen
 In a world dozens of armed conflicts run simultaneously, however
their media coverage is unbalanced (Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq ...??)
 In reporting on the conflict interpretative and informational
functions of media are highlighted
 Public control of power through the media can fail in emotionally
tense moments related to the conflict
Media and armed conflict
 In reporting about the conflict media could tend towards biased
coverage, which could be a result of:
 The direct or indirect influence of the state and its political elites,
which support the conflict,
 The mass hysteria and emotional mood, which influence journalists,
 The targeted manipulation and PR of conflict party
 Mobilize and aggregate public opinion in order to get support and
legitimacy for military action
 Who does not support the war, is not a real patriot ...
Media and armed conflict
 Media War - is a form of manipulation of the media in order to
influence or manipulate domestic or international public opinion in
order to gain support for their own political objectives and / or
distortion of morality population against which these objectives
are pursued (= propaganda)
 Successful management of contemporary armed conflict is not
possible without a successful media campaign
 Parties of the conflict actively influence both their own and foreign
media - offer attractive information to media (inspiring emotions refugees, mass graves, etc.), which described them as victims
deserving promotion or winning and the only fair side of the
conflict
Media and armed conflict
 Information about the conflict and its course can have a major
impact on the outcome, and therefore parties of the conflict
devote a special attention to war media coverage
 David Lloyd George: „If people really knew, the war would be
stopped tomorrow. But of course they don't know, and can't know.
The correspondents don't write and the censorship wouldn't pass
the truth. What they do send is not the war, but just a pretty
picture of the war with everybody doing gallant deeds. The thing is
horrible and beyond human nature to bear and I feel I can't go on
with this bloody business“
 In the context of U.S. involvement in WWI can be dated the first
active, massive and complex use of mass media by the official
authorities in order to gain public support for U.S. entry into the
war (Edward Bernays - Committee on Public Information, 1917)
Media and armed conflict
 The interwar period - the advent of the first mass-extended
electronic media - radiobroadcasting (and later sound film) - its
role in the propaganda grows and significantly effect the
population
 Germany after 1933: radio and other media come under state
control, and their role is to:
 ideological mobilisation and influence
 gaining support for the ruling regime
 justifying its policies, and aggressive course of foreign policy
 rendering image of the enemy and threat sources,
 general psychological preparation for war
Media and armed conflict
 During the WWII media played a crucial role in mobilization of all
efforts and resources for the war
 Axis as well as Allies used both similar technical and psychological
approaches and processes to mobilize their own population and to
gain international support and sympathies
 Sound films (newsreels, propaganda films) take the crucial role in
informing and influencing the public
 Why We Fight (USA 1942-1945)
Media and armed conflict
 Mechanism of media interpretation of the WWII established the
still functioning and used ways of the use / misuse of media
 Technologically new approach to providing information - conflict
presented by CNN - 24 hours of live coverage of the war in Iraq
(Operation Desert Shield / Desert Storm, 1990/1991)
 For the first time there is a massive and direct journalistic coverage
of the ongoing conflict - the information is permanently reported
live from the front line
 „CNN model“ is also used in coverage of other conflicts (e.g. the
invasion of Iraq in 2003), but in practice than in the past hindered
the needs of the armed forces and political leadership (USA, UK),
which arrogates the right to control the spread of information
 Independent media coverage is restricted or becomes the target of
military action (2001 - bombing of Al-Jazeera in Kabul)
Media and armed conflict
 Embedded journalism x Independent journalism
 Embedded – model, in which the journalist becomes part of the
combat units on the front line - the media receive exclusive
audiovisual material and basic physical protection of journalists in
exchange for his journalistic independence - the armed forces
control when and where the journalist moves, what can record, etc.
 Truly independent journalism / news cannot provide so attractive
information and faces to the more difficult access to the media
market…
Media and armed conflict
 In the pursuit of attractive and sensational information the media
are willing to abandon their traditional role in democracy - cease to
be a „watchdog of democracy“
 Information provided by media companies (Fox, CNN, ITV News,
etc.) during the invasion of Iraq were unbalanced and often
„officially inspired“
 Critical news = no news
 Critical news = unpatriotic news
Media and armed conflict
 Media if want to maintain the attractiveness and readability (and
therefore the audience and commercial success), must necessarily
reduce complex problems into symbols that shape for long lingering
stereotypes in the minds of citizens
 A critical attitude to official reports and authorities is associated
with the questioning of patriotism and value people of integrity that
point to previously unaffordable or clandestine activities of the
armed forces, intelligence and state security forces (Wikileaks Manning, Snowden)
 Benjamin Franklin: „He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves
neither“
Role and influence of the journalist
 The form, content, timing and emotional submission information,
etc. also affects the personality of a reporter – journalist
 Subjective attitude, experience, education, experience, current
physical and mental condition, physical appearance, etc., all affect
the form of information and its impact
 A small media market = a small number of specialized journalists =
disproportionate influence media professionals or persons who are
considered experts
Conclusion
 The media is a communication tool that creates a fundamentally
affects our perception of the world
 They play a crucial role in the securitization process
 The primary mission of most of the media is to attract audience,
not truthfully inform ...
Political Science and International Relations
War and media
Operační program Vzdělávání pro konkurenceschopnost
Název projektu: Inovace magisterského studijního programu Fakulty ekonomiky a managementu
Registrační číslo projektu: CZ.1.07/2.2.00/28.0326