War in the Media Age also aims to provide a thorough grounding in the history of recent government/press relations during conflict, and in the mechanics of how presidents, the military, and the press do their jobs during war."--BOOK JACKET.

George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" banner in 2003 and the misleading linkages of Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 terrorist attacks awoke many Americans to the techniques used by the White House to put the country on a war footing. Yet Bush was simply following in the footsteps of his predecessors, as the essays in this standout volume reveal in illuminating detail. Written in a lively and accessible style, Selling War in a Media Age is a fascinating, thought-provoking, must-read volume that reveals the often-brutal ways that the goal of influencing public opinion has shaped how American presidents have approached the most momentous duty of their office: waging war.

News media, movies, blogs and video games issue constant invitations to picture war, experience the thrill of combat, and revisit battles past. War, it's often said, sells. But what does it take to sell a war, and to what extent can news media be viewed as disinterested reporters of truth? Lively and highly readable, this book explores how wars have been reported, interpreted and perpetuated from the dawn of the media age to the present digital era. Spanning a broad geographical and historical canvas, Susan L. Carruthers provides a compelling analysis of the forces that shape the production of news and images of war – from state censorship to more subtle forms of military manipulation and popular pressure. This fully revised second edition has been updated to cover modern-day conflict in the post 9/11 epoch, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rich in historical detail, The Media at War also provides sharp insights into contemporary experience, prompting critical reflection on western society's paradoxical attitudes towards war.

Wars are now mediated in unprecedented ways and through a variety of communicative forms. Correspondingly, there is an increasing awareness among those involved in war of the need to gauge and manage what is communicated. Communicating War: Media, Memory and Military contextualises these developments by locating the emergence of recent wars and terrorist activity in a wider frame of global socio-political change, highlighting the social, political and historical aspects of 'communicating war'. This includes: . the remembering and forgetting of wars through cultures of collective memory and media selectivity; . the organization, practice and culture of media institutions in the mediation of war information; . and the strategic use of information by military institutions and terrorist organizations in the execution of war and terrorist acts. Remaining sensitive to the complexities of conflict, the book moves beyond a focus on UK and US interventions and reflects upon the communication of war in relation to all forms of conflict, particularly terrorism and under reported civil conflicts. Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, Communicating War: Memory, Media, Military will be of interest to students in journalism, media, war and peace studies, international relations and international politics. Contributors include practitioners from within the journalistic and military communities and international scholars from a broad range of social sciences: Stuart Allan, David Altheide, Chris Atton, Oliver Boyd-Barrett, Nico Carpentier, Neal Curtis, Richard Keeble, Andrew Hoskins, Makram Khoury-Machool, Sarah Maltby, Donald Matheson, Lara Pawson, Ron Schleifer, Martin Shaw, Angus Taverner, John Tulloch, Howard Tumber and Jeremy Tunstall. - REVIEWERS COMMENTS - "Few topics of media research affect us more personally, and emotionally, than how media represents war, and the military's partly hidden role in that process. Communicating War is a wide-ranging and important contribution to that debate, which also has the advantage of being right up-todate. Essential reading " Nick Couldry, Professor of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths University of London "We live in an age where the relationship between war and communications media is more complex and more urgent than ever before. Communicating War is, therefore, to be welcomed. Its rich collection sets the agenda, as does the War and Media Network, from which it emerges. Crucially, the collection reminds us of that which is 'forgotten', which can be as important in the war-media relationship today as those things embedded in memory." James Gow, Professor of International Peace and Security, Kings College London "A timely and hugely valuable contribution to the scholarly literature on news about conflict and war. The range of contributors, and the variety of themes covered, make this collection essential reading for students and researchers of conflict reporting in the post-9/11 world." Brian McNair, Professor of Journalism and Communication, University of Strathclyde. "Communicating War is a timely collection of great diversity, bringing both historical depth and theoretical sophistication to a range of urgent contemporary debates about the media's role in war." Philip Hammond, Reader in Media and Communications, London South Bank University

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2 (B), Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald (Anglistics/ American Studies), course: American Media Culture, language: English, abstract: The war coverage in the American media is a theme that shows the reality of the American democracy. Though the media in the U.S. is rarely limited by law it was often used for special purposes. The latest example is the war with Iraq where all kinds of media were employed to create a pro-war opinion within the population of the USA. I will lead further into that in chapter 6. The history of the American media makes up the beginning of this paper (chapter 2, page 4) and the history of the American war coverage (chapter 3, page 8). In my opinion the knowledge about these things is important to understand how the American media act and work today. A summary of all chapters and some of my personal conclusions can be found in chapter 7 from page 19. Examples for the coverage of American led wars are the Vietnam War (chapter 4, page 10), the second Gulf War (chapter 5, page 12), and the third Gulf War (chapter 6, page 14). There were various sources for this paper. First of all I want to mention “The American Age” by Walter LaFeber1. Furthermore the “Länderbericht USA”2, the “stern”, “The Media in American Politics” by Paletz3, and several articles from the seminar reader which will be listed in the list of sources (page 21). Additionally I used the “Microsoft Encarta 96”4 which was a very useful starting place for me. 1 LaFeber, Walter: The American Age. U.S. Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad. W.W. Norton & Company, New York, London, 1994. 2 Adams, W. P., E.-O. Czempiel, B. Ostendorf, K. L. Shell, P. B. Spahn, M. Zöller (Hrsg.): Länderbericht USA I; Länderbericht USA II. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, Schriftenreihe Band 293/I und 293/II, Bonn, 1992. 3 Paletz, David L.: The Media in American Politics. Longman, 2002. 4 Microsoft® Encarta® 96 Encyclopedia. 1993-1995 Microsoft Corporation.

'War and the media' brings together internationally known contributors. It is an essential guide to understanding the institutions and technologies involved in the production and consumption of television news.

"Asks whether it is ever possible for a president to nudge the nation toward war without lying. And if he does, is it sometimes all right? Most of these authors would vote no."--Columbia Journalism Review "It was a pleasant and poignant surprise to find an afterword written by the late David Halberstam, one of the best reporter-historians of the last century. It may be his last major piece of writing. . . . It is an appropriate way to wind up the collection, because his words are a sobering reminder that the press is important yet not all-powerful in a democracy. Presidents long ago mastered the tools at their disposal to achieve policy ends."--American Journalism "American history at its best--insightful and revealing about the past, yet at the same time illuminating the vital questions of our own day."--Jeffrey A. Engel, Texas A&M University George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" banner in 2003 and the misleading linkages of Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 terrorist attacks awoke many Americans to the techniques used by the White House to put the country on a war footing. Yet Bush was simply following in the footsteps of his predecessors, as the essays in this standout volume reveal in illuminating detail. Written in a lively and accessible style, Selling War in a Media Age is a fascinating, thought-provoking, must-read volume that reveals the often-brutal ways that the goal of influencing public opinion has shaped how American presidents have approached the most momentous duty of their office: waging war. Kenneth Osgood, associate professor of history at Florida Atlantic University, is the author of Total Cold War: Eisenhower's Secret Propaganda Battle at Home and Abroad, winner of the Herbert Hoover Book Award. Andrew K. Frank, associate professor of history at Florida State University, is the author of Creeks and Southerners: Biculturalism on the Early American Frontier. A volume in the Alan B. Larkin Series on the American Presidency, edited by Kenneth Osgood

The first comprehensive study of the contentious issue of the public's right to know in time of war or limited conflict. The book traces the uneasy relations between the military and a generally unprepared and gullible media, from the Crimea to the present day. It shows how the advent of nuclear warfare has outlawed the nationalistic wars of survival of the past, and freed the citizen from his age-old obligations in time of war, able to make up his or her own mind on the merits of the situation. It is here that the battle lies, in the struggle for public opinion as a necessary precursor to war. This book details how the military discovered the secret of media and public manipulation in the Falklands, tested it in Grenada, and refined it in Panama before deploying it in all its glory during the Gulf. This book is essential reading for every soldier and journalist, or any student of military history as it points the way to the future.