-every war has its own idiosyncracies and political dynamics

-how war conducted and how public responds

-media controversies center on what gets covered and what doesn't (fears of bias and fairness)

-war poses a special policy challenge to journalists because 1) it involves national security 2) it takes place at a distance from the United States, and 3) it evokes very strong emotions from the public, sometimes positive and sometimes negative

-in this lecture, we look at the history of war coverage

-examine wars from WWII to Vietnam and Persian Gulf and Afghanistan to see how each has been covered

-show evolution of media strategies on part of military

-what problems arose in each case

-what lessons can be drawn about media from manner in which various foreign conflicts have been reported

-more remote from daily lives

-involves life and death matters

-different kind of stakes than education, taxes, or welfare

The Second World War
-start with WWII

-this war was a massive effort--over 60 countries involved and more than 75 million troops served in the military of the various nations

-of these, 15 million were killed and 25 million wounded

-estimates place financial cost of war at one trillion dollars, with property damage running around $230 billion

-public opinion on war in 1930s was ambivalent--strong isolationist movement led by Charles Lindbergh and Joe Kennedy, among others

-all changed after 1941 Pearl Harbor attack-public shifted in support of war
-morally unambiguous

-massive coverage--more than 2,600 American correspondents sent to cover war in various locations around the globe

-every leading newspaper had reporters on the frontlines describing the war, as did radio networkds and the wire services
-golden age of radio and newsreels (pre-television)
-journalists had to walk a fine line between covering the war and not endangering national security

-journalists took advantage of new technology of radio to file noteworthy reports

-82% of American households had a radio in 1940

-radio newscasters became international celebrities

-Edward R. Murrow, William Shirer were stars

-much of coverage favorable to US involvement

-demonization of Hitler

-especially as extent of Nazi atrocities became known, journalists were supportive of the war effort and devoted little attention to setbacks

-shining moment for journalists covering war

Vietnam War
a) Vietnam started as a determined effort by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson to stem the tide of communism around the world

-object of war was a small Asian country at southern edge of China

-financed by Russians and Chinese, the North Vietnamese were attempting to topple the South Vietnamese government supported first by France and then the U.S. and reunite their country

b) in early days, war seem to be going very well militarily

-although LBJ had campaigned as peace candidate in 1964, he expanded the war after election

-sent 500,000 troops to Vietnam and ordered massive bombing strikes throughout Vietnam

-body counts revealed a large number of Viet Cong troops dying

-seemed only a matter of time before U.S. would win the war

c) initially popular, but then decline

-perplexing disparities started to arise

-body count of enemy escalated but there seemed to be more North Vietnamese troops than ever

-journalists started to investigate and discovered American military were doctoring death toll of N. Vietnamese

d) war proved no rerun of WWII

-moral ambiguity

-ill-defined enemy (hard to distinguish civilians from soldiers)

-American atrocies and massacres of unarmed civilians

-fading memories

-evaluating claims of atrocities

a) in end, Vietnam war produced a defeat for the U.S., but triumph for investigative journalism

-public popularity dropped when American troops' death toll sky-rocketed
-new role of television (brought war into living room in color)
-rise of investigative journalism--exposed government deceit and lying (Halberstam book)
-vivid example--1968 Tet offensive

b) major impact on war coverage

-reporting became much more negative after Tet offensive

-domestic critics got more air time to discuss their opposition to war

-large and noisy anti-war movement

-Johnson forced into retirement in 1968 and by 1974, US forced out of Vietnam

-importance of managing war PR

-restrict journalist access

-don't let become a long, drawn-out conflict

-prevent it from becoming a TV mini-series

Persian Gulf War
-tight control of press
-no unlimited press access (pool coverage restricted to certain areas)
-management of information
-stifle anti-war movement
-clear lesson--virtue of winning wars fast before public backlash sets in
-initial public and elite divisions

-rally round the flag effects (Richard Brody--power of opinion leaders)
-high-tech coverage (sophisticated weapons flying down chimney to target)(later revealed high inaccuracy level of "smart bomb" targeting)
-public myth-making--undemocratic royal Kuwait family defined as "good guys", while Saddam Hussein demonized and defined as undemocratic

-reconsidering press coverage of Gulf War

-"Dramatic visual presentations can rapidly influence public -- and therefore, political -- opinion, so that the political underpinnings of war and operations other than war may suddenly change with no prior indication to the commander in the field." (Army Field Manual)

-highlights role of television and visual images in war coverage and possible repercussions for public opinion

-origins in Sept. 11

-key features: popular war, self-defense argument, and rally round flag

-high tech war (few ground forces in early part)

-press march with Northern Alliance

-reliance on generals for expertise

-video: "The Media and Democracy in the Arab World"

-analogy to Pearl Harbor attack

-skyrocketing popularity of President Bush

-strong public support

-tight media control

-no viable anti-war movement

-little public backlash

-little investigate journalism

Impact of Internet on Contemporary War Coverage
-improve diversity of sources, but more problems in accuracy of coverage
-problem of party presses in other countries; hard to evaluate unfamiliar sources of information
-Internet is democratic information source in good and bad senses of the term
-POW problem--disproportionate impact of having troops captured by enemy and paraded on television
-widen gap between information haves and have-nots
-gives journalists new tools for information acquisition--chatrooms and email sources

Impact of Media Fragmentation
-small units can't cover war
-reliance by news organizations on news outsourcing
-good for consumers who seek out diverse sources
-dangers of relying on single sources
Remedies for Poor Coverage
-press should bypass government sources through new technology
-dangers of restricting press access in war zones
-value of small news organizations pooling resources in war coverage

Daniel Hallin, The "Uncensored War": The Media and Vietnam, University of California Press, 1986

Peter Braestrup, Big Story: How the American Press and Television Reported and Interpreted the Crisis of Tet 1968 in Vietnam and Washington, Westview Press, 1977

David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest, Random House, 1972 

Lance Bennett and David Paletz, eds., Taken by Story: The Media, Public Opinion, and U.S. Foreign Policy in the Gulf War, University of Chicago Press, 1994.