Sunday, September 22, 2019
War News Censorship Essay Example for Free
War News Censorship Essay Censorship is a general term used to describe the manner at which control of information and its circulation is being employed within a society. Censorship is often administrated with the goal to implicate political suppression and to deliberately impose moral values on others. It can be implemented through government and private pressures, although government sponsored censorship is rendered unconstitutional (â€Å"What is Censorship†1 ). In the global context, censorship is employed is various ways and behind different rationales. The earliest argument used to rationalized censorship is with respect to religious context, it inculcates values for conscience and moral entities that can make censorship acceptable to the public. Another, issues on national security and defense is also used to justify the censorship. â€Å"Censorship through intimidation†and â€Å"censorship though consensus†are also possible to be employed (â€Å"What is Censorship†2) On the context of war news media, censorship is used as a tool for propaganda. In every war, there are two battles fought; one is in the battlefield, and the other is through the minds of the people made possible in the propaganda and news releases that are being circulated. The labeling used between the â€Å"good guys†and the â€Å"bad guys†are done in such a way that the media and the government can influence the minds of their readers and the majority of the people to support their cause, or to develop a sense of legitimacy on why they are really ought to be involved in a war. Misleading the people is possible through (1) only covering selected stories; (2) giving out only partial facts; (3) reinforcing reasons and motivations; (4) narrow sources of â€Å"experts†and other resource persons; (5) demonizing their opponents; and (6) narrow range of discourse (Shah, 2005). Moreover, war news media is being censored to restrict and to minimize occurrences for leakage of war photos which are deemed to be violent. Thus, this aspect of censorship is deemed to have implications on the moral values of the people. In a way, censorship is also employed to eliminate the possibility that people will become violent if continuously, they are exposed to violent images and occurrences behind the war (â€Å"What is Censorship†1 ). Vietnam Era            Vietnam War was the first war that was given full access and full freedom to the journalists. During this era, the journalists were given the freedom to report the war as they have seen it, and they were able to publish images in order to enable to let the public view the war in the most accurate possible way. The earlier war occurrences were beneficial to the American community. The events before the Tet Offensive were proven to have gathered support for the American offensive. However, the spark of the American Embassy in Saigon, as it been publicly watched by the American people, signaled the defeat of the American troops and consequently they have become doubtful to the then present President Johnson’s credibility. Consequently though, this event has led the American support for the war to decrease and falter (Media’s Role in the Vietnam Era) These turn of events, the complete media access and the full freedom to journalistic reporting has proven to be detrimental to the flight of American troops. The outcome of the media coverage and the humiliating coverage of the American defeat in the war have caused the morale of the US soldiers to surge down; and in turn, have boosted the morale of the Vietnamese soldiers which was during this time, were perceived to be the enemy. Further, the media coverage has implicated that the war was more like a â€Å"Communist victory†rather than just plainly the failure of the Tet Offensive. Thus, the war’s ultimate failure to repress the growing Communist idealism in Vietnam was blamed on television and media – that the public has turned against their support against Vietnam War was due to the media’s accurate depiction of the horrors that were inculcated in the war (Humphreys). Contemporary War: Iraq War            The war in Iraq is currently viewed as media’s â€Å"crisis coverage†. This contemporary war occurrence has also proved the innate strong influence of media, as they still have contributed a delicate role in the anti-Iraq hysteria. The media has published sinister images of the Iraqi leaders that connoted the meaning that they are indeed enemies (Smith, 2001). More so, the media’s mainstream performance has caused the Iraq War to become a disaster. The subjective allegations of the Bush administration that were further accepted , published and proliferated by the media have served as direct blows that further hastened the development of the war. And though there were critical journalists who raised questions despite the growing support for the Iraq war, still the damage of unfair reporting and biased presentation of information has caused the war to further burn (Iraq and the Media).            In addition, aside from the military conflicts and aggression, the Iraq War is more likely a â€Å"war of ideas†, in which the US government has instigated first. The obvious fact is that, the US has anchored their attack solely on the basis of allegations which up to now haven’t been proven to be accurate. And despite the oppositions to the war due to insufficient proofs of Iraq’s direct US threat, the US government has still pushed to the war (Regan 2006). And now, they are under the pressure of winning this â€Å"war of ideas†in order to keep US support from the majority of the world community, which is attainable through strategic dispensing of information and tactical censorship of ideas that are flowing in the global community.            Moreover, the current war in Iraq has once again instituted the means for media censorship. In contrast to the Vietnam War wherein full coverage was given to access the entire war discourse, the current aggression in Iraq has proven to be rather selective and biased on which issues are to be leaked outside for the media to circulate. Moreover, the media along with the military have also covered up the truth behind the occurrences of war – they have been leaking false tallies of war casualties and other records that are relevant to assess the true status of the war. Conclusion            War news censorship indeed plays an integral role in any war occurrences. In Vietnam, less censorship has led to the tumbling down of war support from the US community, due to the adversaries that were shown by the media as they were entitled for full coverage of the war. On the other hand, the war on Iraq which is currently under minimal media coverage, in addition to the highly censored and filtered nature of news standards, the US government is able to gather the support from the global community. Further, war news censorship has also greatly influenced the morale of the people who are directly and indirectly involved in the war. Positive or negative feedbacks gathered from media coverage relatively affects the feelings, attachments and morale of the people involved. Works Cited Humphreys, Donald. War on Television. The Museum of Broadcast Communications. 4 December 2007 http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/W/htmlW/warontelevi/warontelevi.htm Iraq and the Media. 19 March 2007. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. 4 December 2007 http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3062 Media’s Role in the Vietnam Era. Trinity College, Department of History. 4 December 2007 http://www.trincoll.edu/classes/hist300/media.htm Regan, Tom. Experts: US Must Win â€Å"War of Ideas†. 16 June 2006. CSMONITOR.COM. 4 December 2007 http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0616/dailyUpdate.html Shah, Anup. War, Propaganda and Media. 31 March 2005. Global Issues. 4 December 2007 http://www.globalissues.org/HumanRights/Media/Military.asp Smith, Sharon. â€Å"Targeting Iraq: US Hypocrisy and Media Lies.†International Socialist Review. November-December 2001. What is Censorship?(1) American Civil Liberties Union. 4 December 2007. http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/censorship/26611res20060830.html What is Censorship?(2) 4 December 2007 http://www.gilc.org/speech/osistudy/censorship/
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