The News: International “Objective” InformantHawthorne 1The News: International “Objective” Informant An essay that analyzes the media and its coverage of conflict periods throughvarious theories and past wars. Tiffany HawthorneEDGEWinter Quarter 2003Professor Bruce LusignanMarch 12, 2004Hawthorne 2 War is rarely an event looked forward to by many people. It involves death, abandonment, guilt, money, deceit, and an ultimate loss of too many elements to list themall. However there is rarely a time when there is not a war going on in some part of the country. For wars to happen there has to be people willing to fight in them. With so much at stake and so mush to lose it is often a wonder how governments, which are seldom trusted anyway, convince their citizens to support their various war efforts. With closer speculation it becomes quite clear how this is accomplished: the media. Whether print, radio, or television the media gives the public a sense of getting the real story. With this in mind it is much easier to persuade citizens that wars are necessary. Medias role in the politics of war is an often debated topic by those who believe the role is minimal and those who believe that media plays the utmost importance. Although there is no universalopinion, looking at different theories proposed and the wars of the past it is difficult to question how influential media is when dealing with any type of governmental action especially war.Although under constant scrutiny, the media plays a very significant role in thepolitics of warfare. Many believe that “governments seek cooperation, if not outrightsupport, from the media to legitimize military action” (Thussu and Freedman 128).Media of Conflict argues that the media serves several purposes in the continuance ofconflict. First it claims, “national media coverage has had the effect of exacerbatingconflict as a result of conscious political strategies by political activists”(Allen 3). Thishas often been the case when politicians have the support of journalists, and they work inconjunction to present a certain image full of sensationalism and less insight. The secondclaim is that “wars are what the media makes of them”(Allen 3). This does apply to theHawthorne 3shaping of military strategies but more importantly deals with representation of violence.The media has the ability to make certain forms of killing acceptable while making othersappear inhumane and unnecessary. Media of Conflict’s most important point about thepurpose of media is found in the declaration that “how wars are made, how participantsstrategize their interests, how and if the international community reacts, how theaudiences in other more comfortable places comprehend what is happening and howresponsibility is structured and action are all, in the modern war, in part, a mediastory”(Allen 4); which comments on the ability of the media to provide the onlyinformation on the actions of the government as well as the apparent motivation of theiractions.Before one discusses the media and its role in public opinion on warfare or on government image, the term media must be defined. Popular use of the term would implythat media is singular and refers to only one type of communication. However ‘media’ is the plural form of the term ‘medium’. It includes any type of information giving whether it is print (articles and photos), audio (radio), or audio-visual (internet, television and movies). All of these media are used to provide information to the masses in a relatively quick fashion. Nowadays certain media proves to be more efficient than others. In this new age of communications, the audiovisual media has more impact than the others; especially the Internet, which is proving to me more popular due to its easy accessibility and wide amount of information. Audiovisual media may reach more of the masses and provide the most information in the shortest amount of time, however when dealing with public preference, photographs are the medium of choice. Oftentimes there is a race to get the most personal, real life photo to mirror what is occurring on the war front. PhotosHawthorne 4are popular because it is believed that there is more difficulty manipulating a photo than averbal account of an event. Photos also take less energy to process and do not take time to analyze. As people become lazier and want information quickly to match the fast speedof their lives, it is no surprise that wartime photos are in high demand.The debate on public opinion and the masses is a large one that has two extreme sides proposed by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw. One theory is known as media agenda. Media agenda proposes that media content heavily influences public opinion. The media thus “sets” the agenda for the public, telling them what issues are of importance and what to think of those issues. In the media agenda corporate heads, investors, and news editors determine which stories are of importance and those are the ones covered. The alternate opposing theory is known as the public agenda. The public agenda proposes that it is the public that determines the important issues. The media adjusts itself to the information about which the people want to know. Those who are strong advocates of the public agenda theory deflate the influence of the media and feel that it does not affect how people think about war. In their War and Media, Miles Hudsonand John Stainer comment on the public agenda. They argue that although it has some good points it seems against common sense to argue that such is the case with foreign affairs because the majority of the public cannot bring their own experiences with international affairs in order to have their own opinion (304). Whether advocates of the public agenda agree with this way of thinking, there are some historical accounts that would prove that it is fairly accurate. The type of influence that media has had in the past can be seen through the example of the Third Reich and World War II. Under circumstances so drastic, the mediaHawthorne 5in Germany provides one of many explanations why a whole country blindly believed in the ideals of one radical man. During the wartime the German press offered very little variety in its articles and story topics. Every piece of written work could somehow be traced to Nazis