The Media And The Persian Gulf War

An eye-opening look at the effect of the media on public perception of The Persian Gulf War

Many scholars call the Persian Gulf conflict the first prime-time war. Certainly, the technologies, strategies, and skills of the military in managing the public agenda were equal to those of the television networks and major print organizations. The Media and the Persian Gulf War focuses on the processes and effects of the media, both leading up to and during the mother of all battles in 1990 and 1991. Broad in scope and varied in methodologies, the chapters span the media of television, radio, print, and film. Chapters discuss such specific topics as the relationship between the press and the censoring military, CNN's and C-SPAN's coverage, how talk radio and television covered the war, the media's depiction of women in the military, the Gulf War as a referent in advertising, and how popular culture legitimized the war. This work will be an important resource for scholars in political and mass communication, popular culture, and political science.

THE TRIUMPH OF IMAGE over reality and reason is the theme of this book. New communication technologies have made possible the transportation of images and words in real time to hundreds of millions of people around the world. We thought we witnessed the Gulf War as we sat, mesmerized by the imagery. But the studies from the many countries assembled for this book suggest that it was not the war in the Persian Gulf that we witnessed but rather imagery orchestrated to convey a sense of triumph and thus to achieve results that reality and reason could never have achieved. The book offers contributions from thirty-five authors in eighteen countries, including short samplings from the media of several regions. The authors explore the social, economic, and political context of media coverage in their countries, the domination of one image in most of them, and the struggle for alternative perspectives. The authors probe the dynamics of image-making and pose some challenges for the future as well as provide us with a unique glimpse of how the world outside of the United States (as well as many Americans) viewed the war in the Persian Gulf and how the dynamics of image-making and information control operate. Triumph of the Image will be useful to scholars and students in communications and mass media, international relations, political science, cultural studies, propaganda, censorship, and contemporary history as well as to the general public.

America's attention focused on the Gulf War as briefings and bombings filled the airwaves and pictures and stories filled the print media. But did the American people receive the information that a free press should guarantee?

The Gulf War of 1991 was the highest profile media war in history. Never before had so many journalists attempted to cover a war from both sides of the conflict. This book traces the role of the media in the Gulf War and examines the attempts by both the coalition and Iraq to influence public opinion through propaganda and persuasion. Philp Taylor asks how much the public was being told and how much was held back. Analyzing the key news stories of the conflict he looks at the efforts of the American-led coalition to persuade television audiences and newspaper readers to take a "right view" of what was happening and of the Iraqi government's propaganda campaigns concerning civilian damage and the "Mother of all Battles."

The Gulf War of 1991 was the highest profile media war in history. Never before had so many journalists attempted to cover a war from both sides of the conflict. This book traces the role of the media in the Gulf War and examines the attempts by both the coalition and Iraq to influence public opinion through propaganda and persuasion. Philp Taylor asks how much the public was being told and how much was held back. Analyzing the key news stories of the conflict he looks at the efforts of the American-led coalition to persuade television audiences and newspaper readers to take a "right view" of what was happening and of the Iraqi government's propaganda campaigns concerning civilian damage and the "Mother of all Battles."

"[This report] considers the chronology of the crisis in the Persian Gulf and the role of the media. It also takes up the complex and longstanding issue of censorship and information policy, provides a close-up look at the correspondents who covered the war, the technology they used, and the results of that work ... The study also reviews public opinion data related to media performance and credibility during the war. Finally, there are recommendations aimed at improved public understanding of the role of the media in wartime"--Page vii.