well, i finally finished it and turned it in, My teacher said that it was good...no illiciting done on my part either, I included a diagram of the breakdown of information to propaganda from the battle field to the tv screen and did a short spoken work piece in front of my class.
this is most of my finished project minus my spoken work piece and my diagram cause i typed the poem printed it and our school was having network probs so i couldn\'t save over the network and the diagram is a gif and i don\'t feel like finding a site to host it.
anyway here it is:
Properties of model props:
Viewer Television War
Impressionable personal sentiment initializer of conflict
Ignorant of spin Propaganda Platform
Cover up of down play of facts
sensationalism
Media and war
Ever since the Vietnam War media has played a bigger and gradually increasing role in the U.S military in times of war. The reporting started mostly to give citizens on the homeland news on soldiers abroad and the followings of the controversial war; Like a weekly updater. Reporters followed soldiers into combat with microphones and cameras in hand. What these microphones and cameras caught was like a grim dose of deadly reality TV.
People had always reported on wars, Proof being in old World War II footage. It was common place for trained members of the military press to report on the war but in Vietnam we see a surge of commercial reporters such as: 28 year old Saigon correspondent David Halberstam who in conjunction with lieutenant colonel John Paul Van, helped get the truth out on the censored war witch turned David into a famous journalist in the process.
This shift is what makes many believe that the Vietnam war?s outcome was not determined on the battle field with force and elite military tactics but by public opinion through reporters who reported what they saw and refused to let the government or persons employed by the government manipulate there findings.
There was many a battle in on the subject of what the American public should hear on the war. The majority of military officials opted to have the press report only things that boosted the morale of soldiers on the field and swayed the public opinion to the pro-war side at home. Though news uninflected by pro war propaganda quickly morphed patriotic students and young people across the nation into roaring pro-peace activists and turned righteous soldiers into uncertain men-at-arms.
The truth was, sadly that many people had no idea why they were at war. Most, when asked why they were at war responded with random rhetoric that the acquired from evening televised debates, news and other media outlets. This due mostly on the fact that: Although media is a good source of information. Often during times of war it is clutter with misinformation, censored and or swamped with a swarm of irrelevant information that only helps to confuse the viewer.
Even with this aside; With all the opinions, interviews and personal sentiment that the media is capable of shedding light on it becomes apparent that the purpose or reason for a war may take on a richer, more complex meaning. A war to free a suppressed nation may seem pretty straight forward, self explanatory?righteous even; But its only when you scan further that you might realize a wealth of citizens from that same nation in witch some say the grave injustice is being done that you find the mistreatment argument untrue. Other questions also arise: Do the majority of these people desire to be ?freed? ? or the conflict witch will arise from the process?
From this we learn that everything is situational and hardly ever good or bad, black or white. Mass media, and the rapid spread of information made possible through the internet is allowing persons everywhere to glimpse proof that war, especially a unilaterally mindset based war with possible mischievous underlying purposes should not only be rethought but rigorously questioned based on a wide set of morals, a full spectrum of various view points, ideologies and anything the human spirit can conjure up. Thankfully television and the internet are the perfect tools to accomplish this.
Indeed Vietnam was the starting point for all that we know as modern war time reporting and without the uncovering of such scandals as that that surrounded the Pentagon papers in witch proof of blatant propaganda and lies from government officials was brought to light; Without stories to be passed down to new generations that deal with the themes of the Vietnam war. Peace protesters might not gather with as much ferocity; The mass?s might not be as inquisitive. Would reporters and war-time lawyers be in as much demand as now? No; No longer will American government so easily hide under such a thick vail of nationalism, using its own citizens love of there country to mislead or silence them.
Media along with technology is sculpting and leading the way of the future?a new democratic centered around information rather than bureaucracies and lies is steadily being created
Today we see more and more technology advancing our ability to gather information witch shapes our views and mindsets no longer will critical information be unjustly withheld.
