News media, movies, blogs and video games issue constant invitations to picture war, experience the thrill of combat, and revisit battles past. War, it's often said, sells. But what does it take to sell a war, and to what extent can news media be viewed as disinterested reporters of truth? Lively and highly readable, this book explores how wars have been reported, interpreted and perpetuated from the dawn of the media age to the present digital era. Spanning a broad geographical and historical canvas, Susan L. Carruthers provides a compelling analysis of the forces that shape the production of news and images of war – from state censorship to more subtle forms of military manipulation and popular pressure. This fully revised second edition has been updated to cover modern-day conflict in the post 9/11 epoch, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rich in historical detail, The Media at War also provides sharp insights into contemporary experience, prompting critical reflection on western society's paradoxical attitudes towards war.

The trinity of government, military and publics has been drawn together into immediate and unpredictable relationships in a "new media ecology" that has ushered in new asymmetries in the waging of war and terror. To help us understand these new relationships, Andrew Hoskins and Ben O'Loughlin here provide a timely, comprehensive and highly readable survey of the field of war and media. War is diffused through a complex mesh of our everyday media. Paradoxically, this both facilitates and contains the presence and power of enemies near and far. The conventions of so-called traditional warfare have been splintered by the availability and connectivity of the principal locus of war today: the electronic and digital media. Hoskins and O'Loughlin identify and illuminate the conditions of what they term "diffused war" and the new challenges it raises for the actors who wage and counter warfare, for their agents and mechanisms of the new media and for mass publics. This book offers an invaluable review of the key literature and presents a fresh approach to the understanding of the dynamic relationships between war and media. It will be welcomed by a broad range of students taking courses on war and media and related modules, especially in media, communication and cultural studies, politics and international relations, sociology, journalism, and security studies.

This uniquely comprehensive assessment of the role of the media before, during and after wars draws on examples from the 20th century's total wars as well as limited wars, terrorist campaigns, and complex emergencies such as Rwanda and Somalia. It argues that the media's performance in wartime may result as much from peacetime journalistic practices as from the special circumstances of war. The book concludes by assessing the impact of new communications technology and how the representation of future wars is likely to differ from those in the past.

Contains over sixty highly personal perspectives about the media at war in Iraq.

Topics include: the arms supply scandal involving Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North in 1987, the Gulf War and TV channel CNN, the films Black hawk down, Courage under fire, Three kings, Saving Private Ryan.

In this fresh and provocative book, Anthony DiMaggio uses the war in Iraq and the United States confrontations with Iran as his touchstones to probe the sometimes fine line between news and propaganda. Using Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony and drawing upon the seminal works of Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, and Robert McChesney, DiMaggio combines a rigorousempirical analysis and clear, lucid prose to enlighten readers about issues essential to the struggle for a critical media and a functioning democracy. If, as DiMaggio shows, our newspapers and television news programs play a decisive role in determining what we think, and if, as he demonstrates convincingly, what the media give us is largely propaganda that supports an oppressive and undemocratic status quo, then it is incumbent upon us to make sure that they are responsive to the majority and not just the powerful and privileged few.

`No book is more timely than this collection, which analyses brilliantly the Western media′s relentless absorption into the designs of dominant, rapacious power′ - John Pilger `A most timely book, with many valuable insights′ - Martin Bell O.B.E `It has long been known that the outcome of war is deeply influenced by the battle to win ′hearts and minds′. This book provides a stimulating set of perspectives which combine the analyses of prominent academics with the experiences of leading journalists′ - Professor Tom Woodhouse, University of Bradford `This volume represents an all-star cast of authors who have a tremendous amount of knowledge about media and world conflict. One of its strengths is that it doesn′t focus entirely narrowly on media, but puts the discussion of media issues in the context of changes in the world order in military doctrine′ - Professor Daniel C. Hallin, University of California `This book comes just in time. A coherent and wide-ranging collection of data, analyses and insights that help our understanding of the complex interaction between communication and conflict. A major intellectual contribution to critical thinking about the early 21st century′ - Cees J Hamelink, Professor International Communication, University of Amsterdam With what new tools do governments manage the news in order to prepare us for conflict? Are the media responsible for turning conflict into infotainment? Is reporting gender specific? How do journalists view their role in covering distant wars? This book critically examines the changing contours of media coverage of war and considers the complexity of the relationship between mass media and governments in wartime. Assessing how far the political, cultural and professional contexts of media coverage have been affected by 9/11 and its aftermath, the volume also explores media representations of the `War on Terrorism′ from regional and international perspectives, including new actors such as the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera - the pan-Arabic television network. One key theme of the book is how new information and communication technologies are influencing the production, distribution and reception of media messages. In an age of instant global communication and round-the-clock news, powerful governments have refined their public relations machinery, particularly in the way warfare is covered on television, to market their version of events effectively to their domestic as well as international viewing public. Transnational in its intellectual scope and in perspectives, War and the Media includes essays from internationally known academics along with contributions from media professionals working for leading broadcasters such as BBC World and CNN.

Explores the history of television news stations and programs involvement and influence in times of war, from the Vietnam Conflict to the War on Terrorism.

`No book is more timely than this collection, which analyses brilliantly the Western media′s relentless absorption into the designs of dominant, rapacious power′ - John Pilger `A most timely book, with many valuable insights′ - Martin Bell O.B.E `It has long been known that the outcome of war is deeply influenced by the battle to win ′hearts and minds′. This book provides a stimulating set of perspectives which combine the analyses of prominent academics with the experiences of leading journalists′ - Professor Tom Woodhouse, University of Bradford `This volume represents an all-star cast of authors who have a tremendous amount of knowledge about media and world conflict. One of its strengths is that it doesn′t focus entirely narrowly on media, but puts the discussion of media issues in the context of changes in the world order in military doctrine′ - Professor Daniel C. Hallin, University of California `This book comes just in time. A coherent and wide-ranging collection of data, analyses and insights that help our understanding of the complex interaction between communication and conflict. A major intellectual contribution to critical thinking about the early 21st century′ - Cees J Hamelink, Professor International Communication, University of Amsterdam With what new tools do governments manage the news in order to prepare us for conflict? Are the media responsible for turning conflict into infotainment? Is reporting gender specific? How do journalists view their role in covering distant wars? This book critically examines the changing contours of media coverage of war and considers the complexity of the relationship between mass media and governments in wartime. Assessing how far the political, cultural and professional contexts of media coverage have been affected by 9/11 and its aftermath, the volume also explores media representations of the `War on Terrorism′ from regional and international perspectives, including new actors such as the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera - the pan-Arabic television network. One key theme of the book is how new information and communication technologies are influencing the production, distribution and reception of media messages. In an age of instant global communication and round-the-clock news, powerful governments have refined their public relations machinery, particularly in the way warfare is covered on television, to market their version of events effectively to their domestic as well as international viewing public. Transnational in its intellectual scope and in perspectives, War and the Media includes essays from internationally known academics along with contributions from media professionals working for leading broadcasters such as BBC World and CNN.

Mass communication is used by governments to support their war efforts while media images are created or manipulated to inform, persuade or guide the consumers of those images. But this book looks beyond the obvious. The contributors examine historical and contemporary examples that reflect the role of the media or mass communication or both during wartime. The essays highlight the centrality of communication to the perpetuation and to the resolution of war, suggesting that the symbiotic relationship between communication and war is as important to understand as war itself.