Politics of violence

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Politics of violence
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War is nothing more than the continuation of
politics by other means. (Karl von
Clausewitz, 1780-1831)
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Lecture content

• (Military) force, violence, propaganda
• Wars differ
• Information and communication in wartime
• War and the media

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Common ingredients, confused ethics

• Wars as fought by sovereign nation states
• Wars can be just
• Between armies, violence legitimate against
  uniformed enemies, endeavours to limit violence
  against civilians, use of violence proportional
  to ends
• The other side of legitimate war terrorism,
  rebellion, guerrilla war

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Common ingredients, confused ethics

• Who is or is not a terrorist in the media is a
  matter of politics (Parenti, 1993)
• Laws are silent in time of war (Cicero, 106-43
  BC)
• Truth is the first casualty of war (attr. to
  Samuel Johnson 1709-84)

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Wars differ

• Total war (vs. limited war)
• refers to the comprehensive government control
  over all aspect of life extent to which all the
  population (not just the military) are targets
  (and combatants) aims total victory extensive
  theatre of war (think WWII).
• Industrial war
• between nation states mass mobilization of
  population central planning industrial
  production to feed military needs media co-opted
  and controlled in the effort to manage morale

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Wars

• Information war
• relies not on mass mobilization but relatively
  small number of professional soldiers (knowledge
  warriors) requires high tech approach to
  planning and information management
• civilian population removed to the margins, so
  little direct involvement but extensive indirect
  involvement through media exposure

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Information and communication

• Information Operations approach
• Warfare as exercise in information processing a
  range of information necessary to conduct
  operations is gathered and utilized through
  (PSYOPS), deception, military-press interface.

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Information and communication

• Perception management or public diplomacy
  approach
• international broadcasting, cultural diplomacy,
  educational exchanges and overseas information
  activities (think Cold War)

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Information and communication

• Use of political news management approach for war
  purposes (think Iraq 2003)

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War and the media

• Critical observer
• Journalists as impartial and independent
  observers of military conduct, approach derives
  from the idea of the media as the fourth estate
• Vietnam War as key example (relatively unmanaged
  reporters exposure of American domestic
  audiences to unmanaged representation of
  conflict as bloody and brutal seen as key in
  turning public opinion against the war

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War and the media

• Publicist
• The media represent the frameworks of political
  and military leaders and in doing so provide
  propaganda rather than disinterested
  journalism (Thussu Freedman, 2003, p. 4)
• Fox New Channel noted for its particularly
  aggressive patriotic position and support for
  the Bush wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

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War and the media

• Publicist
• Relevance of Herman Chomskys propaganda model
  (1988)
• Corporate ownership and profit orientation
• Influence of advertisers
• Dependence on official sources
• Reporting routines make media vulnerable to
  manipulation
• Fear of flak
• Controversy oxygen of publicity (Margaret
  Thatcher)

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War and the media

• Battleground
• A view that the military and media have come so
  closely together that the battle is now conducted
  in the media
• Baudrillards controversial claim that the Gulf
  War I was a gigantic simulation
• A less extreme version of this view points out to
  live coverage, techniques of control, and
  turning wars into a spectacle, as well as the
  importance of visibility as a way of pursuing
  legitimacy

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War and the media

• Lessons learned media management
• The Falklands conflict and the importance of
  close quarters and limited communication
• embedded reporters in Iraq physical control,
  socialization, as improvement on the pool
  system in the Gulf War 1991
• Tying the enemy in press centres (Iraq war
  2003 Allied Central Command in Doha, Qatar)
• Control of images Ikonos, commercial satellite
  launched in 1999 capable of showing human bodies,
  Pentagon bought the right to these images during
  the Afghanistan war

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The media love war

• Newsworthy, a good story (drama, of immediate
  appeal to the public)
• War sells (viewing figures for CNN, Fox BBC 24,
  Sky News ITV News Channel reported bigger
  audiences after war declared Glen Becks show on
  Clear Channel)

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The media love war

• The problem with distant wars (Congo, Sudan)
• Invisible wars ethno-national conflict, e.g.
  in 2002, 173 conflicts, but only a handful
  covered (Kashmir, Tamil separatism in Sri Lanka)

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Global media and war

• Western dominance News agencies (Reuters
  Television, Associated Press Television News
• Big networks CNN (first broadcaster to be able
  to offer 24-hour live news, Iraq 1991), BBC, Sky
• Who is afraid of Al-Jazeera?
• funded in 1996 by the Qatari, used expertise
  gained through short-lived BBC Arabic television
  network independent, public service
  programming in the West, known mostly for airing
  bin Ladens tapes. Challenge to the Western
  framing of the global events, Muslim voice.

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Global media and war

• War as product infotainment
• Video/computer game style images of military
  operations (war games)
• Use of graphics and satellite picture
• Chat-show use of experts
• Presents war as
• Bloodless
• Simplified and trivialized
• As well as partisan because of its openness to
  spin

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Public opinion, the media and war

• Media as propaganda (WWII)
• Patriotic media (Fox TV and the Gulf War II vs.
  BBC during the Falklands war)
• Divided public opinion divided press
• In the run up to the invasions of Iraq in 2003
• rightwing newspapers Times, Telegraph, Sun,
  Daily Mail supported the government line
  Guardian, Independent questioned the reasons for
  the war or openly campaigned against it (Daily
  Mirror)

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Conclusions

• Wars and conflict appear as particularly
  problematic areas for public debate and
  accentuate threats to the public sphere from
• Commercial nature of much media
• Globalization
• Propaganda activities in relation media control
  used by the combatants