Media’s Influence on War
To analyses the media’s influence on the war, two genres of communication will be employed, a website article and a documentary. The two genres contribute a lot to how the messages are portrayed. This article will be analyzing the audience and purpose, the rhetorical issues like Ethos, Logos, and Pathos, and structure, and delivery. It will always be a highly discussed topic because information about previous and present wars will keep leaking out, whether it’s good or bad. The topic is such a big issue that many websites have released multiple articles on this topic. The same applies to documentaries, from the way directors make war seem to be by only showing what they want the audience to see.
The media plays a significant role in the topic of war in terms of the way everything is depicted, monitored, reported, and given updates on. As the audience, we only see and hear what the media wants us to see and hear. Throughout the years, there has been criticism on the role of media in the war. Following the actions and influences that have resulted from the media’s outcome of the war. With the media being involved, many political assumptions and issues have been perceived across the country (Massaro, 2015). Not only does it affect our country, but it can also interfere with other countries who can view the United States in a negative. Although the purpose of the media could be seen as a means of reporting to viewers who care about what is going on in the war. It can also be the opposite of what is intended. Viewers can see it as something negative, because of the way the media turns it out to be.
The media is the primary medium of communication sought by many. “More people get their news from ABC News than from any other source, ABC News proudly boasts. But what exactly do they get? As America delves deeper into the 21st century with an array of social and technological advancements, one facet that continues to impress, revolutionize, and greatly impact American society as we know it comes from the evolution of communication, most notably the digital media. The manner and speed in which news reaches its audiences is even more remarkable than the saturation of the media on the American public“(Hillesheim, 2019). In terms of fighting terrorism as a country, the media is in a position to feed people with information. It tells on how great or how poor their country is dealing with the situation. Moreover, it is only the media that has control of the kind of information that will get to the audience.
Arguably, it is prudent to say that people’s perception of the country generally depends on the media. The media can decide whether citizens will love a certain Politian over the other. This can happen in a case where they portray one person to be good, unlike the other one. The United States communication system is one of the best in the world, informing Americans every day of every newsworthy and often un-newsworthy event. This source of information, arriving continuously into the living rooms of millions of American’s is no doubt invaluable. But case studies of media influence during wartime bring into question the amount of freedom the media industry currently holds and the possible necessity of either self-imposed or governmentally imposed restrictions to what will and what will not be allowed¨ (Hillesheim, 2019).
The media has influenced the way we think about the war through documentaries. Pathos can be mostly seen throughout most of the war documentaries, because of the emotional appeal the directors bring out. These documentaries are used to persuade the audience by appealing to their emotions. Eventually showing them what goes on during the war and after the war, (Massaro, 2015). Although most documentaries try to evoke sympathy from the audience, they can also inspire anger or other feelings from what they are showing throughout the documentary. Ethos can also be seen in documentaries because of the emotional appeal they are trying to show, by convincing the audience with credibility about the war. They can show clips or footage of what they want the audience to see, which may have or may not have happened. Sometimes the real part of the story or the behind the scenes footage is not shown in documentaries.
The influence documentaries have on war can be seen through pathos and ethos, because they are trying to show the real deal but shaped into a way they want the audience to view it. ¨ Again, one cannot solely condemn the media for their involvement in the war as the reason behind such a military failure. However, with media images flooding the television screens across America, it is not a surprise that the American public responded quickly to the atrocities at hand. And while quick and effective action is ideal, it always takes time to examine the situation at hand, especially in a foreign land to best utilize our military resources efficiently and successfully¨ (Corry, 1986). In this case, the media acted as a watchdog for the country, and due to this coverage, the response was quick. The quicker the answer, the effective the state as it also saves lives.
In the news delivering the media can use different genres of communication, including the use of documentaries and the use of website articles. The two are different in that documentaries display the real image of the events transpiring. At the same time, website articles only show the information in it and create an image in the mind of the reader (Massaro, 2015). Even though both engage the audience to summon empathy, documentaries allow for maintaining eye contact with the audience. It employs the use of ethos and logos to win over the audience to the side of their choice. Website articles through creative writing an appeal to the readers’ emotional feelings. This employs the use of pathos and structure delivery to impact the mind of the reader. The use of articles mostly applies to current affairs, unlike documentaries, that major on things that have already happened.
The media is, no doubt, an essential part of American culture. It is quite evident that the media has the power to influence peoples perception of certain things. Mass communication has transformed civil society, affecting every aspect of governance by directing the will and opinion of the people. As such, there is a variety of views available for the public’s consumption. It is evident that with such a multitude of media sources, domestic and abroad, competition will be fierce, and the power to persuade will be distributed so widely that no one cause of media can alter the perceptions or opinions of American citizens¨.
References
Corry, J., and Hudson, M. (1986, October 1). ‘TELEVISION’S VIETNAM,’ A DOCUMENTARY ON 31:War and the Media: A Random Searchlight. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/01/movies/television-s-vietnam-a-documentary-on-31.html
Hillesheim, J. (2019, November 5). How the Media Shapes Public Opinion of War. Retrieved from https://www.rewire.org/pbs/vietnam-war-media-shapes-public-opinion/
Massaro, D. W. (2015). Two different communication genres and implications for vocabulary development and learning to read. Journal of Literacy Research, 47(4), 505-527.