Conflict Media Policy Vietnam War

Conflict media policy is seen as a series of rules, regulations or even methods of control which are used for the media during a conflict. Conflict media policy has changed drastically since the Vietnam War and has had many different affects upon reporters and subsequently the public back at home. This work seeks to look at how conflict media policy has changed, focusing on the effects it has had on reporters and their work whilst also referring to the changes in public perception of a conflict as a direct result of changes in conflict media policy. It can be understood that the development of media policies is an ongoing process, and that very little is always set in stone, therefore the policies looked at in this work are both relevant but
The media had the television, not exactly revolutionary in today’s world of media, but back in the 1960’s the television was an important milestone in the development of war reporting. As McLaughlin implied, “The horrors of war entered the living rooms of Americans for the first time during the Vietnam War” (6). The television’s involvement lead to the Vietnam War being dubbed the “first televised war in American history”. (4) This can be backed up by Ganzel, who stated that, “Between 1949 and 1969, the number of households in the U.S. with at least one TV set rose from less than a million to 44 million” (1), understandably the importance of television was clear, it was soon to become the dominant mode of conveying news. Television became engrossed in American culture, and soon the media made use of the device that could connect with 96% (1) of US households, “Television, therefore, became the most important source of news for American people during the Vietnam era.” (2) The coverage was something that had not been experienced before, the public were being forced to consume news and information on the conflict, as there were little other
There are certain media policies that were developed as a direct response to the events of the Vietnam War. To look at how conflict media policy has affected war reporting, the Vietnam War must be looked in comparison with a more recent conflicts, which can be seen as the evolution of media policy as a result of the Vietnam War. The conflicts in the Persian Gulf and subsequently the War in Iraq are the most significant conflicts involving the US since Vietnam, and with them came a wave of new media policy intended to be deployed against the media. The conflicts occurring in the Gulf were much more technologically advanced, both for the military and for the media. With Vietnam strongly seen as a US defeat, it is understandable that going into another war, the US would want to prevent any issues from Vietnam. “Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room” (10), which lead a lot of people to blame television and the changes it made to public opinion as a key factor in the defeat. Therefore, changes would have to be made to conflict media policy in order to prevent a similar outcome, which McLuhan suggested was “lost in the living rooms of America – not on the battlefields of Vietnam” (10). Media policy would be key to the conflict as it