News Media Vietnam War
How far do you agree with conservative claims that
“the news media helped America lose the war in Vietnam”?
The news media was very important during the Vietnam War because due to the advent of television news reporting, it was the first war in history where civilians at the home front got to witness the atrocities in the battlefield instead of reading or hearing about it from the newspapers and the radio. At a time where dissent had been legitimised by the Civil Rights Movement in America and when civilians were starting to lose their faith in their government, they turned to the media to give them information that their government otherwise would not. The growth of television news reporting, the media’s misguided reports on the Tet Offensive …show more content…
Through the television, the media could show videos taken during the war and show it to most of the American population: by January of 1968, television reports had potential audience of 96 per cent of the population because nearly a hundred million sets were distributed across America, reaching sixteen of every seventeen homes.3 Thus, the television medium could easily reach out to the American people and provide video evidence where convenient. Braestrup concluded that “TV was always worse” than newspaper reports because the emotive demands of the medium and commercial demands of holding an audience just worked against calm, dispassionate reporting.4 Therefore, the television distorted information in order to get a reaction from the American public, because instead of producing real information, they produced information that was aimed at the people’s emotions. This is supported by Reed Irvine’s article in AIM Report, where he says that TV was especially effective in convincing the public that they had been deceived when their leaders told them that great progress had been made in Vietnam.5 This was because all TV news reports had to do was show images and videos of war atrocities during the evening news to debunk these claims. This was demonstrated during the Tet Offensive, which frustrated officials in the high ranks of government, because although reassuring views of Westmoreland and Bunker were distributed to a few officials in the top rank of government, a quite different and much more sobering version was broadcast to the American people – news reports on television stations such as NBC and CBS were showing films of the battle.6 This was very effective in turning the American people against the war. Irvine quotes Dr. Lefever’s analysis of all the CBS Evening News programs in the year 1972 and how they dealt with the war. In Dr.
“the news media helped America lose the war in Vietnam”?
The news media was very important during the Vietnam War because due to the advent of television news reporting, it was the first war in history where civilians at the home front got to witness the atrocities in the battlefield instead of reading or hearing about it from the newspapers and the radio. At a time where dissent had been legitimised by the Civil Rights Movement in America and when civilians were starting to lose their faith in their government, they turned to the media to give them information that their government otherwise would not. The growth of television news reporting, the media’s misguided reports on the Tet Offensive …show more content…
Through the television, the media could show videos taken during the war and show it to most of the American population: by January of 1968, television reports had potential audience of 96 per cent of the population because nearly a hundred million sets were distributed across America, reaching sixteen of every seventeen homes.3 Thus, the television medium could easily reach out to the American people and provide video evidence where convenient. Braestrup concluded that “TV was always worse” than newspaper reports because the emotive demands of the medium and commercial demands of holding an audience just worked against calm, dispassionate reporting.4 Therefore, the television distorted information in order to get a reaction from the American public, because instead of producing real information, they produced information that was aimed at the people’s emotions. This is supported by Reed Irvine’s article in AIM Report, where he says that TV was especially effective in convincing the public that they had been deceived when their leaders told them that great progress had been made in Vietnam.5 This was because all TV news reports had to do was show images and videos of war atrocities during the evening news to debunk these claims. This was demonstrated during the Tet Offensive, which frustrated officials in the high ranks of government, because although reassuring views of Westmoreland and Bunker were distributed to a few officials in the top rank of government, a quite different and much more sobering version was broadcast to the American people – news reports on television stations such as NBC and CBS were showing films of the battle.6 This was very effective in turning the American people against the war. Irvine quotes Dr. Lefever’s analysis of all the CBS Evening News programs in the year 1972 and how they dealt with the war. In Dr.