Why Is It Fair To Report During The Falklands War

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To what extent would it be fair to say that mass media had no choice but to report what the government wanted it to report during the Falklands war?

Using evidence from sources 3a, 3b, 3c and 3d, it can be seen that there is indication which shows that the government did in fact control what was reported in the Falklands war. It can be seen that the government did make it difficult to report events from the war, which is presented in the fact that there was no photos in the first 55 days. This long delay in media involvement was controlled by the government, clearly expressing the influence they had. This idea is further backed up in source 3c, which compared the Falklands war (1982) to the ‘Crimean War’ (1853) while concerning
As can be seen in source 3d, the government clearly, and to a heavy extent wanted to control what was reported in the media involving the Falklands war, this can be seen in ‘the remoteness of this war… facilitated media management’. This suggests that the location enabled the government to easily control what was being portrayed in the media. This idea in source 3d is backed up through my own knowledge which proposes that the location made it difficult to report events of the war, as the geographical location and technological collimations disadvantaged reporters. It strongly suggests that the media had no choice but to report what the government wanted it to in the concluding sentence, which states ‘the British government… practised deception and media manipulation’. Also, it must be accounted that source 3d contains strong credibility. Written in 2009, it allows the writers to have a clear overview of the whole war. Also, being established historians, the writer would possess objectiveness, which results in a more reliable judgement. Using source 3c in conjunction with source 3d brings a strong extent to the idea mass media was controlled by the government. This is because source 3c, written by Julian Barnes explicitly suggests that the government hid the truth from the public, meaning they controlled what was seen in the media, this idea is seen frequently in source 3c. The live reporting of ITV, of the deportation of the British navy was ‘the last sunny, honest, unspun images’ seen in the public eye. Also, as seen in source 3c, information was frequently leaked from the government- whether good or bad. This can be supported by my own knowledge, which showed that the information of the reposition of south Georgia wasn’t received by the British audience suggests that both good and bad news was hidden from the public,