Electronic Media in War and Peace
Last updated: October 26, 2008
Published by Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security (ACDIS), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Swords and Ploughshares series
Vol. V / No. 4 / Summmer 1991
Summary
The Persian Gulf War was a television war. Almost everything the American people understood about the war derived from what they saw on the tube. Daily press conferences in Washington and Saudi Arabia, CNN coverage from Baghdad, and video clips of high-technology weapons at work defined the public’s reactions. Radio added its part, while the print media lagged far behind.Once before during armed hostilities—the Vietnam War—television had played a major role in shaping public opinion. During that searing conflict, the American people witnessed as never before the human side of war. By contrast, the human side was largely absent in the media coverage of the Gulf War. Something fundamental had changed in the manner in which the electronic media covered war.
To explore and understand these developments, the Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security joined with the College of Communications to organize a campus forum, “Electronic Media in War and Peace,” in April 1991 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Papers in this issue of Swords and Ploughshares are derived from the presentations made by forum panelists.
Contents
Introduction 
[PDF]
The Electronic Media in War and Peace [PDF]
The Other Front, behind Your Eyes [PDF]
Behind the Face of Television and War [PDF]
Representing the Gulf War: The Electronic Media [PDF]
Crisis in the Air: Television in America [PDF]