"A new and different world is being shaped in the Middle East. TV has set in motion the process of changing people. It played a considerable role in the conduct of the Iraq war. [...] War scenes with their obvious pain and suggestions are registered deep in both hearts and in the subconscious. The very latest reports and pictures from war now reach the public live and uncensored. [...] The style of reporting has greatly changed since the Gulf War II of 1991 in which press conferences held by a military spokesperson were the major news sources. [...] An important lesson the US learned from past experiences, particularly in Vietnam, was the strategic significance of meticulous planning in advance of all media operations. [...] Media plans for the recent Iraq war were made as early as December 2002 with the help of senior officials at the White House and the departments of Defense and State. The strategy emphasized the message to be delivered, the press meetings every two hours and the spokesperson to make the presentation. The timing of the press meetings was planned so that they coincided with the morning TV news bulletins. The planners were also very careful in choosing the words to be used in the statements to the press. The US and its allies were referred to as Allied forces, a name which conjured up visions of the Allied Forces in World War II, which defeated the Nazis. Most of the media used the term. The media planners also presented American soldiers as kindhearted and sympathetic to the people of Iraq, undertaking humanitarian activities such as distributing relief materials to women and children and carrying the wounded and sick to hospitals. [...]
The difference between the Western and the Arab media was mainly cultural rather than technical. The conduct of the Arab media, however, resulted in the mindset of an entire nation being distorted. [...] TV news reports reduced events to pictures, which played a lead role in determining the impact of an event. Pictures play a significant role in interpreting events and influencing the minds of viewers. [...] Rapidly developing technology has provided the common man with fast and cheap access to information. State censors are helpless against what is now a flood of information. The difference between the old and new media is not so much in the new machines for news distribution as in enabling people to get news whenever they want it. [...] The choice is with the viewers; they can view any channel whenever they want. Round-the-clock war coverage created a negative impression in people’s minds. Wherever they turned, it was pictures of war that they had to see and think about. Instead of helping them have a clear understanding about the real war, the pictures were taken out of context and made the viewers lose sight of the reality. The end result was that viewers learned nothing new about the battles being fought. [...]
I wonder why no bloodshed, no dead body and no injured soldiers are seen in wars launched by superpowers. Only charred and destroyed military installations, empty of human victims, are seen. I wonder why no bloodshed, no dead body and no injured soldiers are seen in wars launched by superpowers. Only charred and destroyed military installations, empty of human victims, are seen. [...] An American study carried out in collaboration with Columbia University analyzed the results of the experience of journalists being embedded with military units. Most reports produced by the journalists lacked photos of actual war. It was, according to the study, a war without blood. [...] Withholding pictures with painful content is an issue being debated. Efforts to keep war reports free of blood and killing while thousands are in fact killed is tantamount to encouraging war because it makes people believe that war has no cost in terms of human lives."
[Arab News: The Middle East's Leading English Language Daily]
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