A Century of Media, a Century of War (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: war persuasions, censored stories, press restrictions, World War, United States, Oliver North (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The connections between war and media, forged over the course of a century, run long and deep. As we find in these pages, the history of war and its telling has been a battle over public perception. The selection of which stories are told and which are ignored helps justify past battles and insure future wars. Narratives of protest and pain, defeat and suffering, guilt and abuse struggle to be heard amid the empowering myths of war and heroism.

As Robin Andersen argues, the history of struggle between war and its representation has changed the way war is fought and the way we tell the stories of war. Information management, once called censorship and propaganda, has developed in tandem with new media technologies. Now digital imaging creates virtual battlefields as computer-based technologies transform the weapons of war. Along the way, images on the nightly news, on movie screens, and in videogames have turned war into entertainment. In the grip of virtual war, it is difficult to realize the loss of compassion or the consequences for democracy. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From the Back Cover

"Robin Andersen has long been an incisive media critic with great scope and depth. In A Century of Media, A Century of War, she provides a sharp overview of a grisly media landscape. This book is a fierce light that removes the shadowy evasions of our easy reveries for war. The result is a chilling panorama of what we routinely hide from ourselves—bitter truths about media systems that deceive men and women into avidly or passively supporting the latest war. Readers can take little comfort from this well-documented story, but they can learn crucial lessons about real-life consequences when media outlets serve the warfare state."

—Norman Solomon, author, War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 350 pages
• Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing (September 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0820478938
• ISBN-13: 978-0820478937
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #827,319 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read to Better Understand the War in Iraq, January 22, 2007

By	Word Warrior - See all my reviews

Media critic Robin Andersen's timely work, A Century of Media, A Century of War, is a must read for those seeking to understand how we were drawn into the war in Iraq.

Just how did the Bush Administration and its corporate media allies sell us on successive lies to get us into this war? Director of the Peace and Justice Studies Program at Fordham University, Professor Andersen investigates the collaborative relationship of the media with the current and past administrations to promote the wars of the last 100 years.

The chapter, "The Military Entertainment Complex: Permanent War and the Digital Spectacular," is the most cogent look yet at the nexus of the media industry and the Pentagon as Andersen examines the Department of Defense's (DOD) funding of corporate research and development of "militainment" for the recruitment, training and selling of current and future wars.

In her conclusion, "War, Humanism and Democracy," Andersen clearly elucidates the threat the media/DOD collusion is to democracy, writing, "Militainment does not fulfill the media's democratic mandate, any more than does the simple dissemination of government proclamations."

This seminal work provides the reader with a better understanding of how we are being manipulated and gives us the tools to cut through the media fog surrounding wars and maybe, just maybe, help prevent future armed conflicts that are not in the nation's interest.

0 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Bit Slanted, July 21, 2008

By	M. Miller (Hinesville, GA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Although well referenced and researched, this book tells a very one-sided liberal story. It covers all the wars of the century and the media's involvement in each, so lives up to its cover, but reads like a text book. Each topic covered in this book makes a neutral source of information look like a government conspiracy or right wing banter.