War on terror as a media war Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

War on terror as a media war - Essay Example In the past,the role of Media was defined and static as media was decisively used as a source to portray knowledge and information.In the contemporary period,media’s roles and functions are diverse,as now media has been used to create propagandas,spread political agendas and channelize a desired set of opinion to the publicActually,media has come out with a role to change the perception of the mass populace. It has come out to dominate the perception of the larger population (Barker, 1997). According to many scholars, War on Terror was a war that got initiated and established on media. It was media that compelled the reasons of war on terror and it was media that actually followed through the September 11 incident, which became the reason for originating the so-called war on terrorism. This study is investigating the US declared War on Terror as a Media War. The study stands on the argument that war on terror is in fact a war of media, which is only a broadcasting instrument i n any democratic society like US, UK, and Europe. Is media a propagator, a manipulator or a spreader of the right set of information? is a question, which this study will try to investigate and answer. The September 11 incident and the Media Projection When the September 11 attacks hit America, it was the highest media coverage that the incident received at that time. The coverage was so well directed and well projected that it got viewed at the mass global level. Televisions, radios, Internet news portals, and websites all got switched up to broadcast this disastrous happening (Baudrillard, 2002). It was actually an outburst of information that incurred during this catastrophic event. What was it? People called it a balloon of information that got blown up at the time of September 11 incident. Information covered the world, covered the mass global audience, its large perception and opinion. These were the strongest implications, which media brought on the September 11 incident. It was projected that Osama Bin Laden with his intentions to attack America was behind this terrorism activity. Similarly, the later projections of media were that Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussain designed this mass terror act. This is how time after time, media projected of what it was told to project and demonstrated of what it was instructed to demonstrate (Barker, 1997). This is the argument, which several journalists and anchorpersons put onto the media coverage of the September 11 incident. The media coverage was transcending and out of the limits to broadcast the 9/11 incident. This is what most of the critics argument that media projection and demonstration of the September 11 incident was not in accordance to media obligations and standards. A 10-hour transmission each day on all international broadcasting forums was how media demonstrated the 9/11 incident. It was beyond the media laws, beyond the media jurisdiction, code and obligation as suggested by Dowmunt (1993) in his book a bout the role of media as a propagator. It was seen after September 11 that media got used as a planning instrument. The critics argument that media was not media as it was before the time of September 11 incident. It was something like a propagating machine after the September 11 incident as media role discussed by Wasko & Mosco (1992). Spreading information consistently and precisely to the mass global audience became the primary function of media at the time of September 11 incident occurred. Why was it so? The critics respond to it in a way that that media became a vibrant channel to spread a desired point of opinion and a desired perception to the public after the incident took over (Mirzoeff, 2005). Delivering a desired perception to public for changing the public opinion was something, which was something thought and prospered on media sources. The critics assert that media was used as a tracker of information and