Discusses journalistic coverage of the Gulf War and how it compares to the present day coverage on terrorist activities.
In the first part of the paper, the author critically discusses Kellner’s analysis of media coverage of the Gulf War. The paper draws comparisons with media coverage of the ongoing war on terrorism and shows how the government and the media have an unwritten agreement in which consent is manufactured. In the second part of the paper, the author goes on to discuss important theoretical assumptions in the analysis of media culture.
Kellner discusses how the war against Iraq was a cultural-political event as much as a military one. (Kellner, 196) This is because the U.S. government carried out one of the most successful public relations campaigns in the history of modern politics in its use of the media to mobilize support for the war. (Kellner, 196) In many respects, this is exactly what President George W. Bush is doing in the war on terror. The media is being coerced into giving a certain message to the American public.
The problem in this whole context is that there is an ideology of freedom in this society that makes people think they are free, when in actuality, they are really not. This is the way capitalist society imposes false consciousness on people. That is exactly what has happened in the way the government has manufactured consent on the Gulf War and on the War on Terror at this moment.”
The problem in this whole context is that there is an ideology of freedom in this society that makes people think they are free, when in actuality, they are really not. This is the way capitalist society imposes false consciousness on people. That is exactly what has happened in the way the government has manufactured consent on the Gulf War and on the War on Terror at this moment.”