War and Media

The trinity of government, military and publics has been drawn together into immediate and unpredictable relationships in a "e;new media ecology"e; that has ushered in new asymmetries in the waging of war and terror. To help us understand these new relationships, Andrew Hoskins and Ben O'Loughlin here provide a timely, comprehensive and highly readable survey of the field of war and media. War is diffused through a complex mesh of our everyday media. Paradoxically, this both facilitates and contains the presence and power of enemies near and far. The conventions of so-called traditional warfare have been splintered by the availability and connectivity of the principal locus of war today: the electronic and digital media. Hoskins and O'Loughlin identify and illuminate the conditions of what they term "e;diffused war"e; and the new challenges it raises for the actors who wage and counter warfare, for their agents and mechanisms of the new media and for mass publics. This book offers an invaluable review of the key literature and presents a fresh approach to the understanding of the dynamic relationships between war and media. It will be welcomed by a broad range of students taking courses on war and media and related modules, especially in media, communication and cultural studies, politics and international relations, sociology, journalism, and security studies.

The trinity of government, military and publics has been drawntogether into immediate and unpredictable relationships in a "newmedia ecology" that has ushered in new asymmetries in the waging ofwar and terror. To help us understand these new relationshipsAndrew Hoskins and Ben O'Loughlin here provide a timelycomprehensive and highly readable survey of the field of war andmedia.War is diffused through a complex mesh of our everyday media.Paradoxically, this both facilitates and contains the presence andpower of enemies near and far. The conventions of so-calledtraditional warfare have been splintered by the availability andconnectivity of the principal locus of war today: the electronicand digital media. Hoskins and O'Loughlin identify and illuminatethe conditions of what they term "diffused war" and the newchallenges it raises for the actors who wage and counter warfarefor their agents and mechanisms of the new media and for masspublics.This book offers an invaluable review of the key literature andpresents a fresh approach to the understanding of the dynamicrelationships between war and media. It will be welcomed by a broadrange of students taking courses on war and media and relatedmodules, especially in media, communication and cultural studiespolitics and international relations, sociology, journalism, andsecurity studies.

Acknowledgements xList of Tables and Figures xi1 Introduction 11. Diffused War 32. The Two Phases of Mediatization 153. Conclusion 182 Images 201. Introduction: Do Images of War Show or Hide? 202. Photograph and Flux 233. Mediality 264. Emergence 305. Saddam Hussein's Execution 326. Conclusion 353 Compassion 371. Introduction: What is Compassion Fatigue? 372. Why News Values Keep Some Stories Off the Radar 393. Exploring Spectator-Sufferer Relations 444. How Do Media Enable or Restrict Compassion? 535. Conclusion 594 Witness 611. Introduction 612. Representation and the Truth of War 633. Witnessing 694. Conclusion 855 Genocide 861. Introduction 862. Premediation and the Holocaust 893. Media Templates 914. The Trnopolje Camp Images 945. Towards an Ethics of Images 976. Emergence 1026 Memory 1041. The Diffusion of Media and Memory 1042. The Second Memory Boom 1063. Media and Holocaust Memory 1084. From Witness to Embodied Memories 1125. The Third Memory Boom 1167 Vectors 1201. Vectors and Globalization 1222. Controlling Vectors 1263. Emergent Vectors 1364. Conclusion 1438 Radicalization 1451. The Mediatization of Radicalization 1472. Diffuse Relations Between Cause and Effect 1503. Uncertainty for Policymakers and Journalists Enables 'Hypersecurity' to Emerge 1554. Conclusion 1609 Legitimacy 1621. Introduction: Legitimacy, Representation, Discourse 1622. The Power of Representations 1643. Diffuse War Axes of Representation 1694. Translation and Legitimacy 1795. Conclusion 18310 Methods 1851. Identifying Effects amid Ubiquitous Media 1862. How Do We Analyse Media Practices? 1883. How Do We Analyse Discursive Linking? Nexus Analysis 1894. Conclusion 191Notes 193References 198Further Reading 217Name Index 218Subject Index 223