Sunday, April 29, 2007

THE MEDIA AS A WEAPON OF WAR

The must-read item for the week, maybe for the month, is the report from the Kennedy School of Government of a study done by Marvin Kalb titled The Israeli-Hezbollah War of 2006: The Media As A Weapon in Asymmetrical Conflict. Here's the abstract:
Based on content analysis of global media and interviews with many diplomats and journalists, this paper describes the trajectory of the media from objective observer to fiery advocate, becoming in fact a weapon of modern warfare. The paper also shows how an open society, Israel, is victimized by its own openness and how a closed sect, Hezbollah, can retain almost total control of the daily message of journalism and propaganda.

The report is 40 pages long, but it's worth your time to read all of it. Odds are that it won't tell you anything new about media bias, but the fact that the study was conducted by Marvin Kalb (nobody's idea of a card carrying neocon) makes it a bit of a surprise.

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