War Culture

I think the topic of War and the media is a very interesting one, but it also is a very controversial one. I think that there are many elements that go into what the media is portraying to us. One of the things that someone said in class was that it was all about if we continue to watch, they will continue to show the same things. I totally agree with this statement. If people are upset about how the war is being portrayed in the media, then we should take the power away from the media! Stop tuning into these programs that upset you so much and get your information from somewhere else. But the problem with that is, people want to hear what they want to hear. So they are going to tune into their favorite station that is going to tell them what they want and it might not actually be the truth.

​I also think all of this war and media has a lot to do with patriotism. The media does not want to put a negative light on war or the soldiers because our country has great pride in patriotism. I can remember back when 9/11 happened and many Americans were in support of people going into the military or people wanted to support the troops. I think that huge rush that America had still has effects on what the media presents today. We as consumers have never seen anything else but patriotism because of how young we were when 9/11 happened. The patriotism that American has shown that we do not want to hear anything but good things about America or the war efforts. I have a cousin that is in the 82 Airborne in the Army. Of course I don’t want to turn on the television and hear about how awful what he is doing is or anything of that sort. With that regards, I do want biased information because I love my cousin and would hate to see people bashing him because of a choice he made for the people of this country. He does not get to choose what he does or why he does it. I just wanted to serve. The thing I would not want is for them to sugar coat killings and such. It would be too hard for me to hear that things are hunky-dory when in reality, people can be killed at any point.