The Influence Of American Mass Media On Vietnam War

The mass media is playing a special role in Amerian society. With thedevelopment of social economy, America's mass media has made a greatprogress. In early ages, newspaper and magazines were the main media. Astime went on, radios and TVs appeared and greatly affected the society andpolitics of American in the 20th century. In 1980s, another originalmedia—internet emeged, which connected computer technology with that ofcommunications. Compared with the former ones, it has its own advantages.The political and social influences are: affecting the political trend influencesare: affecting the politial trend of public; figuring the liberty and democracy ofAmerica; balancing and supplementing government power; determiningpolitical agenda and helping extend America's politics and culture.In the 1960s, America got stuck into the issue of Vietnam. At the sametime, the mass media greatly affected government policies of America toVietnam. In the early stage of this war, the mass media raised few doubts andtroublesome questions to the government. After Johnson Kennedy wasassassinated, vice-president Johnson continued to interfere in the affairs fvietnam and gradually threw more army there. The main media supported andcooperated with the government policy, which made it sucessful to exercisethe policy. During this period, TVs were fully used to the great extent and kepta good relation with government. The situation in Vietnam conveyed by themedia was explained in favor of the White House. Also, the newspapers gave asupport to the government, especially the Times, which accused those waropposes and resulted in the internal criticize, censured the reporters in Xigongas the "propagandists"who planned to overthrow South Vietnam government.After 1965, anti-war movement began as America couldn't beat thecommunist Vietnam successfully. The main mass media had a new observationon the government policy and rivised their arguments. New York Timeschanged its attitude oposing the escalated war. The famous reporter Mickey ofNBC made a conclusion at a seminar in December 1965 that our governmentshould retreat from Vietnam unless it could make sure that it was so importantto keep the South Vietnam independent that the doubt about the war wasworhless. But, on the other hand, all these anti-war arguments were in greatextent the worry and doubt on the improvement of America rather than the fullopposement of it when the mass media was disappointed about thegovernment. The internal public crisis brought about by the defeats of Americaconnected the politics with Vietnam war and then the mass media joined thecrisis after the "Spring Offensive"when they added up more reports of the war.A "TV Age"of war came when its reports and discussions because of its vividdescriptions. But at that time, American government didn't fully realized thisoriginal media and no control on it was used, which led to the unprecedentedreports that conveyed the cruel and fierce battle to American bublic in favor ofitself. American government and military believed that the offensive was onlya venture which inflict heavy losses on the vietnamese. But, on the contrarythe reporter took it for granted that although the military aim failed, thepolitical and psychological aim of the North came true. After the offensive,being faced with the mess of war, the mass media changed their attitudeseventually one afer another, including those former government supportors. It is necessary to understand the feature of media and analyse theinteraction between American government and media, which can help masterthe attitude change and influence of media to the government during the war. The critic reports of media attracted the belief crisis to the government.Someone may think that the media is the decisive factor of the crisis, but itisn't the truth. The divergence of American ruling class to some extent hasaffected the media on its political stand change. At that time, there were twomain groups in American capitalist class, that is, the eastern power group andthe southern one. In the vietnam war, the southern power group made moreinterests, which enabled it to support the government, especially whenJohnson was in presidency. While the eastern power group situated in the coreof American politics mainly because of its control over the main massmedia(such as New York Times). When confronting the war impasse and moredeath the eastern group became indifferent towards the war, which worsenedthe conflict between the two groups. Mass media was fully used by the easterngroup as a way of opposing the government to continue the war on Vietnamwhile at the same time greater influences were enforced on the congressmen.More information was transferred from the battle to them. Thecounter-criticism made by the south-controlling media sounded weakercompared with the eastern voice. Some congressmen completely changed theirminds and urged the government to adopt the policy more carefully. WhenNixon came to its power, he decided that it was high time that America shouldretreat from Vietnam. The most important characteristic of America mass media is its freedomof voice and publication. According to the first amendment of constitution, thecongress has no right to issue any law against the voice freedom. The attachedprovisions were accredited to the states. Also, the liberalism in Americaprovided it with a theoretical foundation. The incomes of mass mediadistributes to the advertisements of different cooperations. So, in terms of itsmanagement, the main mass media pays more sonsideration on thecooperations it respects. The political trends appears in the reports andjudgments of the media. At the early stage of Vietnam war, the ruling class of America internallyagreed to the government. The main media insisted the report of specificbattles. Few discussions of inclination could be seen or heard. The necessaryattachments were neglected, too. This complied with the government butmisled the public. Mass media mostly received the explanations andinformation from the government then publish it. But as the situation inVietnam developed, the military aim of America didn't seem within theforeseenable future, the mighty interbal anti-war movements arose. Thegovernment was slow in reaction to the change of mass media (especially TV).In the two months after the "Spring Offensive", president Johnson kept silentti the media and didn't show the definite principles, schedules and answers to"what we should do", which were the most needed of mass media. PresidentJohnson should have judged the situation promptly and reacted to the public.At last, the media was no longer patient and it surmounted the public opinion...