American Military-Media Relations In The Persian Gulf War

SynopsisFor most of the time in American history the govenunent-media relationship took on thecharacteristic of being symbiosis but often antagonistic. The government-media conflict hasits sources in history Iegacies, institutional and cultllraI differences. It is unavoidabIe and in asense necessary fOr a healthy society whose operation depends on the checks and balances ofpower. The major intention of this paper is to make an assessment of the govemment-mediarelationship in wartime, particularly military-media relations through examining theformulation and implementation of the military public affairs po1icies in the Persian Gulf War.Two research questions are raised in this paper:(l) Was the American public sufficiently informed in the Gulf War?(2) How could the militny-media relationship in the Gulf War be evaluated?Case study is the methodology used in the paper. As a case, the Gulf War cehainly hasits advantages. First, it was a typical small-scale conflict lasting only a short period with lowcasualties on the U.S. side. Second, the military public affeirs policies reached a certaindegree of maturity after undergoing the test in previous wars and therefore were morerepresentative. Third, the contention over military public affairs policies betWeen the militnyand the media was the major media story in the GuIf War In addition, the military won thebattle not only over the enemy, but also over the media in the Gulf War.The paper is composed of five parts. In the introductory part, sources of government-media relations are discussed and research questions are raised. The second part presents ashort summary of the military public affairs policies adopted in the U.S.-involved wars priorto the Gulf Waf, which is followed by an introduction of military public affairs policies in theGulf War. Operation Desert Shield was the period when the policies were devised throughconstant negotiations betWeen the militw and the media while Operation Desert Storm wasthe one in which the policies went into effect and were tested in the actUal combat. It tUrnedout that the military generally was more than satisfied with the implementation of the policieswhile the media showed increasing dissatisfaction with the policies as the war went on.Accordingly, military-media relations underwent a shift from being cooperative and positiveto antagonistic and negative. The post-war reporting was also narrated with the purpose toshow to what extent had the media been restricted during the war from another perspective.Then we come tO the most important part of this papef, in which the tWo research questionsare analyzed and answered. The writer uses her own criteria in evaluating the tWo questions.For the first question, whether the public received information from both the miliop and themedia is used as the criterion; and for the second one, whether goals of the militw and themedia were met. With these arguments, this paper comes to its last pwt in which theconclusion is made: in the Gulf War the American public was insufficiently informed andmilitny-media relationship was that of a mixed type which varied in different stages of thewar...