Page 205 - An Introduction to Political Communication Second Edition

AN INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

and West; capitalism and Soviet-style socialism. There were also wars
rooted in colonialist hangovers, such as the 1982 Falklands conflict;
national liberation struggles such as the Israeli— Palestinian conflict;
and the expansionist ambitions of maverick national leaders, such
as the Gulf War of 1991.
In the days before the emergence of modern electronic media
military conflicts were covered by press correspondents, whose
dispatches sent from the front lines inevitably lagged behind events
by weeks and even months. By the time the public got to hear about
a battle being fought in its name in a foreign country, it was in all
probability over. Nevertheless, the exposure given to war by
newspapers, limited as it was, meant that governments had to
formulate strategies for managing domestic opinion. Thus, during
the First World War, governments engaged in intensive propaganda
campaigns to convince their populations of the inhumanity and
immorality of the other side’s soldiers (Knightley, 1972). As the speed
and efficiency of international communication channels improved
in the twentieth century, news became more contemporaneous with
the events being reported, and the importance of public opinion
increased. By the 1980s, one military expert could observe of modern
conflict that ‘what really matters is its effect on public opinion at
home and around the world’ (Hooper, 1982, p.215).
In military conflict, as in the less violent forms of conflict which
normally comprise the domestic political process, public opinion is a
factor which cannot be ignored. When Western television viewers
can watch on their evening news bulletins as Iraqi missiles fall on Tel
Aviv, or US cruise missiles weave their contour-guided path through
downtown Baghdad; when military casualties and atrocities against
civilians in Bosnia or Burundi are reported almost as soon as they
occur; and when one side’s victories or defeats cannot be hidden
from the eyes and cameras of the thousands of correspondents present
in the modern conflict zone, those who wage war know that they
must include the impact of media coverage on public opinion in their
calculations. In liberal democratic countries like Britain and the USA,
a supportive public opinion is just as important in the pursuit of
military conflict as well-resourced armies.
In some conflicts, of course, governments can take such support
for granted. During the Second World War it was not necessary to
highlight evidence of German atrocities against Jews and other groups
in the countries they controlled for the populations of the allied
countries to recognise the menacing nature of Nazism. In this case,
national survival was perceived to be at stake.

188