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Media Coverage In The Vietnam War

695 Words3 Pages

The Vietnam War was the first one witnessing the unprecedentedly massive participation of media, especially television in reporting related news and progress of the war. It is considered to be “the first televised” war with the popularization of war images to American public. What were the underlying reasons leading to such huge impacts of new coverages on public? The first reason was the nature of reporting of television. There are contrasting points in the way that print media and television report a truth. While paper coverage reported problems or events just on “face value” with “a dry and detached tone,” “television coverage presented a dramatic contrast between good and evil” . The Vietnam War was the one occurring thousands of miles away, in a completely different culture so …show more content…

Breaking news with horrific images shown on television were shown to viewers and went out instantly like the way each battle was going on, which then left the audience “little time to reflect on their meaning, and are accompanied by nearly continuous voice over narration, which they are edited to illustrate” . Veterans seemed to share this idea. In a survey taken by U.S. Army General Officers in 1975, right after the war officially came to the end, it was revealed that media, including television, just caught and showed sensational moments rather than providing a general picture of what were really happening. From the documentary by Patrick Barberis “Vietnam, treason by the media” , it can be seen in order to bring the most updated news about Tet Offensive – the most critical event since the beginning of the war to audiences, CBS editors even had little time or even ignored the task of taking a look at the

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As technology began to develop, televisions, video cameras, and audio recorders would begin to spread due to decreasing costs, in turn increasing the spread of the details regarding the Vietnam War across America. With this rise in technology prevalence in the lives of people, also came the challenge for the government to attempt to censor what was put on media was extremely difficult, and as a result of a lack of proper control, uncensored footage and pictures of the war would be presented to the public. The brutality and harsh reality of the war, being seen directly, as opposed to simply hearing of it, would change the view of the war as a whole. Due to the widespread influence that the media had, and the fact that "there were so many media members in country … the chances of keeping anything secret or off limits was virtually impossible." Presenting the Tet Offensive, much of the negatives of the war were revealed, where much focus was on the mistakes and failures of the United States, as opposed to the victories and factors that they had succeeded in, such as the military victory for the Tet Offensive.

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