Vietnam War Media Analysis

The American media was informed regarding the US military involvement in Vietnam. With the support of new technologies, American reporters supplied with modern video camera or audio recorder were able to take more photographs and record video materials. Additionally, since television became more common to American families during the Vietnam War (from 1960 to 1975), Americans at home used to watch evening news programs daily. The American public increasingly relied on visuals to follow the situation of the Vietnam War. Erin McLaughlin, a famous international CNN correspondent, criticized that, “Television coverage brought images of the war home to the American public, yet these images were rarely a true reflection of the war itself. War is

By 1950, only 9 % of American families had a television. By 1966, 93% of American households owned a television. As a consequence, many Americans acquired news from this source. In a survey conducted by the Roper Organization for the Television Information Office from 1964 until 1972, 58% of Americans got news from television, 56% from newspapers, and 8% from magazines. Thus, as the Vietnam War dragged on, more and more Americans turned to television as their primary source for news (Rohn). On the other hand, credibility is a meaningful feature for the media. In another Roper survey, the question was asked by the respondents, “which medium they trust when there was a conflict on the news,” and 48% of interviewees said television while 21% said newspapers (Rohn). When television programs exposed images of battles and deaths, Americans at home felt as if they were in the Vietnamese jungles with the U.S. soldiers. At the beginning of the War, the coverage supported the activities of American troops. From 1968 with the Tet Offensive, the reporters created the jumpy video reports without authorized censorship, and also predicted Americans would soon fail in this war. Thus, the horrors of war failure entered the living rooms of Americans for the first

Why did the United States interfere in Vietnam? During the cold war, Communism became the evil menace in the United States. With the domino effect, fearing the communist countries, such as China, the Soviet Unions, and North Vietnam which took over the entire Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos), the United States wanted to stop the expansion of Ho Chi Minh and his North Vietnam Army on this peninsula. President Lyndon Johnson said, ‘If we don’t stop the Reds in South Vietnam, tomorrow they will be in Hawaii, and next week they will be in San Francisco’ (Jansen). As a consequence, the American troops interfered in Vietnam. The contradiction between journalist news of the war and official reports sent to the White House continued throughout the years of American involvement in Vietnam. For instance, on January 2, 1963, shortly after the Ap Bac battle ended, three reporters, David Halberstam, Neil Sheehan, and Peter Arnett came to the battle areas and didn’t see any signs that the South Vietnam troops won the battle. In addition, the information between the U.S. Mission and Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) and US advisors on the battle field conflicted and caused doubtfulness for these reporters; they decided to find out the truth. The article about Ap Bac battle began to change the outlook of the American press towards the Vietnam War. Reporters doubted the