BOOK REVIEWS
BOOK REVIEWS
War, Media, and Propaganda: A Global Perspective
Editors: Yahya R. Kamalipour and Nancy Snow
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
September 2004
This timely book presents a multifaceted look at war, media, and propaganda from international perspectives. Focusing on the media's role in global conflicts, prominent authors, journalists, scholars, and researchers provide an insightful overview of the impact of globalization on media practices. They examine the processes behind media coverage of war, sophisticated propaganda techniques, the dynamics of public opinion, and the effects on human affairs and communication. As the book moves from theoretical discussions to regional and national views, it explores cultural-political implications for the United States and other countries around the world, concluding with recommendations and solutions to key problems of media globalization.
"There has been a reflex throughout the history of modern news: When the country goes to war, so do the major news organizations. They consider it 'patriotic.' But it is dubious patriotism that abandons citizens in unnecessary ignorance of critical information. . . . The before-and-after picture of United States officialdom presents a stark lesson of the tragedies of war and propaganda repeated in the major media."—Ben H. Bagdikian, from the Foreword
About The Editors
Yahya R. Kamalipour is professor in the Department of Communication and Creative Arts, Purdue University
Calumet (http://www.kamalipour.com/)
Nancy Snow, a former USIA and State Department official, is assistant professor in the College of Communications at California State University, Fullerton, and adjunct professor in the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California. She also serves as senior research fellow in the USC Center on Public Diplomacy (http://www.nancysnow.com).
Table of Contents
* Foreword
Ben H. Bagdikian
* Introduction
Yahya R. Kamalipour
* 1 Information Dominance: The Philosophy of Total Propaganda Control?
David Miller
* 2 From Bombs and Bullets to Hearts and Minds: U.S. Public Diplomacy in an Age of Propaganda
Nancy Snow
* 3 Selling the Iraq War: The Media Management Strategies We Never Saw
Danny Schechter
* 4 Measuring Success: Profit and Propaganda
David J. Collison
* 5 Spinning War and Blotting Out Memory
Norman Solomon
* 6 Weapons of Mass Distraction: World Security and Personal Politics
Naren Chitty
* 7 Spectacle and Media Propaganda in the War on Iraq: A Critique of U.S. Broadcasting Networks
Douglas Kellner
* 8 War as Promotional "Photo-op": The New York Times's Visual Coverage of the U.S. Invasion of Iraq
Lee Artz
* 9 Murdoch's War—A Transnational Perspective
Daya Kishan Thussu
* 10 Glossy: American Hegemony and the Culture of Death
Leila Conners Petersen
* 11 War, Propaganda, and Islam in Muslim and Western Sources
Karim H. Karim
* 12 Enemy Image: A Case Study in Creating a Mata Hari
Asra Q. Nomani
* 13 Anatomy of a Bonding: An Embedded Reporter's Account of the Bonding Process with the Soldiers
Ronald Paul Larson
* 14 The War on Iraq: A Reporter's Observations
Dana Hull
* 15 America: The Fourth Reich
Barrie Zwicker
* 16 War on Iraq and Media Coverage: A Middle Eastern Perspective
Mahboub E. Hashem
* 17 Iranians and Media Coverage of the War in Iraq: Rhetoric, Propaganda, and Contradiction
Naiim Badii
* 18 South Africa and Iraq: The Battle for Media Reality
Arnold de Beer, Herman Wasserman, and Nicolene Botha
* 19 The Chinese Watching the Iraqi War with Shock and Awe—As a Spectacular Game
Zhou He
* 20 The Self-Absorbed Bully: A Brazilian View of the United States at War
Antonio La Pastina
* 21 Threat or Ally? U.S.-Latin American Relations and the Middle East Conflict
Kathleen A. Tobin
* 22 From Propaganda to Public Diplomacy in the Information Age
R. S. Zaharna
* 23 Can We Make Them Love Us? Public Diplomacy After 9/11
Geoffrey Cowan
* 24 War, Media, and Propaganda: An Epilogue
Majid Tehranian
