In the 1960s and 70s the war in Vietnam was described as the first TV war (Museum of Broadcast Communications ). Reporting and film from battle zones and interviews featured on TV news, current affairs programs (ABC ) and documentaries during the war. TV played and important role in bringing the war into American living rooms and it is claimed influenced the outcome of the war.
The current war in Gaza has prompted a large amount of activity on the internet. Not only in reporting on the situation, but also as media for supporters and critics to debate and to promote their sides partisan views. In particular, not only websites were used, but blogs, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter were used as well.
From Gauravonomics Blog 03/01/09
"The Israel-friendly Help Us Win blog (Facebook/ Twitter) says that “the war is not only on the ground - but also in the international media” and encourages Israel’s supporters to “tell Israel’s side of the story” and “ensure that the international coverage of the Campaign Against Hamas is balanced”.
In fact, the Israel propaganda machinery is in full flow to ensure that everyone gets to hear Israel’s side of the story. The Israel Defense Force has a blog and a YouTube channel, the Israel consulate in New York held a press conference on Twitter and summarized the discussion on their Israel Politik blog, and the Likud prime ministerial candidate Benjamin Netanyahu is active on both Twitter and YouTube."
Other related websites and coverage:
Aljazeer: Waging the web wars 21/01/09
Q1. Are we now in the 'cyber war' age where the outcomes of wars may be determined by what happens on the internet?
Q2. What is the relevance to marketing?
Q3. What does this say about consumer behaviour?
1 comment:
I don't believe that the internet will be a huge contributor to influencing peoples opinions on conflicts and who is right and wrong so to speak. I believe that the internet with its ability to allow people to search for "what they want" will actually increase fundamentalism as the searches and blogs that people investigate will be biased towards there pre existing ideas. This ability to choose what you want to read/research will also influence the large group of neutral people to simply ignore the entire conflict in preference to what their football team is up to or perhaps paris hilton. Whereas before TV forced people to be interested in what was delivered to them, the internet is allowing people to focus on only the things they are really interested in ignore the rest.
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