Vietnam and the Media

Research Paper # 23899

Communication > Mass Media
Communication > Television
Ethnic Studies > Conflict

This paper examines the role that the media played in the Vietnam War.

3,315 words () | 16 sources | APA | 2002 United States

Paper Summary:

The American media's powerful influence can be seen through its portrayal of major events like the Vietnam War. The paper shows that Vietnam was America's first "television war," meaning that United States citizens were able to watch video clips of virtually uncensored images of war including exchanges of gunfire, atrocities and wounded and dead soldiers from both sides. It describes how the Vietnam War's images haunted the television, magazines, and newspapers. This paper covers issues including propaganda, television images, the massacre at My Lai, Son Thang 4, Trang Bang, the dulling effects of graphic images, and civilian protests.

From the Paper:

"On June 8, 1972 during an air raid of NVA fortifications just outside Trang Bang, a picture was taken of a girl running away from the bombings. Kim Phuc, then nine, was wearing no clothes, waving her arms, and had an expression of terror on her face. She and other civilians including photojournalists were mistaken as NVA and targeted by the pilots. Kim received major burns to the majority of her body. Up to this day, a myth exists that it was an American-ordered bombing and was executed by American pilots. This is not true. Both the officer who gave the order and the pilot who dropped the bomb were Vietnamese and operating without the aid of the United States Air Force. Nick Ut, the photographer who took the snapshot, won the Pulitzer Prize that year."