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Example research essay topic: Analysis Of Semiotics Propoganda And Psychological Warfare - 1,693 words

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... 90, the Gulf War started. The coalition started a war which included US government propaganda. During the Gulf war period. President Bush made sure that his government propaganda influenced people so that they didnt remember the embarrassment of Vietnam but the victory in the WWII. US government was trying, with the Gulf war propaganda to create new war history. The President himself called it: The new world order, placing themselves in the top of this world order.

They used the Gulf War to highlight their power over most of the world. The propaganda was basically to put the whole world against Saddam Hussein. The coalition was one of US government successes in the war. It consisted of Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Honduras, Italy, Kuwait, Morocco, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Korea, Spain, Syria Turkey, The United Arab Emirates, The United Kingdom, and the United States. The US job consisted in convincing people that their common enemy was Saddam Hussein.

They did this by manipulating the media and showing images of Hussein and his regime highlighting the negative and cruel aspects of it. This basic idea of us = good, them = evil noted by Foss and Littlejohn, can be taken to a step further. It can translate into things such as: we are responsible, our leaders are good, our soldiers are well prepared and brave, the damage we cause is well justify; their side is irresponsible, their leaders evil, their soldiers badly prepared, and the damage they do is random and includes civilians. These are some basic ideas of the US propaganda and psychological warfare during the war. With the immense power that US media had and still has in and out of the US, it was very easy for their government to spread their propaganda and psychological warfare. What the US and pro- American public remember from the Persian Gulf War is a fair and successful military operation with few casualties, technological war in which laser-guided missiles destroyed buildings not human bodies.

These images we have of the Gulf War are due to the media coverage of the war. Some critics believe that the public was left with an image of pinpoint bombing from the pictures of the computer guided "smart" bombs. It seems as if the media coverage of the war was more like a sports event rather than a war were actual human beings are being killed. The idea of the media missing coverage of the human loss in the war is nowadays evident for us. They presented the conflict to us as a bloodless conflict. Studies done by a UCLA student, made to compare the censorship of this war to other wars have come to a conclusion that the media failed in its job of giving impartial information to the public, and that in the other hand it seems as if it worked like a puppet for the Pentagon and US government.

Images of death and destruction showed in the media were of 18. 8 % for Vietnam war and 3. 0 % for Korea, and for people in life threatening situations 17. 4 % for Vietnam and 3. 6 % for Korea. This kind of images for the Gulf War have a lower percentage than the ones shown by the media in the Korean conflict. The pictures of the Gulf war presented by Newsweek, Time, and U. S. News and World Report in the total of 21 issues printed during the Gulf war, were 583. Out of this 583 pictures only 6 showed death, blood or destruction. 35 % of the pictures were of the equipment and technology of the US army in the conflict.

These facts shows us that the US government was censuring media to make it almost look as video game for the viewers, and they were showing their new powerful and intelligent weapons which were supposed to have only killed enemy soldiers and not innocent civilians. The images of the US planes bombing Iraqi buildings with either civilians or soldiers, were shown as video games in the media. This gave the general public an idea of an antiseptic bloodless war. In government propaganda president Bush, General Powell, and General Schwartzkopf were always pictured in positive ways.

For example news reports, newspapers and magazines pictures of President Bush were shown with his wife at church in prayer. The President was also shown walking thoughtfully with other governmental leaders in the White House Garden. Powell was usually making a press briefing, showing him in charge and clearly competent. Shwartzkopf was shown surrounded by cheering soldiers. This images and pictures shows us that the leaders were always good, patriotic and caring people. Saddam Hussein was always represented as a military leader of a middle east world regime.

Hussein's photographs that were showed in magazines during the Gulf War were almost always dark and in black and white. He was portrait as the villain and the US leaders as the heroes. The idea of them = bad and us = good is corroborated by these photographs. The US political leaders are not only being portrait as the right and necessary leaders, but they are also being contrast with the eastern world dictator, Saddam Hussein. This way the US government was showing the US citizens and Western World countries, that their enemy was Saddam Hussein and that they were able to beat him and his regime therefore they should support them. In the pictures above both president Bush (with Barbara Bush) and general Powell, seem calm and in control of the situation.

Magazines, news reports and newspapers portrait this good image of the US government during war. Saddam Hussein was always showed in dark pictures or in a way all the picture was centered in him and in the evil he has doing. These images of US leaders and the Iraqi leader shows us two opposite sides. One is showing US government members as heroes and in the other hand Saddam Hussein as the villain. US efforts to manipulate the media and spread their propaganda were successful. The media patriotic coverage of the conflict and the censorship showing it as a bloodless war, influenced people, making them believe that the war actions taken by the US and its allies were well justified.

The media portrait US as a powerful country before, during and after the war. With the help of the media and its psychological warfare we can say that US and the allies had already won the war even before one shot was fired against the enemy. The media and the US government also manage to portrait the conflict as a bloodless war although there were about 200, 000 causalities and 10, 000 of these were innocent civilians. We can conclude therefore that the Gulf war is one example of how military propaganda has an influence in our society. Governments justify their military actions against another country, race and / or culture by spreading propaganda to have in control all the American and pro American audience. The military propaganda and psychological influences people in order to support their country or a specific country during a war.

The main purpose of the military propaganda and psychological warfare is to spread the idea of us = good they = bad in order to justify and find support of the mass audience. The media is the medium through propaganda accomplish these purpose. Private media is manipulate by the government in order to manipulate people. This manipulation happens because of different pressures applied by the government. The nation which controls the global media has a bigger chance of wining a war, although it also needs economic and military resources to win it. As the Gulf War shows, the countries which have the largest economic and military power are the ones that have bigger global media power.

We can say that the Gulf War conflict was won by the US even before a bullet was fired. This is due to its immense power over the media that is connected with its economical, political and military power. ANALYSIS The propaganda and psychological warfare analysis in this report was directed to the general public using simple language and simple sentences when necessary so that the text is easily understood by the common English reader. It is meant to succeed in its task to present Gulf War as an example of propaganda and psychological warfare and the role of media during war time.

My report is a criticism against the media and the US government during the Gulf War. In these analysis I have made a list of nouns, verbs and adjectives present in the first pages of the report that suggest this tone or mood. Nouns: Media, confrontation, devastation, hate, raze, culture, propaganda, warfare, enemy, power. Verbs: Belief, act, help, respond, associate, experience, support, follow, censure, influence, manipulate. Adjectives: Immense, impartial, good, evil, brave, irresponsible, unfair, successful, bloodless, enormous. The lists of words above suggest that the report is about: War propaganda and its enormous power over our society by using the media to influence us.

There is a feeling that the mood based on these few word is going to be a strong critical mood and tone. This report was meant to create some conscience in the reader about the reality media shows us and the real worlds reality. The propaganda and psychological warfare are direct examples of how the government of a country manipulates the media to control the people of their country. This manipulation using propaganda, is only another of the realities that we are meant to believe from the media. I was trying to show, that the immense power of media lays in the power of communication, and that this power induces countries governments to manipulate and control the media. I think that this task was fulfill in my report.

Bibliography - Yahoo search for Gulf War propaganda. - Google search for Gulf War propaganda. - History Channel: The Gulf War - web - Altavista pictures of the Gulf War.


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