1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910463862303321

Autore

Messinger Gary S. <1943->

Titolo

The battle for the mind : war and peace in the era of mass communication / / Gary S. Messinger

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Amherst, [Massachusetts] ; ; Boston, [Massachusetts] : , : University of Massachusetts Press, , 2011

©2011

ISBN

1-61376-030-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xi, 293 p. )

Disciplina

303.6/6

Soggetti

Mass media and war - History

Communication - Social aspects - History

Communication - Political aspects - History

Mass media and propaganda - History

War and society - History

Peace-building - History

International relations - History

Electronic books.

United States History, Military

Europe History, Military

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Preface: A change in the landscape -- War encounters mass communication : 1850/1914 -- Mass communication enlists : 1914/1918 -- The democracies try to demobilize : 1919/1939 -- Dictators conquer their media : 1919/1939 -- The battle for the mind deepens : 1939/1945 -- Symbolic war takes precedence : 1945/1991 -- Mass communication becomes multipolar : 1991and after.

Sommario/riassunto

"Most people typically think of armed conflict in physical terms, involving guns and bombs, ships and planes, tanks and missiles. But today, because of mass communication, war and the effort to prevent it are increasingly dependent on non-physical factors--the capacity to persuade combatants and citizens to engage in violence or avoid it, and



the packaging of the information on which decision making is based. This book explores the many ways that mass communication has revolutionized international relations, whether the aim is to make war effectively or to prevent it. Gary Messinger shows that over the last 150 years a succession of breakthroughs in the realm of media has reshaped the making of war and peace. Along with mass newspapers, magazines, books, motion pictures, radio, television, computer software, and telecommunication satellites comes an array of strategies for exploiting these media to control popular beliefs and emotions. Images of war now arrive in many forms and reach billions of people simultaneously. Political and military leaders must react to crowd impulses that sweep around the globe. Nation-states and nongovernmental groups, including terrorists, use mass communication to spread their portrayals of reality. Drawing on a wide range of media products, from books and articles to films and television programs, as well as his own research in the field of propaganda studies, Messinger offers a fresh and comprehensive overview. He skillfully charts the path that has led us to our current situation and suggests where we might go next."--p. [4] of cover.