Publication Type: Session Paper
Abstract: TV first brought war visuals into the American living rooms during the war in Vietnam in the 1960s. 20 years later, with satellites and on-line broadcasting, civilians in Rome, Paris and New York could watch the military campaign as it simultaneously took place in the Persian Gulf; the concept “CNN effect” was born. The media’s influence on foreign affairs has grown during the wars in Kosovo, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet the 2006 clash in Lebanon between Israel and the Hezbollah represents a quantitative leap.

Thus the term used by students of political communication – mediated politics – should be adopted to the field of media and the military. This was the first mediated war. The major reason for this phenomenon is the fact that these asymmetrical wars or low intensity conflicts are wars of conscience. Unlike past conventional wars, their purpose is to shape public opinion. Therefore the visuals seen on the TV screen in the rear are not less significant than actual events that take place in the war theatre.

The paper also describes other manifestations of the mediated war, e.g., the impact of technological innovations, media modes of production, dissemination and media logic, the use of the internet, cellular phones, the cyber space and the blogosphere.