Representation In Vietnam War

1992 Words8 Pages
There has been a continuous debate about the more or less powerful effects of the media in society. According to Stuart Hall, the media control the power to dictate what they release to the world, as he claimed that “The media define for the majority of the population what significant events are taking place but, also, they offer powerful interpretations of how to understand these events” (“Representation and the media”, 2008). The photograph “Reaching out”, which was chosen to complete this essay comes from Vietnam War taken by British photographer Larry Burrows. This photo depicts an injured black soldier trying to turn back to a fallen white comrade, covered in mud. Burrows captured for people both unfathomable desolation and galvanic camaraderie…show more content…
This is suggesting that the media interpret the event or construct our understanding of the world by using representation. By definition, all media texts are representations of reality. Allan & Zelizer (2004) described that photography helps establish the truth claims of journalists seeking to provide authoritative accounts of the war. Problematic, however, photographic depiction flourished in each war. In similar regarding, the war in Afghanistan “was visualized through images that implied a certain romanticized nostalgia for a reclaimed civilization” (Nalkur, 2002, p.2). This is an example to suggest that the media not show what is happening in Afghanistan very objectively. Instead, it seems that better the aesthetic value overtake the reality. As Dinuzzo (2003) describes wartime photograph in a speech that was published in Chicago Tribune, “The aesthetic draw of the image generates numerous examples of shifting the target of photography representation so as to secure a ‘better’ picture” (Nuccio, 2003, as cited in Zelizer, 2004).This continued to be the case that the media emphasize only the value of a particular group of people. Because they have their own personal twist on the way they want the public to see current events especially so that what we hear or see is not necessarily true .In the example of Afghanistan…show more content…
From 1 November 1995 to 30 April 1975, it followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the United States and other anti-communist countries (“Vietnam War”, n. d.). It occurred because “the U.S. government viewed involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam as part of their wider strategy of containment” (“Vietnam War”, n. d.). The war in Vietnam has been described as the war America watched from their living rooms. Images of combat and American GIs were projected through our TV screens and across our newspapers daily (“The National Archives,” n. d.). A large amount of photojournalists made every effort to keep the American people well informed of their troops’ problems and setbacks so that they could have resonance indirectly. The carnage of war and the consequences of American morale, both on the battlefield and at home, led to deep divisions in how the Americans viewed the role of government, the military, social change and war itself (Prados, 1995). When thinking through Burrows’ war photography, photojournalism also led to divisions of these things as his photographs portrayed the horror and traumas of war. His still images created a narrative that words and film could not convey, epitomizing the power of
Open Document