Vietnam

Vietnam War: The Media and its influence on the population.
When USA needed the public support of the American people it was increasingly difficult to keep it. Even before of the Tet offensivepublic opinion was turning against US war plans. Some people say the stories coming from Vietnam and the photos coming from the front line did more than sway public opinion, they helped end the war, eventhough this can be truth or not, we know the US government did not count with the media and its influence over population.
This war can also be called as the “Media War”. American soldiers were notalone in this war, they were always with a reporter behind which was allowed to record and capture everything they wanted and had total access to combat zones. This allowed newspaper reporters,photographers and television crews to document a war involving American sons and daughters on the other side of the world. This willingness to allow documentation of the war was also extended to themilitary's own photographers.
The horrors of war entered the living rooms of Americans for the first time during the Vietnam War. For almost a decade in between school, work, and dinners, the American publiccould watch villages being destroyed, prisoners being tortured, Vietnamese children burning to death, and American body bags being sent home.
Before the Vietnam War, the media's job was to keep theAmerican listeners and readers optimistic and panic free but during Vietnam war the media began to report the true awfulness of war and the politics behind it, to the American public. Because of theeffort to reveal the truth from correspondents, many Americans began to doubt the government and the war. The media and the American people alike began losing hope in the government and war. Thecredibility of the American government suffered their biggest loss when the Pentagon Papers information was leaked to the public. The Pentagon Papers were published in the New York Times, and later...