Role of Global Television in Representations of Conflicts - Essay Example

Role Played by Global Television in Representations of Conflicts Role Played by Global Television in Representations of Conflicts Introduction Conflict is currently turning out to be a defining feature of today’s world. There have been many severe conflicts since the Cold War ended. These conflicts have consumed the lives of millions of individuals and caused/ led to displacement and suffering of other millions. It is not possible to determine the accurate number of people that have suffered from conflicts. It has been approximated that two million kids have lost their lives in conflicts in the last century. Despite the increased rate of conflict, there is still less understanding of the factors that trigger international conflicts. The media and conflict reporting New communication devices such as laptop computers and video/mobile phones are enabling journalists to collect and gather enough information easily from almost all parts of the globe. As a result, reporting of conflicts by international TV has become central in unfolding conflicts in the world. There is a need to set policies to govern the use of global media in the representation of conflicts. The aim of this paper is to highlight the role played by global television in representations of conflicts. The advancement of the current digital media industry has led to compression of space as well as time, thus enabling people to view images of riots, demonstrations, and coups. The broadcasted videos enlighten, not only global viewers, but also influence further conflict campaigns. A good example of this situation is India during the time when BBC broadcasted footages of attacks by Muslim fundamentalists on Hindu shrines (Verna, 2003). These footages reached a large group of Indians, thus triggering widespread clashes in the entire country. As a result, reporting of conflicts by international TV has become central in unfolding conflicts in the world. The reality of gathering news has negatively affected the way conflicts are represented. By far there are many psychological researches about media that have been concerning the effects of televised conflicts, as well as those spread through video games. It agrees that a large group of children display aggressive characters due to exposure to media conflicts. One of the consequences of media conflicts’ representation is that although some conflicts are widely broadcasted in international televisions, others due to neglect fail to receive any media attention. There are many conflicts that have claimed lives of millions of Africans and have received any global media attention. Such conflicts include the wars that took place in Angola, Congo, Cote D’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. All these conflicts have not received any attention in the global radar media. Other similar categories of wars include that of South and North Caucasus whereby thousands of people lost their lives (Barker, 2010). This is evidence that the role of media is central in representing conflicts globally. The representation of conflicts via global television has greatly changed in the last few decades. Currently, being used as a tool of propaganda and coverage, today media, especially global television is considered as a competent weapon. The conflicts of real weapons are currently being replaced with the conflicts of sounds and pictures. On one hand, the advancement of information technologies is currently termed as a human weapon because they involve fewer victims. Information technologies, on the other hand, they cause direct influence on the mental structures and can spread ethical panics as well as creating virtual enemies. One of the excellent examples of global television representation of conflicts was the representation of the 1991 Gulf War. Gulf War was the first television conflict. The Baudrillard’s three essays referring to the events of the war in Iraq that occurred early in the year 1991 were originally published in Guardian and Liberation and later combined into one book titled “The Gulf War did not take place”. During the strengthening of American propaganda and military, Baudrillard’s claimed that in reality the Gulf War was not going to take place (Havens, 2006). During the war operations, his slogan emphasized that the war was not going to take place and even after its occurrence, he argued that it had not occurred. Bardrillard did all this because the global television only broadcasted the Gulf War as just a series of agitated real television images. According to him, the media and especially global television failed to any opportunity for efficient communication. He argued that a television can be viewed as a technology for non-communication because it does not allow interaction that is needed during conflicts. In a war, there should be a struggle between those involved, communication, interaction, and exchange. Although Baudrillard argued that the United States overloaded the communication space during the occurrence of this war, the goals of both Saddam Hussein and George Bush were too different to be considered complements. Hussein, who was the former United States ally, was not represented as the actual rival, and the results of the war were predictable for both audience and participants of the war. CNN is one of the global televisions that played a great role in broadcasting the proceedings of the Gulf War. Global television is highly considered by many people as a tool that establishes interactivity among those watching and those making the war (Hoskins, MacFadyen & Finn, 2007). People also have a similar idea about the responsibility played by global televisions in representing conflicts. A large group asserts that the global television plays an important role in conflicts representation. For instance, the coalition that was led by the United States was highly relying on television. On the first day of the operations of the United States military, in Ariane, Kourou rocket started two broadcasting satellites. This was meant to symbolize parallel intervention of television and real forces. The decisions of the leaders were considerably based on intellect reports, which were not from witnesses, but also from images and news. Bush hired CNN television and Ted Turner the owner of CNN to broadcast the news about the war to the citizens of Iraq. Therefore, this enabled him to hold diplomacy through interjected images. United States ordered its coalition forces not to engage in direct clashes with Iraqi forces. However, they were ordered to make use approaches such as a virtual war in response to the attempts of Iraqi to change the war into a traditional one. Global televisions, especially CNN played a very major role of offering highly edited reports of Iraq conflicts to the audience in a live feed manner. Another global television that played an important role during this conflict was the ABC television. It is highly argued that the emotional impact, ubiquity, and the speed of which real-time international television broadcasts news has provided a new paradigm in political relations. This new type of “tele-diplomacy” is quite different from traditional practices since telecommunication independently affects policy decisions. Many researchers have concluded that the global television has completely changed diplomacy practices, mainly the way the political decisions are made. During the Gulf War of 1991, for example, the secretary of the United States, James Baker, the president of both United States and Iraqi used CNN television to communicate essential message instead of diplomatic channels (Selznick, 2008). The global television was highly used to spread the message of peace during the Gulf War thus playing an important role towards the end of the war. It is logical to argue that the global television has a direct influence on a policy decision. A good example that demonstrates how global television shapes foreign policy is the intervention of the United States in Kurdish in northern Iraq. At the beginning of the Gulf War, the administration of President George Bush suddenly changed the policy of the country towards the Iraq Kurds after the broadcast of CNN that showed how Kurdish was suffering. This led to the great relief of humanity in the history of the United States. Similarly, the administration of the United States held its non-involvement policy because refugees escaped to marshlands where the cameras of global television could not reach them. The main distinction between the dilemma of Shiites and that of Kurds after the end of the Gulf War was due to the presence of global television (Larson & Park, 2003). The lack of global media entails lack of attention to the relationship between politics, media, cultures, and societies Consequences of global television of hegemonisation, international relations, cultural representations Global television poses impacts to cultural variety because it aids in spreading cultural homogenization. Cultures are always evolving, and development and change of cultures is one of the natural progressions. In contrast, Westernization and homogenization are the two terms that explain negative impacts that the global television has possed on cultural diversity. These two concepts are closely related, but westernization provides a more effective illustration of the inevitable economic and social consequences of global television. Homogenization is one the largest consequences of global television. Homogenization refers to the propensity of cultures to spread in a way of life that is uniform (McKinnon & Hampsher-Monk, 2004). According to many researchers, the consequences of homogenization on cultural diversity in societies around the globe are immense. Homogenization results in the reduction of cultural diversity in broad while westernization cause direct impact; therefore, what the world is experiencing today due to global television is homogenization (Moran, 2009). The televised images and videos of humanitarian suffering put a lot of pressure to governments to take actions. This was seen in Iraq after the Gulf War in Rwanda and Somalia. Officials argue that the reason for this is just because it involves low cost to lend a hand. The United States policy implementation was mistreated due to the notion of Somalia. This experience probably caused a permanent shrunk of the facet of the consequences of CNN broadcasting. However, one interesting thing happens when the images and videos require interventions that are highly costly. For instance, images and videos of wars are always expensive no matter their brutality (Schwoch, 2009). During the fall and summer of 1992, the administration of President George Bush faced a lot of pressure from UN and Congress. It was global television (CNN) that was highly used to broadcast the breaking news about the war. The global television was not only used for broadcasting the proceedings of the war, but also to the message of peace to those involved. However, images and videos of people being slaughtered in Rwanda in the year 1994 did not pressure the governments to put force intervention (Parks & Kumar, 2003). This argument is true regardless of the fact that the global television coverage of Somalia was little in the year 1992 until President George sent American troops to help in ending the war. According to the views of many people, the war could have lasted for a long period, but global television influence United States administration to deploy its troops to assist in solving the conflicts. In addition, global television plays an important role of uniting international communities. The pace of global television innovation and its application as a tool for building peace in the world has highly accelerated following the advancement of internet technology, mobile telephony, and social networking. Part of ensuring peace among the international community is harnessing the strength of global media to bring individuals together, create the will of public to change behaviours and attitudes, and promote conflict management (Larson, 2008). Although global television can be used to incite violence or foster hatred, it is widely used as a powerful tool that mobilizes people in order to build peace in the world. For instance, in Colombia, global media were used to mobilize people to demonstrate against a group of rebels who were causing destruction to the country. In addition, many countries use global television to broadcast peaceful challenges in order to influence other countries to help them. We all know the vital role that the global television plays when conflicts occur between countries. The global televisions are daily being used to promote peace when conflicts occur. Conclusion In conclusion, the advancement of the current digital media industry has led to compression of space as well as time, thus enabling people to view images of riots, demonstrations, and coups. It is logical to argue that the global television has a direct influence on the policy decision during conflicts. The lack of global media entails lack of attention to the relationship between politics, media, cultures, and societies. Due to the advancement of technology, the pace of global television innovation and its application as a tool for building peace in the world has highly accelerated. Most nations are using global television to represent conflicts and promote peace. There is a need to set policies to govern the use of global media in the representation of conflicts. References Barker, C. (2010). Global television: An introduction. Oxford [u. a.: Blackwell. Havens, T. (2006). Global television marketplace. London: BFI. Hoskins, C., MacFadyen, S., & Finn, A. (2007). Global television and film: An introduction to the economics of the business. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Larson, J. F. (2008). Global television and foreign policy. New York, NY: Foreign Policy Association. Larson, J. F., & Park, H.-S. (2003). Global television and the politics of the Seoul Olympics. 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