Media: Power and Influence on Public Perception of the Vietnam War
The power of the media has long been understood, and part of that power is in shaping popular opinion. The media can show emotionally poignant images, give a platform to expert authorities and together these two factors can influence the minds and hearts of people. This was something that was particularly true during the era of the Vietnam War, sometimes referred to as America’s first “television war” (Hillesheim, 2017). In 1965, nearly every household in America owned a television (90%) and depended on this television to get the bulk of their news (Hillesheim, 2017). Television was a new technology—used for broadcasting the news and information and was not at this time privy to censorship or comparable laws of media. This meant that the average American had unparalleled access to the Vietnam War. In some ways, this freedom of access and information was a once in a lifetime event, and certainly something that would not occur in this day and age. Seeing uncensored images and footage of the atrocities of war is a blessing and a curse: it’s a blessing to receive such a candor of information, of what is actually going on overseas, but it will almost inevitably sour the human heart, causing the average person to lose sight of the bigger picture of being at war. This paper will discuss how the media had an undeniable influence on the opinion of Americans’ in the Vietnam War and how it impacted most Americans with the desire of wanting to pull out of the war or to be unable to see the benefit of our participation.
It’s important to bear in mind that the media’s influence and interest in Vietnam was gradual at first: when the war first started there were few reports on small country, with a few reports here and there about the growth of communism within the nation (Ronn, 2014). This changed at the end of 1960 when many civilians died in an attack waged against President Diem. This event is precisely what caused more reporters to be sent there. For many Americans, this coup, and all the civilian lives it took, has a humanizing impact on their viewpoint of the war. From this point on, “the war started to come to many American living rooms and usually with bad news. On the media, the battle of Ap Bac was described as a debacle of the South Vietnamese Army. The Buddhist Crisis highlighted by the famous picture of Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation portrayed Diem’s regime as a brutal and dictatorial regime” (Ronn, 2014). Scholars have argued that the more the details of the war were broadcast to homes all over the nation, the lower public support fell. Other scholars argued that support for a war decreases over time as a fact of collective human behavior and has nothing in particular to do with the Vietnam War.
It’s also important to note that during the years of the war, television was becoming a more trusted source of news: Roper surveys administered at the time as Americans who they would trust if they ever received conflicting accounts of a particular story. 48 percent of the people surveyed said television while only 21 percent said newspapers (McLaughlin). These results aren’t surprising for the era: at this point in time Americans were connecting nightly with news anchors who were able to make a human connection over the television set, appearing in people’s homes like trusted friends.
“The visual element of television allows viewers to feel as if they are part of the action. When news programs aired images of battles and death, Americans at home felt as if they too were in the jungles of Vietnam. Additionally, intense visuals helped...
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