In the film the Battle of Algiers (1997) the backdrop or setting is the ancient city with its narrow winding passageways, tunnels, stairways, and arches. The old city is complex, full of danger and hiding places, a metaphor for the war itself and the participants who must survive. The issue is to whom the country should belong and who should have power, the French colonialist invaders or the indigenous people. It is about the indigenous people gaining their rights and benefiting from the country's resources. It is not about the physical landscape. The social community that has set up a Cause is a group of resistance fighters -- guerillas or terrorists, in contemporary terms.
According to Larsen (2004) Plato taught that war was a way to assert cultural identity, and the rules of war develop from this sense of how the warriors see themselves collectively: "Cultural identity defines the war, its behavior, and its goal" (p. 472). During Plato's time war was seen as a positive thing: "From antiquity until the nineteenth century war is the true confirmation of identity" (p. 475). We have not entirely given up this view -- at least the military hasn't. Advertising on TV, for example, still promotes the idea that military service can make a man out of a boy. But our values and beliefs about war have changed a great deal. Media has played a strong role in changing and transforming human values regarding war: "...from the nineteenth century onwards this martial attitude has been reversed or at least contested" (p. 475).
Ambiguity about war developed in literature during the Renaissance, when a shift in human consciousness manifested itself in the invention of linear perspective (in art) that allowed human beings to individually control spatial experience and location. Spatial manipulation became an "interpretive norm for human identity" (p. 480), and the landscape became a focal point for the ambiguity. If humans establish their identities through war, they cannot get it through landscape because war destroys the landscape. If location confers identity, that identity cannot be confirmed during war "because it is a self-defeating...
Unlike other wars, this was not against the armies of a nation, but a cohort of individuals who were driven by an ideology (Islamism). This army knew no boundaries and did not use conventional tactics of war fare. Even when the Taliban were imprisoned, the media first reasoned and then insisted that the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war applied to these prisoners. Bill Maher, comedian,
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
Media If 911 had not happened do you think the Summer of the Shark would have become the Year of the Shark? If not, what do you think the next big story would have been? (search news sites and other online references to find other news stories that could have been big, but were overshadowed by 9/11) The term "summer of the shark" has become a joke to refer to the way
Media Audiences Marxist media theorists discuss the media in terms of their role as 'ideological apparatuses'. Explain the key notions behind this research, paying particular attention to the concept of hegemony and the media's role within it. What is 'hegemony', and why is it important to audience studies? Marxist theorists emphasizes on the role of mass media in reproduction of status quo, however there is no school of thought regarding his theories.
War Society Modern World War has been an integral part of the development of our civilization from the earliest times. It is estimated that there are more than 14,000 wars that have occurred since events began to be recorded and this has resulted in the death of billions of people. It was an essential part of the survival and behavior of human beings and the society at large. This attitude continued
One can be certain that many millions of dollars will flow through the hands of right wing fundraisers like Karl Rove into attack ads against Obama's reform legislation, called "Obamacare" by many who oppose it and even by some who have embraced it. On the subject of public health, in the National Public Radio blog on campaign spending (Kramer, 2010), the reporter interviewed Peter Stone with the Center for Public
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now