The Media And The Us Army

United States Army in Vietnam. CMH Pub. 91-13. Draws upon previously unavailable Army and Defense Department records to interpret the part the press played during the Vietnam War. Discusses the roles of the following in the creation of information policy: Military Assistance Command's Office of Information in Saigon; White House; State Department; Defense Department; and the United States Embassy in Saigon.

Now that the Department of Defense has permitted the use of social media for both private and official purposes, the question becomes, can the military, the Army in particular, obtain the benefits sought from social media use without seriously compromising individual and operations security? Answering this question required an initial assessment of Army goals and objectives to determine why the Army risked the use of social media. The assessment revealed two reasons. First, the Army needed social media to communicate its inform and influence activities more effectively. Second, social media was the primary means by which soldiers maintained contact with their friends and family. Consequently, social media has become a significant element in maintaining soldier morale. If the Army did not need social media to distribute its inform message, it might have avoided the difficulties created by the personal use of social media. Thus, the security risk posed by the use of social media cannot be reduced to a simple enforcement of operations security rules. Nevertheless, soldiers who are not trained to avoid the disclosure of classified or sensitive information will, through their ingrained habits, present a significant security risk. To understand the situation and to derive the needed training required an initial examination of social media as a means of communications. That discussion along with a discussion of personal soldier use reveals that social media supports the Army inform and influence activity requirements, but introduces the risk of spillage through social media. In other words, soldiers have habits that create vulnerabilities that enemies of the United States can easily exploit. An examination of casual social media use revealed common practices that stand contrary to sound operations security. Comparing social media habits with regulatory requirements produced a list of key elements of required training. The reality is that evolutionary information changes will continue without the military's consent. All military personnel require training on appropriate use of social media now. The Army can institute training that raises awareness of these dangers for all service members. Ideally, social media will become a manageable medium with which to communicate the right messages and maintain good order and discipline within the Armed Forces.

Surveys the US Army's approach to media relations from the Spanish-American War to the first Gulf War. The relationship between the Army and the media is considered in the broader context of the US Government's approach to information management. Given the growing importance of information operations in 21st century warfare, this study provides a succinct overview of how the US Army has approached its relations with the media over the previous century. The study highlights the recurrent tension that exists in both the Army and the US Government's information management writ large. This tension arises from the need for operational security and effective deception and psychological operations and the need to provide transparency to secure public acceptance and support for military operations. The long-running debate over how the Government's information management should be organized and operated reflects this tension. Thus, since World War I a number of bureaucratic manifestations of information management have been tried in wartime, including the Committee on Public Information, the Office of War Information, the Psychological Strategy Board, the United States Information Agency, and, most recently, the Office of Global Communications. With the exception of the United States Information Agency, whose tenure spanned the period from 1953 to 1999, all the other manifestations of bureaucratic information management rose and fell during the wars in which they were created. The growing pains of these organizations sometimes colored the Army's relationship with the media. The need for units in the field to participate in information management is a major challenge for future operations. This study reminds us that those commanders who have gone out of their way to engage the media have, in many cases, had the greatest success with information management.

This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. Surveys the U.S. Army¿s approach to media relations from the Spanish-American War to the first Gulf War. The relationship between the Army and the media is considered in the broader context of the U.S. Government¿s approach to info. mgmt. (IM) Here is an overview of how the U.S. Army has approached its relations with the media over the previous century. Since World War I a number of bureaucratic manifestations of IM have been tried in wartime. With the exception of the U.S. Info. Agency, whose tenure spanned the period from 1953 to 1999, all the other manifestations of bureaucratic IM rose and fell during the wars in which they were created. The need for units in the field to participate in IM is a major challenge for future operations. Illus.

This book is the first about military-media relations to argue for a fundamental restructuring of national journalism and the first to document the failure of American journalism in the national security field for the past thirty years. Press complaints of excessive control by the military during the Persian Gulf War of 1990-91 were the inevitable result of the failure of American journalism to train competent specialists in military reporting and to provide an organizational structure that would assure continuing, comprehensive coverage of national defense in peace and war. This, in turn, is the result of retaining the city-room concept as the basic organizational feature of the press, with continuing reliance on the generalist in an age that demands increasingly well-trained specialists. So long as the press fails to modernize its basic methods of training to assure well-trained defense specialists, the military will be required to closely control reporters, as in the Persian Gulf War, as a basic requirement of security for armed forces members and the national interests. Permitting the military to control how the military itself is reported is a grave danger to the democratic process. Yet, so long as the press refuses to accept responsibility for large-scale reform, the public will continue to support close military control as an essential element of safety for its sons and daughters in the armed forces, and out of concern for the success of U.S. military operations. This book will be of interest to students of the press, of the military, and of the media at large.

The Social Media Handbook explores how social media are changing disciplinary understandings of the internet and our everyday lives. In addition to person-to-person social networking services like Facebook and Twitter, this volume considers a broad range of networked information services that support in-depth social interaction, community formation, and collaboration in the Web 2.0 era. Rather than considering social media in terms of specific technologies, the chapters in this book engage topics across a range of research, techniques, practices, culture and society, and theories. These broader topics—including community, gender, fandom, disability, and journalism—are entryways through which students and faculty can explore ways of thinking about social media and find new paradigms for analysis. Contributors:Axel Bruns, Francesca Coppa, Katie Ellis, Gerard Goggin, Alexander Halavais, Andrew Herman, Jeremy Hunsinger, Angus Johnston, Alice Marwick, Safiya Umoja Noble, Zizi Papacharissi, Toni Sant, Theresa Senft

This is the first academic analysis of the role of embedded media in the 2003 Iraq War, providing a concise history of US military public affairs management since Vietnam.In late summer 2002, the Pentagon considered giving the press an inside view of the upcoming invasion of Iraq. The decision was surprising, and the innovative "embedded media prog

The republics of Greece and Rome proved incapable of waging war effectively and remaining free at the same time. The record of modern republics is not much more encouraging. How, then, did the United States manage to emerge victorious from the world wars of this century, including the Cold War, and still retain its fundamental liberties? For Karl-Friedrich Walling, this unprecedented accomplishment was the work of many hands and many generations, but of Alexander Hamilton especially. No Founder thought more about the theory and practice of modern war and free government. None supplied advice of more enduring relevance to statesmen faced with the responsibility of providing for the common defense while securing the blessings of liberty to their posterity. Hamilton's strategic sobriety led many of his contemporaries to view him as an American Caesar, but this revisionist account calls the conventional "militarist" interpretation of Hamilton into question. Hamilton sought to unite the strength necessary for war with the restraint required by the rule of law, popular consent, and individual rights. In the process, he helped found something new, the world's most durable republican empire. Walling constructs a conversation about war and freedom between Hamilton and the Loyalists, the Anti-Federalists, the Jeffersonians, and other Federalists. Instead of pitting Hamilton's virtues against his opponents' vices (or vice versa), Walling pits Hamilton's virtue of responsibility against the revolutionary virtue of vigilance, a quarrel he believes is inherent to American party government. By reexamining that quarrel in light of the necessities of war and the requirements of liberty, Walling has written the most balanced and moving account of Hamilton so far.

This book examines the tensions and controversies that developed as the war lengthened and the news media went about their traditional tasks. The first of two volumes on the subject, it draws upon previously unavailable Army and Defense Department records to interpret the role the press played during the war.--[foreword]