From the Front
Lines to the Home Front
 In 1775, Philadelphians read about
the Battle of Bunker Hill more than a week after it was fought.
In 2003, the families of some U.S. soldiers were able to
see their loved ones in action in Iraq on the local news.
Americans have always hungered for news from the front, but
the ways they receive the news have continued to change.
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| « video » |
| Sanitizing
War |
From "Reporting
America at War" (PBS)
"If we really saw war as it is...we would be horrified," says veteran New
York TImes correspondent Chris Hedges in this online excerpt from the PBS
documentary "Reporting America at War." "But we sanitize war...The lie of coverage
is the lie of omission." |
| U.S.
Infantry & the Rough Riders |
From "The
Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures" (Library of
Congress)
This re-enactment of U.S. forces in action in Cuba in 1899 was filmed in New
Jersey by the Thomas Edison Company for showing to U.S. audiences. |
| Movietone
News |
Movietone
News (Registration free, but
required)
During World War II, Americans, like their British counterparts,
flocked to movie theaters for newsreel coverage of events
overseas. Many of these clips are available online via
British Movietone News. (After registering and logging
in, search for "Liberating Armies Invade Normandy" for
an excellent example, with sound.) |
« websites » |
| World
War I Rotogravures |
Newspaper
Pictorials: World War I Rotogravures
The new rotogravure printing process made it possible
for U.S. newspapers to include high quality images, often
in special pictorial sections, with their coverage of
the First World War. This site from the Library of Congress
American Memory project includes "an illustrated
history of World War I selected from newspaper rotogravure
sections that graphically documents the people, places,
and events important to the war." |
| Headlines
and Morale |
The
Public Opinion Quarterly (BC
Community Only)
Allport, Floyd Henry and Milton Lepkin. "Building
War Morale with News-Headlines." The
Public Opinion Quarterly (1943) 7.2: 211-21 |
| The
Press and Public Morale |
Journal
of Southern History (BC Community
Only)
Andrews, J. Cutler. "The Confederate Press and Public Morale." Journal
of Southern History 32.4 (1966): 445-465. |
| Over
My Dead Body |
Quarterly
Review of Film & Video (BC
Community Only)
Cook, Bernie. "Over My Dead Body: The Idealogical use of Dead Bodies in
Network News Coverage of Vietnam." Quarterly Review of Film & Video 18.2
(2001): 203 |
| "Join
or Die" |
Journalism
History (BC Community Only)
Copeland, David. "'Join or Die': America's Press During the French and Indian
War." Journalism History (1998) 24.3: 112-21 |
| Television's
Visual Impact |
Journal of Contemporary
History (BC Community Only)
Culbert, David. "Television's Visual Impact on Decision-Making in the USA,
1968: The Tet Offensive and Chicago's Democratic National Convention." Journal
of Contemporary History (1998) 33.3: 419-49 |
| War
as Popular Culture |
Journal
of American Culture (BC Community
Only)
Ebo, Bosah. "War as Popular Culture: The Gulf Conflict and the Technology
of Illusionary Entertainment." Journal of American Culture (1995)
18.3: 19-25 |
| The
Audience and Human Suffering |
Media, Culture & Society
(BC Community Only)
Hoijer, Birgitta. "The Discourse of
Global Compassion: The Audience and Media Reporting of Human
Suffering." Media, Culture & Society 26.4
(2004): 513-31 |
| The
Television War |
American
Journalism Review (BC Community Only)
Sharkey, Jacqueline E.. "The Television War." American Journalism Review
(2003) 25. 4: 18-27 |
| Photographic
Imagery and the Vietnam War |
Journal
of Psychology (BC Community Only)
Thompson, Kenrick S. "Photographic Imagery and the Vietnam War: An Unexamined
Perspective." Journal of Psychology (1974) 87.2: 279-92 |
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