Media In Vietnam War Essay

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The Vietnam War was a long and expensive war that lasted between the years 1954 and 1975. This conflict happened against the Communist North Vietnam and South Vietnam with its ally, the United States. Over the course of the war 58,000 young, American men were either killed or wounded, with an over all count of 3 million people killed during the war, including civilians (History – Vietnam War). With the help of the media, this merciless and gruesome war was televised to American homes everywhere, which created controversy and caused uneasiness and bitter feelings towards the war in people. Although the media portrayal of the war at first had mainly positive responses with limited amounts of war programs, the end of the war had a different story …show more content…

According to statistics, 58 percent of Americans relied on television to receive their news while only 42 percent relied on newspapers. More people chose to use the t.v. over the newspaper because it was more “attention-grabbing, interesting, personally relevant, emotionally involving, and surprising” (Television Coverage of the Vietnam War and the Vietnam Veteran). Consequently, this chosen media outlet allowed the American public to watch villages being destroyed, Vietnamese children being burned, and even body bags being sent home to America. Therefore, the public was able to feel as if they were right there in the jungles of …show more content…

Throughout the history of war, propaganda was used in many different ways to get people excited to join war and fight for their country. From the information given, the “propaganda” used during the Vietnam War was attempted by the use of media and broadcasting the war to American homes quickly without censoring the material (The Uncensored War: The Media and Vietnam). Unfortunately, this was a colossal failure for the war effort and caused the people to develop negative feelings about the war instead of gaining support like

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