Panel Six: Current Operations
Historical Roots and Explanations for “Embedding” Journalists—Dr. Phillip Fraund
Beyond Doctrine: A Historical Perspective on the Information Operations Debate in Military-Media Relations—Dr. Stephen Badsey
Panel six is just starting. Please feel free to pose questions to the panelists through this blog
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Historical Roots and Explanations for “Embedding” Journalists—Dr. Phillip Fraund
ReplyDelete•During “Urgent Fury,” the media were totally excluded. Complaints led to the adoption of the press pool system.
•The “Sidle Commission” sought to keep U.S. public informed, while protecting the safety of journalists during war.
•During Operation Desert Storm, the inadequacies of the media pool were exposed. “Hardly a journalist had seen the battlefield”—GEN Schwarzkopf
•Operational security is still one of the military’s primary concerns when dealing with media on the battlefield.
Beyond Doctrine: A Historical Perspective on the Information Operations Debate in Military-Media Relations—Dr. Stephen Badsey
ReplyDelete•Since Vietnam have seen an ever-increasing intrusion of the media into military operations.
•Some in DoD view Web 2.0 as a threat to conducting operations during war.
•“If you haven’t had a bad experience with the media, you just haven’t worked with them long enough.”
•Inviting Soldiers to abandon the use of all military terms and acronyms for a day will help them understand the media.
•Media complexity makes understanding them difficult.
•“The media is like the weather. If you’re lucky you get good media. If you’re unlucky you will have to deal with it.”
•“The media don’t analyze themselves like you do.”
•Changes in the media industry generally accompany social changes. The first in the mid 1800s accompanied industrialization. Just before WW I, broadcast media began challenging print media. The latest change in the media scape began in the 1970s with computerization.
•The professional war reporter emerged during the Crimean War. A “power relationship” characterized military-media relations, meaning powerful forces sustained the reporter and the military could not afford to ignore the media.
•GEN Patton was one of GEN Pershing’s media relations officers during the campaign against Pancho Villa.
•“Media professionalism emerged first from the war reporters.”
•Propaganda became a serious weapon in the 1920s, challenging reporters who recently adopted professional ethics.
•Current information operations doctrine attempts to control the media—either as a tool to be exploited or as an enemy.
•Current information operations subvert operations to strategy.