War Spin

In discussing war spin after a lecture with a friend of mine, she came out with this wonderful statement "it is well known that terrorism is the ultimate extension of Public Relations". Since starting this MA, the common thread throughout every module, lecture and debate is TRUST & TRANSPARENCY. When a country makes the decision to go to war, is trust and transparency applicable?

We had to debate war spin 'modern wars are spun not won - what the warring parties say is more important than what they do' naturally we were on the opposing team denying this statement. Difficult, very difficult. It's obvious that spin plays the general in terms of war, Vietnam being a perfect example.

All we could say was that victory is dependent on power, economy, strength and numbers.. Opinions cannot and should not form a presence in war. We argued without actions war cannot be initiated using the Twin Towers and Pearl Harbour as our case studies. We touched on spin being unimportant in the formation of foreign policy and this is seen rightfully as the preservation of democracy, and the breakdown of democracy and human rights is why we go to war in the first place. The action is more important than the word. We concluded by explaining war coverage only accounts for 4% of the news and whilst critics do indeed concede to the media an important role in the process of war, that role is limited to humanitarian concerns and hence the media do not have the power to end a state of war, that belongs to military strategists, a game plan and a stronger power.

Of course we lost, we didn't stand a chance. But returning to trust and transparency in terms of war, new media is the Queen of the chess board to any warring party. Whilst warring parties can, do and will continue to generate war spin, the news channels that report are losing credibility and presence, and are no longer a trusted source of information.

Is it so crazy to think that in the not so distant future, this will become an ineffective war strategy?

some links to our debate research
- Realism in Afghanistan
- Victory by Spin?
- Media spin
- media on war
- The media & Vietnam war
- Why america can't keep fighting 1% wars
- How wars are won
- Democratic peace theory