Abstract
The role of the media in wars has long been a subject of controversy, with disciplinary boundaries determining the position authors take. While the topic has been largely ignored in the International Relations scholarship, Media Studies have tended to frame the debate within historical accounts of the media at war or the effects of military activity on journalistic practices. The role of the media in the transformation of conflicts, and indeed of the decision-making processes around conflicts, thus continues to be framed within conventional media academic debates. Chiara de Franco’s book, Media Power and the Transformation of War, positions itself at the heart of this discussion. Yet instead of burying itself in conventional understandings of the media as a tool that is strategically exploited by decision-makers, the book exposes the mechanisms and powers at play in the conduct of wars.
The point of departure for Media Power is the understanding of the media as agents contributing to the transformation of wars (p. 5). Therefore, while founded on previous war and media literature, de Franco’s book goes beyond such writings. It does so by not only acknowledging the role of the media in wars, but by ascribing to the media a key function in the shaping of the warfare landscape. Building on the works of Marshall McLuhan, Erving Goffman and Joshua Meyrowitz in particular, the book offers intelligent insights into the actions as well as actors involved in the decision-making processes around contemporary wars. It exposes the changes to the warfare landscape, provoked by the media and evident in policy-making and strategic planning (p. 163). The book thus moves beyond a general discussion of the media’s capacity to influence political decision-making, as it demonstrates the diplomatic strategies used by both the media and governments in the conduct of wars.
Media Power is divided into six chapters, with four of them addressing different forms of media power – media power over the agenda (chapter 2), the process (chapter 3), the channel (chapter 4) and the instruments (chapter 5). De Franco discusses the underlying theories of these different forms of media power through an analysis of two different wars: Kosovo and Afghanistan. By applying a comparative approach she manages to show the intertwining of these four dimensions of media power and their influence on the transformation of wars. This is also one of the main strengths of the book, as are the individual chapter summaries, which help the structure of the book. Along with the concluding chapter, these comparative summaries bring out the fundamental ideas guiding and progressing the discussion.
Throughout her analysis, de Franco juxtaposes CNN and Al-Jazeera reportage of the Kosovo and the Afghanistan wars. To this end, she analyses the role of media (power) through the framework of different media markets; western and non-western. In this context, she contends that ‘the media have power in conflicts and wars because they mediate decision-making at various levels’ (p. 31). In discussing ‘power over the agenda’ de Franco frames her arguments within the concept of agenda-building, which not only helps to construct the meaning of events but also builds the political agenda. Similarly, and closely linked to agenda-building, ‘power over the process’ demonstrates the ability of the media to influence policy-making. By comparing Kosovo and Afghanistan, de Franco frames the discussion on process within the concept of real-time policy effects, where the media are in control of the perception of events (p. 96).
Through timely broadcasts, the media seek to influence the timing of policies by shaping audience perceptions of particular issues. For instance, during the Kosovo conflict, both Al-Jazeera and CNN offered an alternative narrative to what the American public was being told by the political leadership. Whereas US politicians promoted the conflict as a quest for independence, CNN portrayed it as a human rights issue – a narrative that was later adopted by the establishment. Accepting this argument, the media hold the power to build a sense of emergency. De Franco pushes this notion by using an example from the Afghanistan conflict where Al-Jazeera labelled the United States as the spearhead of the campaign, thus launching an emotional appeal by reporting on the effects of the war from a non-western perspective.
Moving from a focus on agenda and process, the book’s fourth chapter analyses what de Franco terms ‘media power over the channel’. Whereas the two previous chapters focused on agenda-building and real-time policy effects respectively, chapter 4 deals with the diplomatic ability of the media. Effectively, this is understood through the ways in which the media mediate interactions between actors (p. 99). Yet media platforms not only establish the arenas where key actors can interact, they also construct the capacity for actions to be mediated. Thus the last form of media power identified by de Franco is found within the abstract vicinity of ‘instruments’ (chapter 5). The extent to which the presence of the media in wars infiltrates military and political strategies is explored and analysed through the role of the media in constructing the basis for Semiotic War. De Franco thus contends that media-constructed narratives hold the power to transform political and military campaign planning. This is particularly evident in the US government’s decision to embed reporters within US forces, which, according to de Franco, was a result of Al-Jazeera’s alternative narrative during the Kosovo conflict (p. 161).
Media Power establishes a convincing tenet of a media landscape that actively demonstrates agency in the influencing of policy-making. As the media bring together key actors in the shaping of war and conflict, they also provide the platform upon which political actors can engage with distanced audiences. Media power is thus partly found in the media’s ability to influence perceptions – of war and of policy-making. Yet because the book deals specifically with the medium of television, it would have benefited from a visual component, allowing the reader to engage with the visual representations of war and conflict. This is particularly relevant in relation to the emotional appeals used by the media and discussed by de Franco. Moreover, while the book briefly relates to the concept of mediatization in the context of peace journalism, it does not properly engage with this concept. A broader and deeper discussion would have been possible if the works of Hjarvard (2008), Hoskins and O’Loughlin (2010) and Cottle (2006) had been considered. These works adopt a more expansive approach by understanding mediatization through the influence of the media on social and cultural institutions.
That said, Media Power is a thorough qualitative study, which presents a compelling case for the use of a four-dimensional definition of media power in relation to the agenda, the process, the channel and the instruments – an approach which also holds the potential to be applied to new and emerging media platforms.