The Media's Vietnam: The Horror the Government Hid from America
Presentation Type
Event
Full Name of Faculty Mentor
Deborah Breede
Major
Communication
Minor
Political Science
Presentation Abstract
Fought for nearly twenty years, the Vietnam War divided America. Americans knew that their country was at war but did not see one battle coming: the invasion of Vietnam into their living rooms. Americans felt as if they were meeting the soldiers that were fighting and watching battles unfold in real-time. Many broadcasts showed the parts of war that were not typically discussed at that time, such as dead and injured soldiers and American marines burning homes of the elderly Vietnamese. In response, part of the nation garnered a negative view of the war. This research uses a textual analysis to analyze how five CBS broadcasts were put on air, and how word choice, natural sound, and setting changed the way a country sees a war. It was found that the war was often broadcast with a hostile point of view and was not supportive of the American strategy.
Course
COMM 491
Location
Lib Jackson Student Union, Atrium
Start Date
17-4-2019 4:30 PM
End Date
17-4-2019 4:50 PM
Disciplines
Communication
Recommended Citation
Shaughnessy, Brittany, "The Media's Vietnam: The Horror the Government Hid from America" (2019). Undergraduate Research Competition. 43.
https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/ugrc/2019/poster/43
The Media's Vietnam: The Horror the Government Hid from America
Lib Jackson Student Union, Atrium
Fought for nearly twenty years, the Vietnam War divided America. Americans knew that their country was at war but did not see one battle coming: the invasion of Vietnam into their living rooms. Americans felt as if they were meeting the soldiers that were fighting and watching battles unfold in real-time. Many broadcasts showed the parts of war that were not typically discussed at that time, such as dead and injured soldiers and American marines burning homes of the elderly Vietnamese. In response, part of the nation garnered a negative view of the war. This research uses a textual analysis to analyze how five CBS broadcasts were put on air, and how word choice, natural sound, and setting changed the way a country sees a war. It was found that the war was often broadcast with a hostile point of view and was not supportive of the American strategy.