Power over the Instruments

Abstract

The well-established concepts of propaganda, news management, and public relations tell us the extent to which the media are manipulated by political and economic institutions and elites, but do not account for the fact that, despite any well-planned strategy to deal with the media, politicians and military personnel find themselves in continuous need to adjust that strategy and even change the military plan. Media operations are necessary to win contemporary conflicts and are not simply optional: without successful integration of the media with political and military strategies, the latter may fall short. As already discussed in the previous chapters, the media alter the interaction between the agents of politics and war at different levels. They provide a new stage, a new environment where new forms of interaction are possible and new practices become appropriate, if not necessary. Ultimately, it is the mere existence and presence of the media in the international sphere which creates the need for a battle over meaning. The media impose themselves as new channels of communication but also as instruments of a necessary ‘Semiotic War’. This concept refers to the existence of a completely new field of fighting on screen, running parallel to the one on the ground, where the media determine the choice of the instruments.