Degraded Capability: The Media and the Kosovo Crisis

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· Pluto Books
Ebook
240
Pages
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About this ebook

The media served a highly partisan and propagandistic role in Nato’s Kosovo war, uncritically reproducing official spin in a way that was incompatible with their proclaimed democratic role as objective purveyors of information. Degraded Capability integrates a critical interpretation of Western policy toward the former Yugoslavia with analysis of media coverage of the Kosovo crisis and war.

The first part of the book deals with the war itself and the build-up to it, placing this in the context of earlier Western intervention in Yugoslavia. Part two discusses key issues raised by the media coverage, including the demonisation of the enemy, and the role of CNN. In the final section, contributors analyse how the war was reported in different countries around the world, including the United States, Britain, Germany, India, Greece, Russia, and France.

The book is an important corrective to the hysteria and misinformation that permeated media coverage. Subjects covered include the role of the internet, the changing media-military relationship, the depiction and definition of ‘war crimes,’ and how Yugoslav television was presented as a legitimate military target.

About the author

Philip Hammond is senior lecturer in Media Studies at South Bank University. He has written on media coverage and the Kosovo war for the Independent and The Times.

Edward S. Herman is Professor Emeritus of Finance at the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. He is a media analyst with a speciality in corporate and regulatory issues, as well as political economy. He has collaborated with Noam Chomsky on a number of books, including The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism (Pluto, 2015) and After the Cataclysm (Pluto, 2015).

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