Degraded Capability The Media and the Kosovo Crisis

by Hammond, Philip; Herman, Edward S.

• ISBN13: 9780745316321
• ISBN10: 0745316328
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-05-20
• Publisher: Pluto Press

Summary

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 is the first book to integrate 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 offers 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. Contributors include John Pilger, Edward S. Herman, Phil Hammond, Diana Johnstone and Jim Naureckas.

Author Biography

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, The Times and Broadcast. He was consultant on Counterblast: Against the War (BBC2 TV).
Edward S. Herman is an internationally respected academic and activist who has written over twenty books, including the groundbreaking Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (Vintage, 1995) with Noam Chomsky. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Finance at Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Harold Pinter
Introduction	1	(6)
Philip Hammond
Edward S. Herman
Part I: The West's Destruction of Yugoslavia
Nato and the New World Order: Ideals and Self-Interest	7	(12)
Diana Johnstone
Western Intervention and the Disintegration of Yugoslavia, 1989--1999	19	(12)
David Chandler
War Crimes	31	(8)
Mirjana Skoco
William Woodger
The War and its Aftermath	39	(20)
Peter Gowan
Part II: Seeing the Enemy
New Militarism and the Manufacture of Warfare	59	(11)
Richard Keeble
Nazifying the Serbs, from Bosnia to Kosovo	70	(9)
Mick Hume
The Military and the Media	79	(9)
Mirjana Skoco
William Woodger
Symbolic Warfare: Nato Versus the Serbian Media	88	(9)
Goran Gocic
Part III: Reporting the War around the World
Following Washington's Script: The United States Media and Kosovo	97	(14)
Seth Ackerman
Jim Naureckas
CNN: Selling Nato's War Globally	111	(12)
Edward S. Herman
David Peterson
Third Way War: New Labour, the British Media and Kosovo	123	(9)
Philip Hammond
Censorship by Omission	132	(9)
John Pilger
The French Media and the Kosovo War	141	(12)
Diana Johnstone
From `Never again War' to `Never again Auschwitz': Dilemmas of German Media Policy in the War against Yugoslavia	153	(11)
Thomas Deichmann
`Thank you God! Thank you Norway!' Norwegian Newspapers and the Kosovo War	164	(6)
Karin Trandheim Ron
The Greek `Participation' in Kosovo	170	(7)
Nikos Raptis
Consensus and Conflict in the Russian Press	177	(8)
Philip Hammond
Lilia Nizamova
Irina Savelieva
India: How India Sees Through Western Reports	185	(15)
Raju G.C. Thomas
An Indian View of the Western Media from Iraq to Yugoslavia	196	(4)
Siddharth Varadarajan
Conclusions: First Casualty and Beyond	200	(9)
Philip Hammond
Edward S. Herman
Notes on Contributors	209	(3)
References	212	(5)
Index	217