Seventh International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

This study questions the modern states’ political instrumentalization of technical images of modern warfare by the media and the media effects of the images on the audience along two research questions. First, how and in which political contexts modern states politically instrumentalize the media circulation of technical images of modern warfare? Second, during the reception process, how and in which political contexts the technical images and their media circulation condition the audience’s views and opinions about the outcomes of wars? Accordingly, the study has two hypotheses. The initial hypothesis asserts that modern states take advantage of the media circulation of the technical images to propagate the idea that their military operations are cleanly held technical operations in which there is no harm to civilians. The subsequent hypothesis claims that the technical images and their media circulation put the audience in a position from which it is harder to intellectually grasp the operational processes/contexts and social consequences of wars. Wars are real phenomena with tangible outcomes. However, technical visual representations of wars disseminated by modern states make it more difficult for the audience to grasp military processes and social consequences of wars.