Web 2.0 has revolutionized the way America sees war- specifically, the War on Iraq. By “seeing” I’m not referring to your opinion on the war itself, rather our ability to now visualize what it’s like for our soldiers overseas. Soldier’s blogs (or milblogs), YouTube, Flickr- all of these have allowed us to view videos, pictures and read first-hand accounts of what it’s really like to be at war. This week I took some time to survey what’s out there- and it’s amazing the sheer amount of media that’s available to us about the war. One particular blog I found interesting- Thunder Run- has been up and running since July 2005. This blog offers news round-ups on the war, links to other milblogs, links to media sites dedicated to the military, and lots of war footage videos. Other blogs, such as Another Adventure, offer more personal accounts of the war, such as relationships fostered with other soliders, the food in their camps, and packages sent from home. There’s thousands of others, all compiled at Milblogging.com, and sorted by topic and country.
On the visual side, YouTube has so many videos of soldier’s accounts of the war. What is interesting about a lot of the war footage on YouTube is that’s its of course shot by soldier’s themselves, but a lot are “produced” in that there’s music dubbed over the video, phrases flashing across the screen, almost meant to look like a tough music video. You can see some examples below- but I warn you, some of it is very graphic.
I think the accessibility to the reality of war has changed the way we view what’s really going on in Iraq. There are two sides of course. On one hand, when I view war footage, or read soldier’s blogs I feel extremely grateful that these people are fighting for our freedom and the freedom of our country. My heart goes out to all those who are separated from their loved ones. What we see on the web allows us to view the war as those who are fighting for us do. This being said, Milblogs are key to spreading a feeling of patriotism throughout the country.
On the other hand, I can’t help but wonder if many of the footage that I viewed glorifies the violence and brutality of the war. We can’t assume everyone is both media literate and politically educated. I wonder if teenagers sit at home and watch footage from Iraq and think that war is “cool,” or that blowing things up or shooting machine guns is fun- as it is often portrayed in some of the videos. Does all this coverage glorify war?
I’m not quite decided on the message that Milblogging is spreading around the country. It’s already had influence to re-shape American opinion, the question is do we as Americans know what to do with what we are now exposed to?
1 Comment
July 23, 2008 at 1:50 pm
When you get “up” for a football game, you have trained and get yourself in the frame of mind to go out and play the game.
Soldiers and Marines are doing a job that is very different from your job. It requires physical training just as athletics, a skill set that is specialized, teamwork beyond any sporting event, and focus.
You see videos of getting “up” for the deployment, the patrol, or sometimes the battle.
You also see videos of actual combat.
This is not glorifying war, it is just getting up for doing something very hard, and the events of doing it.
If this makes young people want to join the services, and some videos are taking that into account, then so much the better for recruiting.
We have a volunteer military and they have two wars going and need troops.
The military blogs are soldiers speaking. That seems pretty healthy to me.
Put yourself in their shoes, as much as you can, and your concerns will disappear.