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April 25, 2006
“A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both.”
—James Madison, 1822
If you believe a free press is the cornerstone of a democracy, you are probably concerned about the nature of news programming now that we are living in the Age of Media Culture. In this era of corporate-owned mass messaging and the ascendancy of infotainment, it is important to question what this consumer culture has brought to—and stolen—from our lives.
A central test of a free press—the coverage of war—suggests the American press fails miserably in its role as a keeper of the public trust. Two upcoming programs deconstruct the role of American media in two recent wars: the 1991 Gulf War and the ongoing war in Iraq.
While each presentation tells a complete story, there is a resonant and uncanny connection between the two documentaries. Experiencing both offers the viewer a deeper sense of the troubling and influential role Media plays in contemporary politics.
Wednesday, May 3
“Showdown in the Gulf”—Mythmaking and the Media
7 p.m. in Kemper Auditorium; 55-minute film is followed by Q&A with Stephen Wicks.
This program begins by calling attention to the omnipresent power of Media and offers answers to the question “Who controls the media?”
The video then focuses on the television coverage of “Desert Storm,” the 1991 Gulf War fought by America and other nations against Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi army. The program presents a compilation of video excerpts selected from a wide variety of documentaries created in the years following the war. A central theme of the piece is the use of propaganda to sell the war to the American people and allied nations.
Editor and PA art instructor Stephen Wicks will introduce the documentary and take questions from the audience. For more information about this program, please contact swicks@andover.edu.
Friday, May 19
Weapons of Mass Deception
6:45 p.m. in Kemper Auditorium; 98-minute film is followed by Q&A with Director Danny Schechter.
This powerful and provocative documentary sheds light on the role Media played in the 2003 Iraq War. The basic theme: There were two wars going on in Iraq: one was fought with armies of soldiers, bombs, and a fearsome military force; the other was fought alongside it with cameras, satellites, armies of journalists, and propaganda techniques. One war was rationalized as an effort to find and remove WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction); the other was carried out by even more powerful WMDs: Weapons of Mass Deception.
Director Danny Schechter, a well-known human rights and media activist, will be on hand to introduce the screening of his film and take questions from the audience. For more information about the film and Danny Schechter, go to www.wmdthefilm.com.
Both events are free of charge and open to the public.
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