scholarly journals Facilitated news as controlled information flows: The origins, rationale and dilemmas of ‘embedded’ journalism

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-118
Author(s):  
Paul G Buchanan
Keyword(s):  
Public Support ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Home Front ◽  
Media Access ◽  
War Narrative ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
War Effort ◽  
Security Guarantees ◽  
The Military

The article traces the origins, rationale and some of the dilemmas that have emerged in the practice of ‘embedded’ journalism. It argues that the practice emerged as a post-Vietnam response by the US military to the ‘problem’ of independent news coverage of conflicts in which the US was involved. For the post-Vietnam US military, independent news coverage was problematic because it often contradicts the official war narrative and, if left unhindered, undermines public support for the war effort. Since public support is crucial for success in a foreign war, particularly during lengthy engagements, independent news coverage is seen as a threat to the unity of the home front and therefore a threat to the war effort itself. The lesson learned from Vietnam was to restrict independent media access to battle zones, first by denying all access and withdrawing security guarantees to journalists operating in conflict theaters, and then by providing privileged but controlled access to front line units via the practice of facilitated news-gathering known as ‘embedded journalism’. As it turns out, even that practice has a downside, and there is more to the story than the military desire to control the narrative.

scholarly journals Helminth infections in the US military: from strongyloidiasis to schistosomiasis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alyssa R Lindrose ◽  
Indrani Mitra ◽  
Jamie Fraser ◽  
Edward Mitre ◽  
Patrick W Hickey
Keyword(s):  
Military Personnel ◽  
International Classification Of Diseases ◽  
Data Repository ◽  
Military Health ◽  
Intestinal Nematode ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Helminth Infections ◽  
The Us ◽  
East And Southeast Asia ◽  
The Military

Abstract Background Helminth infections caused by parasitic worms, including nematodes (roundworms), cestodes (tapeworms) and trematodes (flukes), can cause chronic symptoms and serious clinical outcomes if left untreated. The US military frequently conducts activities in helminth-endemic regions, particularly Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. However, the military does not currently screen for these infections, and to date, no comprehensive surveillance studies have been completed to assess the frequency of helminth diagnoses in the military personnel and their families. Methods To determine the burden of helminth infections in the US Military Health System (MHS), we conducted a retrospective analysis of International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-9/10 diagnosis codes from all medical encounters in the MHS Data Repository (MDR) from fiscal years (FY) 2012 to 2018. Chart reviews were conducted to assign ICD diagnoses as incorrect, suspected, probable or confirmed based on the laboratory results and symptoms. Results Abstraction of MHS data revealed over 50 000 helminth diagnoses between FY 2012 and FY 2018. Of these, 38 445 of diagnoses were amongst unique subjects. After chart review, we found there were 34 425 validated helminth infections diagnosed amongst the unique subjects of US military personnel, retirees and dependents. Nearly 4000 of these cases represented infections other than enterobiasis. There were 351 validated strongyloidiasis diagnoses, 317 schistosomiasis diagnoses and 191 diagnoses of cysticercosis during the study period. Incidence of intestinal nematode infection diagnoses showed an upward trend, whilst the incidence of cestode infection diagnoses decreased. Conclusions The results of this study demonstrate that helminth infections capable of causing severe morbidity are often diagnosed in the US military. As helminth infections are often asymptomatic or go undiagnosed, the true burden of helminth infections in US military personnel and dependents may be higher than observed here. Prospective studies of US military personnel deployed to helminth-endemic areas may be indicated to determine if post-deployment screening and/or empirical treatment are warranted.

scholarly journals Militarization, slow violence, and the emerging threat of condemnation in Hawai‘i

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 3.1-3.12
Author(s):  
N. Mahina Tuteur
Keyword(s):  
Active Role ◽  
Kanaka Maoli ◽  
Public Purpose ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Military Presence ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Military ◽  
Fair Market Value

This article examines the environmental impacts of the US military presence in Hawaii, looking specifically at the federal government’s power to condemn land for a ‘public purpose’ under the US Constitution. In 2018, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the State of Hawaii failed its duty to properly manage 23,000 acres of lands leased to the military at Pōhakuloa and must take an active role in preserving trust property. With the expiration of this lease (and several others) approaching in 2029, controversy is stirring as to whether the military will simply condemn these lands if the cost of clean-up is greater than the land’s fair-market value at the expiration of the lease. In other words, as long as it remains cheaper for the military to pollute and condemn than it is for it to restore, what options do we have for legal and political recourse? Considering grassroots movements’ strategic use of media and legal action through an environmental justice lens, this article provides a starting point to consider avenues for ensuring proper clean-up of these lands, and ultimately, negotiating for their return to Kānaka Maoli.

Brothers in Arms?

2021 ◽  
pp. 344-369
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Guglielmo
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
Home Front ◽  
Military Leaders ◽  
Military Justice ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Us ◽  
The One ◽  
The Military ◽  
Race War

Chapter 9 looks at what happened to the US military’s white-nonwhite lines as American troops moved overseas during World War II. Nonblack minorities faced both bright and blurry white-nonwhite lines when deployed abroad. At times, the military remained determined to uphold distinctions between whites, on the one hand, and Asian Americans, Latin Americans, and Native Americans, on the other. This determination, evident in everything from military justice proceedings to promotion patterns, stemmed primarily from long-standing civilian investments in these distinctions and in response to the vicious race war in the Pacific with Japan. At the same time, overseas service also witnessed the continued blurring of white-nonwhite lines—the transformation of “Mexicans,” “Puerto Ricans,” “Indians,” “Filipinos,” “Chinese,” and even “Japanese” into whites’ buddies and brothers, comrades and fellow Americans, deepening a process that had begun on the home front. While this overseas blurring often emanated from day-to-day battlefield bonding, it was America’s military leaders and commanders who largely made it possible. In doing so, they narrowed the white-nonwhite divide, but also deepened the black-white one in the process.

Deploying Jim Crow

2021 ◽  
pp. 297-343
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Guglielmo
Keyword(s):  
White Supremacy ◽  
Jim Crow ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
Home Front ◽  
The Other ◽  
Multiple Forms ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
The One

Chapter 8 explores what happened to the US military’s black-white lines as American troops moved overseas. On the one hand, the US military transplanted these lines all around the world. While not identical to those on the home front, they also took multiple forms, involving everything from jobs and dances to courts-martial and minstrel performances. They also stemmed from the military’s paradoxical goals of winning a war for democracy while at the same time protecting white supremacy. On the other hand, fully achieving this latter goal became more difficult overseas because of locals’ warm relations with black Americans, the black-white comradeship of some American GIs, and the activism of black troops. Taken together, these developments chipped away at the black-white divide. At war’s end, Jim Crow in uniform was far from dead, but it lay moderately wounded just the same.

From Blockade to Aid

2019 ◽  
pp. 275-338
Author(s):  
Mary Elisabeth Cox
Keyword(s):  
International Aid ◽  
Institutional Level ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Save The Children ◽  
German Children ◽  
The Military ◽  
Different Sources

Once the blockade against Germany was fully lifted on 12 July 1919, food from different sources began entering the country. Excess food from the US military was parcelled out to American citizens resident in Germany. Though significant for the recipients who received it, the military surplus lasted only a few months and could only be shared with other Americans. A source of foreign food for German citizens were food drafts, which allowed family and friends in foreign lands to purchase foodstuffs for their loved ones in Germany without taking the risk of theft or spoilage associated with directly exporting the goods. Other institutions, private and public, focused on feeding German children. This chapter examines the efforts of some of the major international aid organizations, including the American Friend Service Committee, Save the Children, and other groups feeding German children. It examines the approaches and struggles of these groups at an institutional level.

John Useem and Governance Operations

2018 ◽  
pp. 199-238
Author(s):  
Montgomery McFate
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Military Government ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Successful Case ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Navy ◽  
Government Enterprise ◽  
The Military

This chapter concerns the wartime civil affairs experience of John Useem, a US Navy officer who became the military governor of a small island in Micronesia. While the post-World War II, military government established in Germany and Japan are often offered as examples of successful governance operations, the partially successful case of Micronesia better exemplifies the paradoxes at the heart of the military government enterprise. These issues which plagued the US military government in Micronesia, and which John Useem wrote about in the 1940s and 1950s, were the exact same issues that have plagued the intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq more than a half century later. What happens when the policy of democratization is incompatible with the existing social order? What happens when American social norms conflict with the society they intend to govern? What happens when the core principle of military government non-interference cannot be implemented in practice and outright contradicts the imperatives of ‘nation building’?

Eyes in the Sky

The Drone Age ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 96-130
Author(s):  
Michael J. Boyle
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
The United States ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Military ◽  
Organizational Costs

Chapter 4 argues that drones accelerate the trend toward information-rich warfare and place enormous pressure on the military to learn ever more about the battlefields that it faces. Today, for the United States, war is increasingly a contest for information about any future battlespace. This has had an organizational effect as the ability for the United States to know more through drone imagery has turned into a necessity to know more. The US military is becoming so enamored of its ability to know more through drone surveillance that it is overlooking the operational and organizational costs of “collecting the whole haystack.” Using drones for a vast surveillance apparatus, as the United States and now other countries have been doing, has underappreciated implications for the workload, organizational structures, and culture of the military itself.

Women and the US War in Vietnam

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica M. Frazier
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Service Personnel ◽  
War Zone ◽  
Speaking Out ◽  
The Us ◽  
War Effort ◽  
The Military ◽  
Insight Into

Women on all sides of the US war in Vietnam pushed for an end to the conflict. At a time of renewed feminist fervor, women stepped outside conventional gender roles by publicly speaking out, traveling to a war zone, and entering the male-dominated realm of foreign affairs. Even so, some claimed to stand squarely within the boundaries of womanhood as they undertook such unusual activities. Some American women argued that, as mothers or sisters of soldiers and draft-age men, they held special insight into the war. They spoke of their duty to their families, communities, and nation to act in untraditional, but nevertheless feminine, ways. But women did not act uniformly. Some joined the military as nurses or service personnel to help in the war effort, while others protested the war and served as draft counselors. By the end of the war, some anti-war protestors developed feminist critiques of US involvement in Vietnam that pointed to the war as a symptom of an unjust society that prioritized military dominance over social welfare. As in wars past, the US war in Vietnam created upheavals in gender roles, and as nurses, mothers, lovers, officers, entertainers, and activists, women created new spaces in a changing society.

scholarly journals The Politics of Sex Abuse in Sacred Hierarchies: A Comparative Study of the Catholic Church and the Military in the United States

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 281
Author(s):  
Carolyn M. Warner
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sex Abuse ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
Privileged Status ◽  
Child Sex Abuse ◽  
The Military ◽  
Patterns Of Abuse ◽  
The Catholic Church

The paper explores similarities in patterns of abuse and in patterns of how the known abuse cases are handled by the Catholic church and the U.S. military and develops preliminary explanations of why. The paper considers how the two organizations deal with external efforts by civil authorities at oversight and prosecution, and the extent to which they invoke their sacred status authority to evade responsibility and civilian oversight. The paper finds that the handling of sex abuse in each organization has been affected partly by the institutions seeing themselves as sacred, as something apart from the secular state, beholden to alternative authorities. The paper highlights the fact that child sex abuse by religious officials and sexual assault of soldiers by fellow soldiers and officers constitute profound challenges for democracy in the US and elsewhere, as the institutions claim and may be accorded separate and privileged status, beyond the reach of democratic laws and procedures. It is a warning about the costs of public deference to other institutions. The study utilizes documentation of Catholic church clergy child sex abuse cases in the US, and documentation of sex abuse cases in the US military.

A Good Fooling: Journalism’s Narrative of Surprise Military Homecomings

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-317
Author(s):  
Ronald Bishop ◽  
Maggie Fedorocsko
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Military Families ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
War Coverage ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Current State ◽  
Public Consumption ◽  
Personal Connections ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Military

A narrative analysis was performed on recent media texts regarding the return of members of the US military and staged reunions with their family members. The USA’s current state of permanent war means that it needs more instances of closure. The narrative that emerged from news coverage is a reminder that reunions, while providing closure, are also one of the last bastions of war coverage, even as journalists have ceded control of it to event organizers. War has been made perfectly safe for public consumption at long last. It is argued that such coverage causes us to disassociate from war and its cost, and to recognize, but not truly understand, the hardships endured by military families. We see only their tears of joy upon the return of their loved ones. The media contribute to this misunderstanding by crafting purportedly more personal connections to military personnel by portraying their experiences through a human-interest lens. We recognize – for a scripted moment – the hardships endured by military families. We see only their tears of joy upon the return of their loved ones. The narrative analyzed here is operationalized by officials to encourage us to think about the military, not the wars.

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