How the press impairs civilian control over the armed forces: the case of the Second Lebanon War

Abstract

This article extends the commonly accepted knowledge that the dissemination of information by the mass media does not necessarily promote the basic values of deliberative democracy by examining how the Israeli media covered the Second Lebanon War (2006). It is argued that the episodic approach of the media, which causes it to focus on events and stories, distracts it from questioning the logic of the use of force, questioning that might encourage political action. Increased access to information does not breed improved civilian supervision of the armed forces. The media promotes civilian operational control of the army by focusing on its performance but weakens the control of militarism, namely legitimacy for the use of violence. The press may actually impair civilian control over the armed forces.

Keywords:

• civilian control of the armed forces
• episodic reporting
• narrative
• militarism
• war coverage

Acknowledgments

I want to thank Oren Soffer, the Working Group of Public Opinion, Mass Media and the Military of the European Research Group on Military and Society (ERGOMAS), and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on this article.

Notes

1. Harel and Issacharoff (2008), both correspondents for Haaretz, the independent daily newspaper with a broadly liberal outlook; Shelah and Limor (2007), both TV broadcasters, the former of whom is one of the most critical commentators on military affairs; and Amir Rapaport (2007), former military correspondent for Ma’ariv, the daily newspaper whose writing has often embarrassed the military especially with regard to manpower issues.

2. This narrative is based on my analysis rather than drawn from specific sources.