Exploring the media’s coverage of war
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Tony Maniaty |
Macquarie University masters research has examined how closely the media and military have become intertwined in the coverage of war over the past two decades. According to researcher Tony Maniaty, it has reached the point where they are mutually dependent – no media, no war.
“The accelerated growth of the media-military complex is the most worrying trend because without the necessary distance and detachment from the military, the media can’t do its job properly. My thesis pointedly asks where this is leading,” Maniaty says.
Thirty years after flying to East Timor to cover the nation’s conflict and political turmoil, Maniaty who is a journalist, television producer, and author, embarked on a masters degree at Macquarie to explore the changing role of war correspondents.
Maniaty has an extensive media background, having worked as European Correspondent for SBS Television, Executive Producer of ABC TV’s The 7.30 Report, and Head of Policy and Program Development for ABC News and Current Affairs. He was encouraged to undertake his Masters by a fellow judge in the 2000 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, Dr Noel King, who subsequently became a senior lecturer in the Department of Media and Communications at Macquarie University. King agreed to be Maniaty’s supervisor.
From Vietnam to Iraq
When embarking on his thesis, Maniaty was surprised to find that TV news coverage of wars Australia had been involved in, from Vietnam to Iraq, had not been deeply researched before.
“My interest was triggered in 1975 when I was despatched to cover the fighting in East Timor, where five Australian television newsmen were killed and a sixth Australian reporter also died,” Maniaty explains. “With my two-person TV crew I had some harrowing moments - including coming under rocket fire and having to escape the battle zone with the story, without getting killed myself. I also had to report the brutal deaths of my TV colleagues. This near-death experience left a very strong impression on me personally.”
Painting the bigger picture
Maniaty felt the need to paint the big picture of television and warfare. “As I grew older, I realised that a few of my colleagues from the Vietnam era were already gone and I needed to capture the feel of what it was like to be a pioneer in the craft of television war coverage,” he says. “I interviewed 14 journalists in locations as varied as the Sunshine Coast, the staff canteen at the BBC in London, and the windy streets of Manhattan.”
Maniaty’s task was to examine how TV news and current affairs covered warfare, how it appeared on air, and how that coverage influenced audiences, governments and the military. “These are the primary elements in reporting, elements that have changed dramatically over 40 years,” Maniaty says. “My thesis progressively grew into a study of how coverage of war influences warfare itself: the strategy and the tactics used.”
For further information contact Tony Maniaty’s supervisor Dr Noel King: noel.king@mq.edu.au