Don't Mention the War: The Australian Defence Force, the Media and the Afghan Conflict (Investigating Power) - Softcover

Kevin Foster

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1922235180 ISBN 13: 9781922235183

Publisher: Monash University Publishing, 2013

Synopsis

Don't Mention the War examines Australian media coverage of the war in Afghanistan. The book demonstrates how the military's public affairs personnel have taken over many of the roles traditionally performed by reporters and shows the restrictive affect of this on media coverage. This tight media management is contrasted with the more open approach of Dutch and Canadian militaries in Afghanistan, a fact that is explained through reference to the different positions of the military within these different nations. As opposed to the Dutch and the Canadians, who had reputations to rebuild, the almost uniquely exalted position of the military in Australia has enabled and driven a media strategy tailored to defend the Australian military's high social standing. In Australian media coverage, the book goes on to argue, the war in Afghanistan has then functioned as another platform for the celebration of national military virtues. What has been offered is less a representation of action than an affirmation of identity; less a chronicle of unfolding events than a testament to immutable character. *** "Foster argues convincingly that the ADF's determination to keep an iron grip on information, based on an entrenched cultural distain for journalists, a resistance to scrutiny, and an obsession with protecting its reputation, meant that what it was actually doing in Afghanistan remained a mystery. While he attributes authorship of this mystery to the ADF hierarchy, supported at times by politicians, journalists don't escape his censure. His book is an indictment of the lack of commitment by Australian editors to covering the Afghan war." - Tom Hyland, Inside Story, January 2014Ã?Â?Ã?Â?

About this title

About the Author:

Kevin Foster PA-C, NP, (Graduate of USC School of Medicine) is an award winning board-certified Physician Assistant and Nurse Practitioner. Before his medical career, he lived in Liberia, West Africa, with a medical missionary doctor who was a student of the Bible and a teacher of God s Word. Kevin also attended the African Bible College (A.B.C.) and had a traveling film ministry. Kevin has traveled through the United States and sixteen countries as a part of a global skateboard, Bible-teaching ministry, speaking and teaching youth on the importance of loving God and living by the Word of God. Kevin has a compassionate heart toward his patients after surviving surgery for the removal of a brain tumor and cancer (lymphoma). When he s not practicing medicine, he can be found spending time enjoying his wife and their four children, preaching, and teaching at churches, Bible studies, and small Deaf groups.

About this edition

• Publisher: Monash University Publishing
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1922235180
• ISBN 13: 9781922235183
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200