The document discusses how media has influenced perceptions of militaries over time from the pre-20th century to today. It describes how in the early 20th century, print media like recruitment posters helped drive mass recruitment for World War I and II. More recently, autobiographies, films like "American Sniper", and reality TV shows depicting military training have provided windows into military life and shone both positive and negative lights on militaries. The relationship between media and military is seen as mutually beneficial yet sometimes negatively impacting perceptions or recruitment.

1. A study in how the media has influenced the
perception of militaries around the world.
Introduction
Media has always somehow been involved with military, giving either negative
or positivepress, they have been intertwined since media was invented. Film
and TV has helped influence the perception militaries around the world, as due
to recent events around the world such as Iraq and Afghanistan conflict many
militaries around the world have had a growing media presencein many
aspects of military life, either conflict or peace time.
In this essay I willbe looking throughouttime and seeing how media and the
military are intertwined from pre20th
century all the way to presentday, ian
Humphrey a colonel in the US army said “The media’s coverageof military and
national security issues is a double-edged sword, butone that should be
wielded carefully. The media can reach millions of viewers both in America and
around the world. The military can take advantageof this reach and work with
their media partners to informthe public about the military’s mission and
national interests. The military can providepublished information, press
releases, briefings and videos to spread a positivemessage. The military can
also usemedia coverageto help providecontext and expertise for images and
soundbites.”
PRE 20TH
CENTURY
Before the 20th
century the British empire was at its peak, with 23% of the
world’s population in the empire by 1930, meaning that the British military
(army and navy at the time) was one of the strongestin the world. People's
perceptions of the military at the time were admiration and respect as most

2. British monarchs haveserved in the military, with media being mainly
newspapers as the printing press was invented in 1843, making it much easier
to produce and distribute making books and newspapers easier to come across
and get. “In 1820 theworld literacy rate was at 12%” meaning only the rich
enough to afford schooland learn to read and write meaning many people
couldn’t read the newspapers so the only way they would learn things through
word of mouth and fromother people. With the industrialrevolution
beginning in 1760 and going on until 1840, Britain and many other firstworld
countries were feeling the mass benefits of having vastempires for workers or
materials that could be shipped around the world for their use or trading, large
militaries meant security for their assets and the means to get more (by
invading another country ext.) recruitment numbers were raised either
through voluntary enlistment or by compulsion.
‘Recruiting Acts were passed annually during the periods 1703-11, 1743-44,
1756-57,1778-79, and in 1783, whilethe British army was engaged in major
wars in Europeand elsewhere. The Acts offered a financial bounty or reward to
men who enlisted for limited periods – in 1757 thesum was £3. They also gave
powers to magistrates to press unemployed, but otherwiseable-bodied, men
in time of war impressmentas the practice was known was also a tactic
employed by the Army to acquire extra men, usually when the non-violent
methods of the recruiting sergeants failed to enlist sufficientnumbers. in 1815
military expenditure was heavily reduced. As a result, the regular army was
gradually slimmed down from230,000 men to 91,000 by 1838. In these
conditions’ recruitment was hardly a problem. By the 1850s, however,Britain’s
involvement in the Crimean War against Russia had revealed serious
weaknesses in the sizeof the army. Terms of servicerequired men to servefor
long periods of 21 years during which many became unsuited and unfit for
actual military combat. The alternative was to resign early without a pension.’
during the 20th
century
During the 20th
the British empire was at its peak and had one of the strongest
naval forces and armies in the world. In 1914 thefirstworld war brokeout
against Germany and Austria-Hungary, this led to a mass recruitment drive

3. with, 100 men an hour (3,000 a day) signed up to join the armed forces. By the
end of 1914 1,186,337 men had enlisted, this is due to the military’s use of
new media such as print which allowed the recruitment posters to me printed
on mass and sent all around the British empire to recruit young men for the
war in Europe. This led to advancements in the printing field as to meet the
demand the printers (printing press) as they needed to become moreefficient
to print more to recruit more people.
due to the number of lives lost and the amount of people needed to try and
stop the stalemate, the firstworld war, aka the great war or war to end all
wars, caused 886,000 fatalities which left a large dent in the British population
and its military recruitment as no one wanted to join after the firstworld war
due to the casualty count and the stigma broughtonto military by the media
due to the war and casualty numbers, butin 1939 ww2 brokeoutwhich
required another mass recruitment drive to combat blitzkrieg (lightning war)
Hitlers chosen style of fighting wars. thesecond world war had a new tool to
help with the military's recruitment, the household radio, this tool was how
most of the UK population was told that the UK had gone to war with
Germany, this led to a wholenew form of recruitment methods for the
military, this new form of media also allowed civilians to get and hear news
about the war and important information what's happening. one major
recruitment method used by the British and American militaries for
recruitment were the “your country needs you” posters with the British one
bosting a picture of lord Kitchener and the American one having ‘uncle Sam’
these people became icons of the people and countries during and after the
war, they are a symbolof patriotism for their respectivecountries.
CONTEMPARY MEDIA AND MILITARY
Due to veterans coming back from conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, who have
written autobiographies and had biographies written about them getting so
much love and money that allows them to be created into tv or big screen
adaptions, to reach a bigger audience, an example of this is the critically
renowned film “American sniper”, which follows ‘Navy S.E.A.L. sniper Chris
Kyle's pinpoint accuracy saves countless lives on the battlefield and turns him

4. into a legend. Back home with his family after four tours of duty, however,
Chris finds that it is the war he can't leave behind’. The film shed light on a lot
of experiences that the soldiers faced, and gave other veterans to share their
stories leading to a surgein autobiographies and biographies which also
portray their horrors and their good, as there is a common theme in most of
them, the military isn’tjust a team or group of people it’s a family. This
influenced people’s perception of the military well I believe as it shows people
how tight nit the military actually is from the perspectiveof someone who has
experienced it through the good and bad.
Another way Film and TV haveimpacted the military is with the growing riseof
reality TV, many producers aretaking to the military scenes to create
entertainment, a few examples of this are; SAS: who dares wins, lads army,
military driving school, SAS: are you tough enough and many more. A lot of
these series follow ex-military teachers who take civilians or celebrities and
show them through similar military training to the real and to see if they could
make it through the training. SAS who dares wins follows Ant Middleton (ex
SAS soldier) who with a team of other British special forces veterans takes
civilians and celebrities through a rough mock of SAS training, which pushes
the participants to their limits, both physically and mentally. This has shonea
positive light on the military and broughtwell earned respect to the men and
women who attempt and pass the real courseand earn the name as a SAS
soldier.
Many talk shows and podcasts havealso shonea light on the military and
people of it. Such as tactical chinwag by original human or Free-Range America
by BRCC. Which are hosted by ex-military veterans who talk to either other
veterans about their experiences in the military or post military life, or they
talk to celebrities about their lives and experiences. The rise of film and tv has
also negatively impact on the perception of militaries too, as with some films
or TV shows negatively depicting the military due too political views or
personalviews such as “the patrol”, “apocalypsenow”. This has a negative
impact on the military as it portrays them as the bad guys, many films
throughoutthe years haveportrayed militaries or military figures as either
blindly following orders no matter the consequenceThis very poorly portrays

5. the military community as this usually portrays them committing heinous acts
or having little to no respect for civilians.
WHY AND CONCLUSION
In conclusion the military will always be intertwined with the
media as long as both of them exist, though times and
improvements in both fields continue to happen it Is
inevitable that every future conflict will be covered by the
media, either by reporters on TV filming and showing the
world what they are/have witnessed or even service men and
women talking about and sharing their stories. People will
always want to know what's happening s=as we are naturally
curious, although sometimes this may have a negative effect
on the military and their recruitment or perception by the
civilian world, but overall the relationship between the two
will mostly be beneficial for both parties, as the more media
attention good or bad the military gets, there will always be
people who want to read about or watch it meaning the
media will always have an interested audience and the
military in turn gets free recruitment/outreach to people who
wouldn’t usually be interested in the military.
As long as the military accept the media and its strength for
good or bad and that effectively the media in itself is its own
army capable of making or breaking anything in its path as it
can influence the population for or against almost anything.