Week 9 - Response to Content

Upon reading Stockwell and Muir's (2003) beliefs that the American war over in the middle east is/was heavily fictionly narrated to the general public. They claimed with 'so called evidence' that the military consorted with Hollywood officials on many occasion to aide their attempts to publicise disasterous news to American citizens and in turn the world. This may have happened, and I suppose if there is substantial enough evidence, I should believe it. Yet even if they did...I find no crime in this. Yes, Hollywood is known to over-dramatize things to the point that the truth is now fictionarily twisted, but they are the experts. In cases like the September 11 tragedy, which Stockwell and Muir (2003) do mention, I have absolutely no qualms with it. Such a tragedy was a major blow to the country, and I think that the major influencers of the country were officially gathering together to get their facts straight, as the news was worldwide. I suppose I'm arguing a point that doesn't necessarily need arguing, but I feel the need to fight back.

Stockwell and Muir (2003) claimed that video game combat was becoming an increasing worry, in that soldiers were encouraged to practice on such machinery to prepare themselves mentally for real life battle, and I couldn't help but think, 'is this a bad thing?' If the technology has assisted those who are about to go into combat to mentally prepare themselves and focus whilst incorporating a little fun, then why not?

I suppose my real problem with the article, with all respect to the authors as they have their degrees and know a WHOLE lot more than me, is that their anti-war tendencies and anti-authoritarian (seemingly to me anyway) outlook really reeks throughout their article. Yes, they are incredibly entitled to do that, since of course it is their piece and they can do whatever they want with it, but I was so turned off by their strong opinions as I was reading it. It may just be the way I balk when a one-sided arguement is presented to me, that I feel the need to argue the other point. ahaha But these are just the issues that I felt whilst reading that article. I did not wish to offend my lecturer however, so don't take it too personally. haha
:)

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Stockwell, S & Muir, A 2003, FCJ-004 The Military-Entertainment Complex: A New Facet of Information Warfare, The Fibreculture Culture, viewed 20 September 2011, http://one.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-004-the-military-entertainment-complex-a-new-facet-of-information-warfare.