National Security and Society

I want to present two videos today that demonstrate how national security is reflected in the media. It is not only those in power, ie. the government, that define the term national security, but the media has a powerful role here as well. In the first video, the pertinent part of it is at the beginning where Senator Hart describes the expanding nature of national security so that it is no longer simply defined in military terms, but economic and environmental terms too. The second video is a Fox News report where the host proclaims near the end that the actions of the environmentalist group preventing the oil drilling are a threat to national security. In this case, he is discussing national security in terms of economic security as well.

I will present these videos as they are today. In the next entry, I will present Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky's propaganda model to try and deconstruct this news report. In the meantime, I want you to be aware of some of the systematic biases that may exist in mass media and consider where these biases may come from.