Theorizing Image Warfare

Abstract

This chapter examines the contemporary transformations of the production, distribution and reception of mediated information: a shift from a mass-media model of communication to what I describe as a networked/rhizomatic model of communication. It also reviews the RMA, Media Studies and Visual Culture literatures via a discussion of Baudrillard, Virilio and postmodern war. On the basis of these readings, I then develop three key conceptual terms: ‘image munitions’, ‘counter-image munitions’ and ‘remediation battles’. These concepts help to bridge the gaps between IR, Media Studies and Visual Culture, and also draw attention not only to the ways in which images enter the theatre of war and are contested by different media actors, but also to the historically specific way in which images are produced and consumed. I finish with a discussion of the book’s methodology.