Introduction

Abstract

Following a less than original theme in International Relations (IR), this book is about power, the sources of power, and power relations. However, the object of analysis is a rare presence within the discipline: the mass media. A simple observation lies at the very core of the following pages. Having studied a range of theories about media power and media effects and their pervasive occurrence in contemporary societies, I have become increasingly puzzled by IR’s lack of a theoretical framework that can clarify whether and how the media have power in decision-making and in changing the nature of war and warfare.

Facing the thousand million television screens which are switched on, day and night, in the whole world, how could we talk, tell, feel, how could we see, even, what happens to us, how could we represent it, without adding the vanity of a noise to the noise of vanity?

Jean-Louis Comolli, Voit et Pouvoir. L’innocence perdue: cinéma, télévision, fiction, documentaire.¹