The 1988 Southam Lecture: The Texts of War and the Discourse of Peace

Abstract

Credibility, the central concept of communication theory and implicit in all its paradigms, is best understood by examining its limits; that is, the denial of reality. Two cases are studied here: the European holocuast and Vietnam revisionism. former is framed by two documentary films, Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will and Claude Lanzmann's Shoah; the latter by the CBS TV special The Uncounted Enemy. A worst case scenario suggests that Vietnam revisionism is part of a larger strategy to persuade a public that a nuclear war is winnable. Current coverage of the Middle East is seen as an example of World War I11 being seen through the eyes of World War I1 as journalists and other interpreters are unable to transcend their own occupational subculture and experience in covering foreign policy leadership (The Diplomatic Correspondent syndrome) and military engagements (The Foreign Correspondent syndrome). Like Generals, journalists are always fighting the last war. Peace movements are represented as deviant and serve to enhance the credibility of war movements. They are like the images of women in the androcentric discourse of our dominant culture. Responsibility for an alternative peace discourse, then, rests with researchers whose methodology must become more communicative and participatory.