Introduction: Media, Technology, and the Culture of Militarism: Watching, Playing and Resisting the War Society

Abstract

As this special issue moves into production, the world remembers the centennial of the Great War, which sadly was not the war to end all wars. Instead, WWI gave birth to modern war propaganda and established a “symbiotic relation-ship” between the media and the military. The art and industry of representing war through various media forms was finely tuned over the course of what became a very bloody 20th century, and the military conflicts of the present are firmly embedded in the 21st century media environment. Since 9/11, media studies scholars have analyzed the nexus of the media industry and the military and scrutinized the media products of war which result from this unity. Many military media products invite their subjects to dispassionately watch and interactively play war; some, albeit a few, display signs of resistance to it. Today, criti-cal studies that seek to unravel the ties that bind the media to the military require multiple perspectives, theoretical formulations and material practices. This special issue presents timely scholarship at the forefront of understanding and responding to current trends in me-dia and militarism.