What are We Doing in Afghanistan The Military and the Media at War

Weeks after the Twin Towers fell, Australian forces joined their coalition allies in the fight against the Taliban. Over the succeeding years, while US and British reporters have joined their troops in border patrols, on Medevac choppers, and in bloody fire fights, providing compelling dispatches from the front lines, access to ADF personnel has been strictly limited and the Australian public has barely glimpsed its own men and women at war. This volume offers the first comprehensive analysis of the military-media relations that have shaped Australian media coverage of the war in Afghanistan. It examines the history of the Australian media's relations with the military, assesses recent changes to ADF public affairs policies, explores the experiences of the public affairs personnel delegated to enforce the information management regime and the journalists who have to work within and around it, analyses the resulting media products, and the understandings of the war they have produced. What are we doing in Afghanistan exposes the ingrained culture of secrecy that dominates the military's relations with the media, critiques the effects of this culture on military-media relations, the public's understanding of what its troops are doing in its name, and ultimately questions the military's understanding of and respect for the principles of democratic accountability. Here, for the first time, is a penetrating look at the information war behind the war in Afghanistan.--Publisher description.