WatchdogsA B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZWKnightley writes, ‘Comparing the leader with
Hitler is a good start because of the instant
images that Hitler’s name provokes’ (see
historical allusion): ‘Th e crudest approach
is to suggest that the leader is insane’ and those
who publicly question any of this ‘can expect an
even stronger burst of abuse’.
The simplest way of demonizing a whole
people, says Knightley, is the atrocity story: ‘Take
the Kuwaiti babies story. Its origin goes back
to the fi rst world war when British propaganda
accused the Germans of tossing Belgian babies
into the air and catching them on their bayonets.
Dusted off and updated for the Gulf War [1991]
this version had Iraqi soldiers bursting into a
modern Kuwaiti hospital, fi nding the premature
babies ward and then tossing the babies out of
incubators so that the incubators could be sent
back to Iraq.’
Th is story, as well as others, was a fabrication,
but it had served its propagandist function. See
news management in times of war. See also
topic guide under news media.
▶Phillip Knightley, The First Casualty: The War
Correspondent as Hero and Myth-Maker from the
Crimea to Kosovo (Prion paperback, revised edition,
2000; John Hopkins paperback, 2004; fi rst published
1975 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, entitled The
First Casualty: From the Crimea to Vietnam: The
War Correspondent as Hero-Propagandist and Myth
Maker).
War of the Unstamped See stamp duty;
underground press.
Watchdogs The media pride themselves on
their role as watchdogs of injustice, abuse and
corruption; champions of public interest. Th e
watchdog barks on behalf of the people, in their
defence against the powerful, whether these are
in government, business, industry or any walk
of life where the interests of the public can be
aff ected. Th e role of the watchdog may be seen as
key to media functions, and a guiding principle.
Research tends to point to the media being
rather less than wholly eff ective in this capac-
ity; generally to follow rather than initiate the
investigation of abuse; indeed to be guilty of
omission as much as commission (see guard
dog metaphor).
True ‘watchdoggery’ can only come about
through genuine media independence – from
advertising and sales revenue, from the infl u-
ence of capital or institutional control. Fulfi lling
the role of watchdog becomes problematic when
that role is seen to trespass upon the vested
interests of those who own and control the
watchdogs in question.Warners’ next picture, The Jazz Singer (1927)
starring Al Jolson. Th ere were, in fact, only 281
words spoken in the fi lm, all of them ad-libbed
by Jolson. See synchronous sound. See topic
guide under media history.
Vlog Video blog (see blogging; youtube).
Vocal cues All the oral aspects of speech except
the words themselves: pitch – the highness
or lowness of voice; rate – rapidity of expres-
sion; volume; quality – the pleasantness or
unpleasantness of voice tone or delivery; and
enunciation – pronunciation and articulation.
See paralanguage.
Voiceover In film and TV film production, a
framing device in which a commentator off ers
explanation of what the audience is seeing on
screen. In feature fi lms, voiceover is often that of
the chief character in a story, though the docu-
mentary approach of an unidentifi ed narrator
is also common. Voiceover plays a signifi cant
role in shaping the meaning of a fi lm text. It
signals the way in which audience is expected
to read what is seen and heard. In this sense,
voiceover closes down a text to a prescribed
meaning, allowing the viewer little room for
interpretation. See narrative; open, closed
texts.
Vox popping Collecting the opinions of large
numbers of the general public (vox populi is
Latin for ‘voice of the people’) in order to gauge
public reaction to a current issue or topic.
W
War of the Worlds Title of the American CBS
network radio adaptation by Howard Koch,
produced and narrated by Orson Welles (1938),
of H.G. Wells’s famous story. Conveying the
immediacy of a combat report from a war corre-
spondent, the production actually convinced
many listeners that an interplanetary war had
broken out. However, reports to the effect
that Orson Welles’s radio ‘hype’ had caused
panic in the streets have taken on the magic of
legend, and become somewhat exaggerated in
the telling. See identification; para-social
interaction.
War: four stages of war reporting According
to Phillip Knightley in a UK Guardian article
‘Th e disinformation campaign’ (4 October 2001),
Western media coverage of military confl icts is
highly predictable, passing through four stages:
(1) the event is described as a crisis; (2) the
enemy leader is demonized; (3) the enemy as a
whole is demonized; while stage (4) focuses on
atrocities.