Media Warfare

In the article "The Subject of Visual Culture," Nicholas Mirzoeff discusses the concept of media warfare. According to Jonathan L. Beller, "tele-visual warfare [can be described as] the spectacular intensity of destruction as well as the illusion of its collective sanction creates certain subjective effects - a sense of agency and power which compensates for the generalized lack of these in daily life' (Beller 1998: 55-56). Mirzoeff continues: "War is, then, the subject of these images but it is also a means of creating subjects, visual subjects" (5). Mirzoeff writes that the United States experienced firsthand media warfare after the attacks on September 11, 2001. For the first time, the United States was on the "receiving end" of Beller's "tele-visual warfare" (5).

The sense of empowerment described by Beller was experienced by many Palestinians, who celebrated in the streets of East Jerusalem after hearing that thousands of Americans were killed in the attacks. As Americans, we are simply disgusted by these celebrations as so many innocent people were killed. Perhaps we experienced a similar sense of empowerment when the United States attacked Iraq in 2003 by bombing Baghdad. What we have to remember is that many innocent lives were lost then, too. Mirzoeff concludes his section on media warfare with a warning: "The globalization of culture turns out to be less predictable and far more dangerous than had been supposed" (5).