“Couch war” refers to how reporting of wars on television shapes public perception. The term originated during the Vietnam War, the first televised war. Critics argued that TV news turned the public against the war effort, but researchers found it was rarely opinion-based. Today, critics argue that too much war coverage desensitizes viewers and others criticize a lack of thorough reporting. The living room war mentality has changed how the public perceives war and justifications for it.
A couch war is a term that refers to the reporting of a war on television and other media, and how that reporting shapes public perception of that war. The term originated during the Vietnam War, which was the first war in the United States that was televised and showed clips of what was happening in Vietnam, essentially bringing the war into American living rooms. Previous wars took place before television, so war story broadcasts took place both on radio and in print media, which did not give the same views on the real war. Living Room War was, for many, the first real insight into what real war was like.
Critics of the war coverage argued that the television news had turned the American public against the war effort, further exacerbating the difficulties the United States was already facing during that era. Many researchers, however, have found that news made during that era was rarely opinion-based, with reporters sticking to the traditional communication techniques employed during World War II. Much of the criticism of the war came from coverage of politicians and some from opinion pieces focusing on everyday Americans.
Up until the middle and late Vietnam War, living room war coverage didn’t include much live combat. This was due to a few important factors: First, much of the fighting in Vietnam took place in remote parts of the country, making it difficult for film crews to get close to the battles. Second, network executives had little desire to show the fights, and especially the casualties, fearing such footage would be too graphic for the average viewer, resulting in declining ratings.
The idea of couch warfare persists even today, as current wars around the world are treated in more depth and with more scrutinizing eyes. Critics argue that such a flood of war coverage desensitizes the average viewer to the reality of war and encourages the idea that the war is merely a TV commercial rather than reality. Others criticize the media for not being thorough enough, citing a lack of actual battle footage and reporting casualties. Either way, the living room war mentality has changed the way the public perceives war, the justifications for war, and the means by which wars are fought. This is due both to the accessibility of information and to the constant barrage of factual reporting and opinion that is presented daily on television.
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