To this point: I wonder how the video of the American POWs (available online but which the networks made a self-congratulatory vow not to show) will affect students' (and others) notion of the immediacy (or lack thereof) of the war? That is, would hearing and seeing these young men and women in captivity change the sense some may have about the war being so far away and unrelated to one's "real life." As others have noted, the media coverage does de-emphasize the human cost of war (especially in regards to the Iraqi people). I discussed this in an intro to mass media course here yesterday and brought up the ted koppel's argument that "we have an obligation to remind people in a graphic way that war is a dreadful thing" (quoted in LAT, 3/24). While I don't think it's appropriate to show the video in class, I did set up a online discussion forum for students to discuss media coverage of the war and provided a link to it for those interested. I don't know yet how useful this will be to the students. Nicole PS the video if you are interested is available here: http://www.rtl.nl/actueel/rtlnieuws/ Click on "Video: Krijgsgevangenen" at the bottom of the pg Probably other places as well, by now. -----Original Message----- From: radhika gajjala [mailto:radhika@cyberdiva.org] Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 5:02 AM To: air-l@aoir.org Subject: Re: [Air-l] Re: peace The war is not far away for my students who have relatives, friends, parents, siblings, boyfriends/girlfriends - just plain friends - either already out there or have the possibility of being sent there. r At 12:41 PM 3/25/2003 +0100, you wrote:

But the persistent fact remains that the war is somewhere far away, and there is no fighting on American soil. There is no geographic immediacy associated with the events, nor is there much doubt about the outcome (has anyone seen articles discussing what happens once Iraq wins?).

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