Militainment
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Militainment is a portmanteau first coined by president Richard Nixon[citation needed], that consists of 'Military' and 'entertainment'. It is defined as either:
- a form of entertainment that features and celebrates the military
- a form of entertainment controlled by the military
The U.S. military in particular excels in the authorship of militainment, although the Russian military also has plans to produce their own TV channel.
Typical examples consist of a broad array of media, from television and movies, to reality shows and video games. It also involves the manufacture of pop culture icons with military like characteristics that people, typically young men, can look up to.
Militainment serves a number of purposes. From recruiting to public relations and revisionist history of events depicted in news and history books. The military, through public affairs departments, maintains close ties to the entertainment industry as a way of enlisting their help in creating and distributing these forms of media and adding high production value and legitimacy.
[edit] Video games:
The game America's Army is a compelling example of militainment because the game fits both definitions of militainment: it features and celebrates the U.S. Army, and is controlled by the U.S. Army as well. In contrast to America's Army, Kuma\War is a current training and entertainment platform for the U.S. Department of Defense as well as being distributed for free over the web by Kuma Reality Games. The SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs series is very closely linked to the Navy SEALs. United States Navy recruitment videos are some of the videos the player can view in the game, and Zipper Interactive has also had competitions for SOCOM players to attempt to pass real boot camp for prizes as promotion for the game series. Also a momentary note here in that the United States Marine Corp also features a videogame for themselves called Close Combat: First to Fight where there are two versions. The civilian version and the military version the latter used for the purpose of training individual Marines in handling drug addiction and battle fatigue in their squad.
Other military-inspired video games are Operation Flashpoint 1 and 2, ArmA: Armed Assault 1 and 2 DARWARS Ambush! and Full Spectrum Warrior. All these games are inspired on military training similators. For Operation Flashpoint 1/2 and ArmA, this is the VBS1 and for Full Spectrum Warrior, this was a similator game made by Pandemic
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- "Video Games, Manipulation and the U.S. Military: A Comparative Analysis of America's Army and SOCOM II: US Navy SEALs" academic analysis of "America's Army" and "SOCOM II: US Navy SEALs" in terms of "Visual Discourse" by Caroline S. Brooks a PhD candidate at East Carolina University.
- Navy Office of Information West, http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navinfo/navinfowest.html
- "That's Militainment! The Pentagon's media-friendly "reality" war" by the director of peace and justice studies at Fordham University
- "Theatre of war: The military entertainment complex" analysis (42 pages) by two students in the name of the Stanford University
- "Unsettling the military entertainment complex: Video games and a pedagogy of peace and Struse" by a Washington State University professor
- "Militainment, Inc." Documentary by University of Georgia professor, Roger Stahl. Preview available on his site. Distributed by the Media Education Foundation.
- "Spot On: Games get political - Using both propaganda and education, games are making ripples in the political world." by Tom Leupold.