The Propagandists of War

"The ubiquity of the Internet means that for the first time in communications history all sides in a conflict can project their views to the outside world. It is probably no exaggeration to say that every force in every conflict in the world has a Web site. Partisan propaganda dominates online pages related to conflicts," writes On-line Journalism Review contributor Andrew Stroehlein in an article examining websites that focus on various conflicts in Asia and Europe. Large Western media outlet are no exception to biased reporting, writes Stoehlein. "More importantly and more disturbingly, this new war is truly global, and every individual, every country and every media outlet is under strong pressure to take sides. If this means there can be no 'outside media,' then there will be no neutral sites creating the body of knowledge necessary for conflict resolution and discussion of the ways forward."