Militär und Krieg in einer Medienkultur: Perspektivierungen aus Sicht von Cultural Studies und Politischer Kulturforschung

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The banal and the mundane are focussed by Cultural Studies as are attitudes and perceptions in Political Culture research; investigations that focus on war as a particular exceptional situation tends to neglect far reaching changes in the media and the cultural sector that have taken place over the last fifteen to twenty years. Following Michael Billig who has used the term ‘banal nationalism’ in 1995 with regard to the non-spectacular, but nevertheless effective ways of reproducing the ‘nation’ we argue to make use of the term ‘banal militarism’ in order to seize analogous mechanism by which military and/or war-like behaviour, attitudes and views are evoked, socialised or (re)produced. We suggest an analytical framing of media politics, media representations of war and the military, and corresponding media practices through an approach that refers to Cultural Studies as well as contributions by political and social sciences to the investigation of political cultures. Its productivity is demonstrated with examples of the representation of the German Federal Armed Forces in various TV formats in which dimensions of the military and its ‘embedding’ into society are contextualized in a specific way.
Translated title of the contributionWar and the military in media cultures: Perspectives from cultural studies and political culture research
Original languageGerman
JournalÖsterreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie
Volume32
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)40-65
Number of pages26
ISSN1011-0070
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.12.2007

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© 2007, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften/Wiesbaden.