Politics, Propaganda and the Press

International Reactions to the Falklands/Malvinas Conflict

Louise A. Clare

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781032198118
• eBook ISBN: 9781000845112
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

This book examines British and Argentine media output in the prelude to and during the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas Conflict and acknowledges the aftermath and legacies of the media response.

Yards of ink have been spilt, reinforcing the view that the Argentine Junta's action on 2nd April 1982 was a 'diversion' from domestic tensions. This view, coupled with the paucity of any thorough, in-depth analysis afforded to Argentine media aspects of the War - particularly the press - necessitates this volume's copious international study of the Conflict. Uniquely, US media output is also analysed alongside Britain's and Argentina's, all drawing upon Cold War historiography and media theory, with a view to contesting the traditional consensus that media outlets merely reflected government opinion during the Crisis, providing almost no effective dissent. Asserting media and culture influenced the climatic decision-making process of key actors in the Conflict, this book's triangulated approach explores the integral, influencing role played therein by culture, and how it was not only instrumental to government actions, but also to Argentine, British and US media output.

This book's revisionist approach makes it a reference point for any nascent research on Falklands/Malvinas media reporting and Argentine and international approaches—particularly the US—to the 1982 Conflict.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Figures
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Dead end of sovereignty negotiations: Anglo-Argentine cultural misinterpretations and miscalculations in the prelude to 1982
• 3 Achieving success versus failing to impress: Argentina and Britain vying for US support, 2 April–30 April 1982
• 4 The mask begins to slip: Argentine and British governments mismanaging propaganda, press relations and domestic, US and international opinion on the cusp of the new media communication age, ‘Black Buck Raids’ and ARA General Belgrano
• 5 Newspeak no more: Argentine and British government attempts at countering media and political dissent and courting media and political consent, HMS Sheffield and the Pebble/Borbón Island Raid
• 6 Outmanœuvring myth, misinformation and manipulation: Argentine, British and US media reporting on the threshold of the new media age, 20 May–18 June 1982
• Conclusion
• Appendix 1
• Appendix 2
• Bibliography
• Index