Framing Technology

13 VECTORY IN THE GULF: TECHNOLOGY, COMMUNICATIONS AND WAR

Michael Galvin

The history of the way wars are fought shows that changes in technology have always had a major bearing on their outcome. Likewise, the history of modern mass communications is closely tied to technological change. The contemporary newspaper, radio or television station is unimaginable without computer and communications technology—everything from satellites to telephone modems and video and audio recording equipment. The purpose of this chapter is to consider technological change in the context of both modern warfare and mass communications. In the process, four points are stressed:

• The history of mass communications technology (for example, the development of photography, ...