Militainment, Inc.: Militarism & Pop Culture (2007)
Written, produced & narrated by Roger Stahl
Distributed by the Media Education Foundation
Militainment, Inc. offers a fascinating, disturbing, and timely glimpse into the militarization of American popular culture, examining how U.S. news coverage has come to resemble Hollywood film, video games, and “reality television” in its glamorization of war. Mobilizing an astonishing range of media examples – from news anchors’ idolatry of military machinery to the impact of government propaganda on war reporting – the film asks: How has war taken its place in the culture as an entertainment spectacle? And how does presenting war as entertainment affect the ability of citizens to evaluate the necessity and real human costs of military action? The film is broken down into nine sections, each between 10 and 20 minutes in length, allowing for in-depth classroom analysis of individual elements of this wide-ranging phenomenon. Order a copy.
Sections: Introduction | Spectacle | Clean War | Techno-Fetishism | Demonization | Reality TV | Sports | Toys | Video Games | Dissent | Outro
Praise for the Film
“Highly recommended, especially for courses on mass communications and popular culture.”
- Educational Media Reviews Online (full review)
“Roger Stahl’s Militainment is a real eye-opener. In a highly engaging and well-documented film, Stahl shows how the media have largely functioned as instruments of propaganda in recent U.S. military interventions, and he documents as well the culture of militarism in popular entertainment, ranging from TV shows, sports, and toys, to video games, all of which present war as entertainment. This development is both shocking and dangerous and contributes to a militarization of our culture and society that makes us more likely to go to war, despite our traumatic experiences in Iraq (and now Afghanistan). Every citizen should awaken to these dangers and Stahl’s documentary is an important tool of enlightenment that should be widely used in the classroom and public spaces.”
- Douglas Kellner | UCLA | Author, The Persian Gulf TV War and Media Spectacle and the Crisis of Democracy
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A Preview:
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Archived News Footage Available
I have a large catalog of archived news footage from the period surrounding the Iraq War – from November of 2002 to December of 2003. If you are interested in using such footage for a project, please contact me.