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The Military-Entertainment Complex
Timothy Lenoir
€ 61.33
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Description for The Military-Entertainment Complex
Paperback. With the rise of drones and computer-controlled weapons, the line between war and video games has blurred. The Military-Entertainment Complex traces how the realities of war are inflected by their representation in entertainment. War games, in turn, feature an increasing number of weapons, tactics, and scenarios from the War on Terror. Series: metaLABprojects. Num Pages: 266 pages, 71 color illustrations, 6 halftones, 2 line illustrations. BIC Classification: HBW; JFCA; JFD. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 140 x 210. .
With the rise of drones and computer-controlled weapons, the line between war and video games continues to blur. In this book, the authors trace how the realities of war are deeply inflected by their representation in popular entertainment. War games and other media, in turn, feature an increasing number of weapons, tactics, and threat scenarios from the War on Terror. While past analyses have emphasized top-down circulation of pro-military ideologies through government public relations efforts and a cooperative media industry, The Military-Entertainment Complex argues for a nonlinear relationship, defined largely by market and institutional pressures. Tim Lenoir and Luke Caldwell explore the history of the early days of the video game industry, when personnel and expertise flowed from military contractors to game companies; to a middle period when the military drew on the booming game industry to train troops; to a present in which media corporations and the military influence one another cyclically to predict the future of warfare. In addition to obvious military-entertainment titles like America's Army, Lenoir and Caldwell investigate the rise of best-selling franchise games such as Call of Duty, Battlefield, Medal of Honor, and Ghost Recon. The narratives and aesthetics of these video games permeate other media, including films and television programs. This commodification and marketing of the future of combat has shaped the public's imagination of war in the post-9/11 era and naturalized the U.S. Pentagon's vision of a new way of war.
Product Details
Publisher
Harvard University Press
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2017
Series
metaLABprojects
Condition
New
Weight
28g
Number of Pages
266
Place of Publication
Cambridge, Mass, United States
ISBN
9780674724983
SKU
V9780674724983
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-50
About Timothy Lenoir
Tim Lenoir is Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Cinema and Digital Media and Science and Technology Studies at the University of California, Davis. Luke Caldwell is a Ph.D. candidate in the Program in Literature and Media Arts + Sciences at Duke University.
Reviews for The Military-Entertainment Complex
Locked and loaded, this astonishing account of the 'military-entertainment complex' exposes the links between military technologies and popular media, the alignments and affinities among defense agencies, video game companies, and Hollywood studios. With tactical precision, Tim Lenoir and Luke Caldwell show how the militarization of contemporary society is driven less by political interests than by economic interests, revealing the ways in which the entertainment industry and its commercial practices shape the imagination of postmodern warfare. This is a provocative, high-octane book about the war games of everyday life and the future of digital culture. Epic pwn.
Colin Milburn, University of California, Davis While the term 'military-entertainment complex' conjures images of dystopian collusion, what Lenoir and Caldwell uncover is far more disturbing: collusion is unnecessary. By avoiding authenticity in favor of adrenaline, billion-dollar video game franchises, such as Call of Duty and Medal of Honor, do more to create a cultural acceptance of war than military PR could ever hope to achieve. Games have not been co-opted by the military, but rather the opposite. Civilians have transformed war into a consumer product, reducing its emotional resonance to that of a theme park ride, all in service of reaching a larger audience.
Walt Williams, Lead Writer, Spec Ops: The Line
Colin Milburn, University of California, Davis While the term 'military-entertainment complex' conjures images of dystopian collusion, what Lenoir and Caldwell uncover is far more disturbing: collusion is unnecessary. By avoiding authenticity in favor of adrenaline, billion-dollar video game franchises, such as Call of Duty and Medal of Honor, do more to create a cultural acceptance of war than military PR could ever hope to achieve. Games have not been co-opted by the military, but rather the opposite. Civilians have transformed war into a consumer product, reducing its emotional resonance to that of a theme park ride, all in service of reaching a larger audience.
Walt Williams, Lead Writer, Spec Ops: The Line