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Iraq War Documentaries in the Online Public Sphere

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Iraq War Documentaries in the Online Public Sphere Embedded Online: Iraq War Documentaries in the Online Public Sphere Eileen Culloty, MA This thesis is submitted to Dublin City University for the award of PhD in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Dublin City University School of Communications Supervisor: Dr. Pat Brereton September 2014 I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of Doctor of Philosophy is entirely my own work, that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Signed: ___________ ID No.: ___________ Date: _________ ii DEDICATION This work is dedicated to the memory of Martin Culloty. … I go back beyond the old man Mind and body broken To find the unbroken man. It is the moment before the dance begins. Your lips are enjoying themselves Whistling an air. Whatever happens or cannot happen In the time I have to spare I see you dancing father Brendan Kennelly (1990) ‘I See You Dancing Father’ iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................ viii ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................... ix 1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................1 Iraq and the Mediatisation of War .......................................................................................4 The Fracturing of War Media Models ...............................................................................12 Iraq War Documentaries & the Public Sphere...................................................................19 Rationale and Chapter Outline...........................................................................................24 2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE................................................................................................32 Part One: The Historical Roles of the War Documentary ........................................33 Early Film & World War One ........................................................................................34 Soviet Film & the Inter-War Years.................................................................................38 Propaganda & World War Two......................................................................................40 The Cold War & Vietnam...............................................................................................43 Remembering War..........................................................................................................46 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................51 Part Two: The Documentary Public Sphere ...............................................................53 The Democratic Functions of Documentary...................................................................54 The Mainstream Public Sphere & Broadcast Documentary.......................................55 The Alternative Public Sphere & Independent Documentary ....................................59 Spectatorship & the Pedagogical Function of Documentary..........................................63 Documentary as Instruction........................................................................................65 Documentary and Persuasive Affect...........................................................................68 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................74 Part Three: Documentary-Viewing Websites & Film Communication ...................76 Film Reception & Ancillary Productions .......................................................................77 Documentary Reception as Political Communication................................................79 Online Knowledge Networks..........................................................................................83 Networked Epistemology ...........................................................................................85 The Digital Economy..................................................................................................88 The Global Public Sphere...........................................................................................92 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................95 iv 3. METHODOLOGY................................................................................................................96 Online Communication Methodologies.............................................................................97 Identifying Documentary-Viewing Websites ....................................................................99 Archiving Content from Documentary-Viewing Websites .............................................103 Selecting Films for Analysis............................................................................................106 Textual Analysis of Iraq War Documentaries .................................................................109 Reception Analysis of User-Comments on Top Documentary Films..............................111 Limitations of Method .....................................................................................................114 4. ACTIVIST DOCUMENTARIES & WAR OPPOSITION....................................................117 Activism & the Iraq War .................................................................................................117 Iraq War Documentaries as Activism..............................................................................120 Anti-Bush Activism: Hikacking Catastrophe (2004) ......................................................123 Anti-Corporate Activism: Iraq for Sale (2006) ...............................................................131 Conclusion: Documentary, Patriotism & the Online Public Sphere................................142 5. DOCUMENTARY WAR REPORTING..............................................................................146 Reporting Iraq..................................................................................................................146 Documentaries Reporting the War...................................................................................149 Investigating War Crimes: Fallujah: the Hidden Massacre (2005) ................................152 War Stories: Iraq: The Women’s Story (2006) ................................................................161 Conclusion: Remembering War Through Commemoration Or Archive.........................172 6. DOCUMENTARY & THE INFORMATION-MEDIA WAR................................................177 The Information War .......................................................................................................177 Documentaries About War Media ...................................................................................181 Challenging The Newsmakers: The War You Don’t See (2010) .....................................183 Re-Looking At War: Iraq’s Secret War Files (2010)......................................................194 Conclusion: Truth, Propaganda & The Conspiracy Film ................................................202 7. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................207 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................215 FILMOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................259 v APPENDICES: Appendix A: Search Return for ‘Iraq War’ on Top Documentary Films ...........................265 Appendix B: Online Documentaries about Fallujah ..........................................................270 Appendix C: Overview of Documentary Websites ............................................................271 Appendix D: Documentaries Ordered by Popularity in 'Iraq War' Search Returns ............272 Appendix E: Documentaries Ordered by User-Comments on Top Documentary Films .............282 Appendix F: Top Documentary Films user-comments for Hijacking Catastrophe (2004) ..........285 vi ABSTRACT This study assesses the democratic and pedagogical roles of Iraq War documentaries in the online public sphere by synthesizing critical perspectives on war media and documentary film. The 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq gave rise to an unprecedented profusion of war documentaries, many of which are now freely available on dedicated documentary-viewing websites. These websites function as knowledge resources archiving content produced over the course of the occupation and as transnational reception spheres allowing the claims of individual films to be contested or endorsed from multiple perspectives. Consequently, the traditional functions of the war documentary - as advocacy, reportage, and critique - are challenged and reframed in a transnational
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