MilitaryTV

I remember the days when MTV used to play music videos. Instead of “16 and Pregnant,” there were, you know, music videos. Now I can stand watching “Jackass” and “Wild Boys,” but I feel dirty afterwards. Now if MTV’s lack of actual “music television” wasn’t enough, they’ve found something else to make me scratch my head in wonder.

It seems like every time I turn on the channel I’m forced to watch an advertisement, sponsorship or commercial paid for by the Army. And I’ve noticed that the frequency of recruitment ads has increased over the years. Clearly the Army has been dishing out quite a bit of our tax dollars to get their foot in the door to gain access to the American youth.

But now, the extent of the partnership between the Army and MTV has been made crystal clear. MTV has decided to produce a show that documents a former Real World cast member’s second tour in Iraq. Titled “Return to Duty,” the show follows Ryan from “Real World Brooklyn” as he is called upon for another stint of active duty with the eight-year-old war in Iraq. So what’s the big deal with that?

The big deal is that when you keep in mind the business relationship between the Army and MTV, you know that MTV is not going to portray an accurate view of the war. Instead, the documentary is going to be sanitized and edited in such a way that the show does not defame or ridicule the war effort. That’s simply the way in which business works: within the framework of the “norm of reciprocity,” which, in this case, will result in MTV depicting the war in a favorable manner to the Army, and in return the Army will reciprocate the favor and continue to be a loyal and profitable ad buyer.

Why all of this matters is because MTV is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, influential forces of pop culture and, ultimately, mainstream America. Millions of people watch MTV in this country, particularly adolescents and teenagers who are extremely vulnerable and impressionable by the social influences around them — one of which is the very popular MTV. It is troubling to know that the country’s youth will now be exposed to the war in a very biased, non-academic light, and will therefore base their views about the war from a network that is anything but a legitimate news source. For those of us in college, it would be absurd to think of MTV as a news source, but we have to be realistic and recognize that these youngsters are rrar watching CNN, MSNBC or, in this case to their benefit, Fox News to get their war coverage.

In essence, MTV has transformed from a “music television” station to a recruiting mechanism for the Army. By promoting the war to millions of impressionable minds, MTV takes on an active role in shaping the way in which future generations perceive the war and fail to recognize the multi-dimensionality of this conflict. More importantly, because MTV has such a powerful role in shaping mainstream discourse, this program will continue to normalize war and violence not only within current society, but also for the future generations. We must condition peace, not war.

Shawn Riley is a junior in Newcomb-Tulane College. He can be reached for comment at sriley3@gmail.com.