The Military-Entertainment Complex

Tim Lenoir, Luke Caldwell

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English

Harvard University Press
19 February 2018

Military history; Popular culture; Media studies; Theory of warfare & military science; Digital lifestyle

Series: metaLABprojects

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.

By: Tim Lenoir, Luke Caldwell
Imprint: Harvard University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: 1
Dimensions: Height: 210mm, Width: 140mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 666g
ISBN: 9780674724983
ISBN 10: 0674724984
Series: metaLABprojects
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 19 February 2018
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

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

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