War and Words

Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War threw up moral dilemmas that divided the nation. The changing ways that Australian newspapers covered the conflict both reflected these dilemmas and enflamed them.

Trisha Payne's insightful analysis of Australian reporting of the Vietnam War traces the shifts in emphasis of the coverage, the influence of government on what news reached the public, the extent of allegiance to the American viewpoint and the lack of a Vietnamese perspective.

War and Words presents clearly the influences that shaped the media agenda of the time and identifies patterns of press coverage that continue to be discernible in the reporting of current military conflicts.