The Manila Times/Stratfor
The gradual rise of the Chinese navy and associated air power may
qualify as the most important international trend that the major
American media have ignored in recent years. To be sure, there have been
the occasional stories about it, but not to the extent that China’s
naval ascent has become embedded in the consciousness of what is often
referred to as the knowledge elite. The story has been relatively
ignored for a number of reasons.
The media love people stories; they love to humanize everything about a foreign country. Therefore, you have the obsession with individual Chinese dissidents to the exclusion of other critical developments in China. The media love military forces on land, for when land forces are in operation, the media can bear witness to how civilian populations are being treated by soldiers and marines. Navies and air forces make war more abstract and technological, something with which the media are less comfortable. A decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan has made the media expert in messy ground campaigns, so that there are relatively few journalists who write about air-sea issues. Finally, the media deal with drama—sudden developments, not with gradual transitions such as China’s acquisition of a formidable navy and civilian maritime force. We become preoccupied with the minutiae of every twist and turn in Egypt, Syria and Libya, even as we become blind to a larger and equally profound development elsewhere.
Link
