Technologies of representation's relation to public opinion regarding the use of military force

The dysfunctional aspects of television news media's reporting on war can usefully be thought of as originating the simulation and virtual presence technologies with which the news media gather and construct the news in the first place. Some characteristics of those technologies are discussed and the limitations of each's capability to represent events is tied to the common complaints about the TV reporting on war either being to sanitized or too sensational for it to usefully inform public discourse about the appropriate use of military force.