The Public Image of the Military as Reflected in Leading Magazines, (1982-1983)

This paper determined the public image of the U.S. military as reflected in leading magazines and compared the results with the public image of the military determined in a 1971 study. The 1982 and 1983 issues of twenty-one leading magazines were reviewed for news items on the military. The news items were placed into different military subject areas (Personnel, Vietnam War, Grenada, ROTC, etc.) and judged favorable, unfavorable, balanced, or neutral. The composite results of this two-year study revealed that the public image of the military was more favorable than unfavorable. 35.9% of the items reviewed were favorable while 25.4% were unfavorable. The ratio of favorable items to unfavorable items was l.0:07. The results of this study show a significant favorable increase in the public image of the military compared to the results of the 1971 study. That three - year study revealed that 43.7% of the news items on the military were unfavorable while 30.9% were favorable. The 1971 study favorable to unfavorable ratio was l.0:l.4. An analysis of the individual military subject areas revealed two topics that received considerable press attention and that reflected an unfavorable public image of the military in the magazines analyzed. These were Defense Budget/Spending and Leadership. (author)