Veterans and the Media: A pilot survey report on how UK veterans perceive media representations about military and post-military experiences

This report introduces the findings of our pilot survey on veterans’ perceptions on media representations of military and post-military experiences. The mainstream media is thought to play a key role in shaping public attitudes, which in turn affects how policy makers, charities and military advocacy groups work with the media. Our objective is to work with veterans to find out what they think the main issues are in contemporary media representations. The findings of the project will be used to offer guidance to British media organisations for a better-informed representation of military veterans. This report provides a brief context for the research and outlines some of the key themes that have emerged from our survey. It addresses the leading impressions and concerns raised by veterans, identifies the dominant perceived patterns of representation across varied media genres, and investigates how our respondents feel about issues such as disability, mental health, ethnicity, and gender in veteran portrayals. Crucially, the survey begins to explore the ways in which veterans believe media representations could be improved, and this will form a starting point for the recommendations we make to media organisations as part of our further research.