Through the Crosshairs: War, Visual Culture, and the Weaponized Gaze

A study of how footage from weapon-mounted cameras left the battlefield and became a familiar part of civilian screen culture.

Stahl follows gun-camera and targeting imagery through news broadcasts, entertainment, video games and social media. He argues that this view through the crosshairs shapes how the public understands armed conflict and state violence. The book appeared from Rutgers University Press in June 2018 in its War Culture series.

Roger Stahl is an associate professor of communication studies at the University of Georgia. He wrote Militainment, Inc. and has worked on documentary films about the relationship between the military and entertainment industries, including Returning Fire. This book carries that research from entertainment into the imagery of surveillance and targeting.