IEEE Spectrum Magazine and Excessive Military Coverage

As you might be aware, Spectrum magazine of IEEE society is being sent to almost every IEEE member. During recent months, every time I received the magazine, I saw a considerable amount of the content is on military equipments and operations. I decided to write to the editor and remind that general IEEE audience might not like to be fed with that much military. You judge by yourself:

Dear Mr. Zorpette,

Just wanted to leave a short feedback on the articles of recent issues of Spectrum Magazine.

Recently we have had more than 1 article (sometimes several) on military equipment, operations etc. I want to remind that Spectrum is an international magazine and majority of the readers work in academic/non-military fields. Have you considered publishing a separate magazine for this purpose (i.e military issues).

I am not sure about the others but I personally prefer to be out of the wars and military when reading the IEEE's magazine considered for general audience (i.e. all members including international readers).

Best Regards,
S. Sarmady

Dear Mr. Sarmady:
Spectrum must meet the interests of a diverse readership, including a large number who work in military technology, and others who are interested in it. Furthermore, I disagree with the assertion that we have published a large number of articles on military subjects. So far this year, we have published 56 feature articles. Six of them have been on military topics. That is 10.7 percent. I am comfortable with that number, and I believe that the vast majority of our readers are as well. In fact, yours is the only letter I have received this year complaining of too much military coverage.

Furthermore, I take great pains to ensure that our coverage, regardless of whether it is of semiconductors or of military technology, is not written from a US perspective and that it is not biased politically. All of the articles on military subjects are written with a probing and investigative style, and they do not hesitate to criticize military agencies and organizations where the criticism is warranted. The idea that Spectrum takes a pro-military tone is simply false, and anyone who reads our military coverage knows this. Spectrum's mission is to cover vital and timely issues of international significance in technology. The idea that we could fulfill that mission while ignoring military technology, which is a huge section of technology development in general, is simply wrong. So the question becomes, how much is too much? At a time when wars are raging in southwest Asia and Africa, and when trillions of dollars are being spent on developing military technology, I do not believe that devoting ten percent of our feature section to military technology is excessive.

Thank you for your feedback.
-Glenn

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You have chosen to become a researcher so your main job should be this. Perhaps you can start independent research on your interests. Papers and experience are important in academics. Besides you may want to increase your abilities in research by doing a postdoctoral fellowship under supervision of a decent professor.

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