The War CorrespondentThe War Correspondent looks at the role of the war reporter today in context with contemporary issues: the perks and the risks of the job; the tendency for western journalists to take sides in civil conflicts like Bosnia and Kosovo; the media politics of international intervention in humanitarian crises; the seductive power of military ‘public relations’; and of course the commercial and technological pressures of an intensely concentrated, competitive news media environment. The book features interviews with prominent war and foreign correspondents such as John Pilger, Robert Fisk, Maggie O’Kane and Christiane AmanpourA special case study in military-media relations during NATO’s bombing of Serbia/Kosovo in 1999 suggests that in spite of widespread passivity among the correspondents who attended the daily briefings in Brussels, some sections of the news media were at least prepared to ask some hard questions of NATO strategy and policy.Greg McLaughlin argues that the future for war reporting and foreign correspondence will be determined not so much by professional imperatives but by military pressures and market forces outside the control of the journalist. The self-serving myth that war stories are no longer what 'consumers' want disguises the reality that foreign news is becoming too expensive to produce. Unless 'our boys' are directly involved in combat, wars and rumours of wars will continue to slip down the media agenda as 'the rest of the day’s news'. |
Contents
From Crimea to Korea | 47 |
Journalists and the Military since Vietnam | 73 |
Lessons Learned? The Media the Military and | 103 |
Copyright | |
7 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
American argues Army attack battle BBC1 BBC2 bombing Bosnia Braestrup briefings Britain British campaign casualties censor censorship Channel Four civilian Cold Cold War conflict convoy correspondents crisis critical December defence dispatches editor effect enemy facts Falklands Falklands War footage forces foreign front going Gowing Guardian Gulf happened ibid images impact Iraq Iraqi John Simpson journalism of attachment journalists killed Knightley Kosovo London Maggie O'Kane Martin Bell media coverage media pool Mick Hume military moral nalists NATO NATO's Newsnight newspaper Nik Gowing objectivity October officers operation organisations Panama Pentagon photographs Pilger political pondents propaganda public opinion public relations refugees reporting response revolution Robert Fisk role Russell Rwanda Saddam Sarajevo satellite says Serbs Shea Somalia Soviet story talk targets telegraph Telephone interview television things troops truth Vietnam war correspondent weapons western William Howard Russell World Order zone