Wartime Embedded Journalists

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at arguments on both sides of the issue concerning embedded journalists and whether or not they pose a risk to the safety of soldiers in the field. The paper points out that the danger posed by the journalists is often related more to the amount of military information they expose to the public that really should not be revealed and not to the direct safety of the soldiers. The paper concludes that, while on some level, the embedded journalists do increase the risk exposure of soldiers, it might be better that they are embedded rather than running helter-skelter all over the place. Articles used as sources are appended to the paper.

From the Paper:

"There have been war correspondents in virtually every U.S. military engagement. During the Civil War, a photographer named Matthew Brady was out there on the battlefield not exactly snapping pictures, but laboriously preparing the glass plates in the back of his horse-drawn darkroom. So embedding journalists in with the U.S. military during the recent, and continuing, war in Iraq would not seem to be any different, and certainly no more dangerous than having Brady rattling around the cannonballs. Granted, some journalists have died in Iraq, but some, like NBC's David Bloom, died from medical conditions not related to warfare. Even military spokespersons have relatively little to say about the impact on troops of protecting journalists' lives. Of course, the few soldiers who died in the relatively few attempts to save journalists in war zones, some of which will be mentioned below, might have a very different viewpoint about that. "

More papers on Wartime Embedded Journalists:

• Analytical Essay # 46490 : "Embedded Journalists"
• Analytical Essay # 130622 : "Embedded Sentences"
• Book Review # 49514 : "Wartime America"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: