Professional paper
WAR REPORTING IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY ARMED CONFLICTS AND NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES
Josip Čerina
; Podružnica Zadar Hrvatskog centra za razminiranje
Abstract
This paper deals with the analysis of war reporting in the context of contemporary armed conflicts and new media technologies. A common characteristic of contemporary armed conflicts and the media is their dependence on communication technologies. Media technologies were enabling the reporting in real time from different locations in the war zone, but its consequence is a lack of time for the rational thinking and considering. Journalists with their reporting crucial influence on the formation of public opinion. The public perception depends a lot on what the media have chosen, dropped, formed and interpreted. Journalists professional ethics are questionable because of passing over in silence or emphasizing, drastic describing the event or its embellishment, or interpretation of events with the aim of propaganda and so on. The army is making great efforts to limit access to the battlefield, and journalists often leads to a situation to take materials that they were intended. So the public can get information and pictures from the field censored that do not reflect the true situation in the war zone. When it happens doubts about the war intervention, then there are media reports on the persecution, robbery, arson, civilian casualties, refugee convoys and so on. Such images will certainly impact positively on gaining public for the war intervention.
Keywords
war reporting; armed conflicts; censorship; propaganda
Hrčak ID:
92835
URI
Publication date:
29.6.2012.
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