May 2, 2008

A brief quiz A quick de-brief on Dorman Somali Pirates: any takers? A brief consideration of embedding

including an empirical study of the relationship between embedding and story tone

Some thoughts about blogging

President Bush’s ill-timed “Mission Accomplished” speech occurred aboard what aircraft carrier?

For an extra point symbolizing nothing at all, in what year did this speech take place?

Hint: The aircraft carrier is named for an American President

In the United States, first instance is in the Civil War

Over 600 embedded at the start of GW2 Steger: “The military and the press are two

institutions which, to a degree, are inherently opposed to each other. The military values an organized chain of command, loyalty, sacrifice, and secrecy. The press, on the other hand, stresses individualism, the questioning of authority, skepticism, openness, and a perpetual search for the ‘truth’.”

Vietnam: open access and a “massive legacy of mistrust”

Grenada: the press is shut outPanama: pools do not workGulf War I: coverage but not accessSomalia: the press designs its own coverageGulf War II: The triumph of the embed system (Rand Corporation Report, 2004)

Sampled news stories from two 3 week periods, invasion and fifteen months later

Findings◦ Significant positive relationship between being

embedded having a positive tone, also conveyed greater trust toward the military

◦ Organizational commitment was higher with embedded reporters

◦ Significantly more episodic framing◦ No support for the Rumsfeldian/Bushian

proposition that media only reports the bad news…

David Bloom, NBC journalist dies of a deep vein thrombosis—cramped in an armored personnel carrier for hours

Michael Kelly, columnist for the Washington Post, killed in combat

Both died within two days of each other in early April 2003

Study examined the coverage related to their deaths

Sacrifice is connected to journalistic authority Themes in the coverage:

◦ Volunteerism◦ The Brave Journalist◦ Sacrifice◦ Witnessing

Conclusion: “Kelly and Bloom, as understood in the narratives of the KIA journalist, come to serve as models for journalists and of journalism, a reminder of the cultural placed occupied by journalists to tell stories to and about society, especially in the places we cannot go.”

Study of 25 pro and anti war blogs, mostly by amateurs rather than professional journalists

Findings—blogs occupy the same discursive space as traditional journalists albeit with more personalized attack and vitriolic language than traditional journalists

Interesting—blogs seemed convinced of their superiority over traditional journalism while at the same time most were dependent on those reports for their commentary’s starting point