Wide angles and narrow views: how embeds reported the Iraq conflict

Television audiences around the world were gripped by television news reporting of the events in Iraq in March-April 2003, with viewing figures reaching new heights. Since the First Gulf War in 1991 and the 1999 Kosovo crisis, technological advances have changed the face of television coverage, making it immediately accessible as a form of ‘militainment’, and thus presenting a new aspect of war reporting. The 2003 conflict in Iraq was the latest episode in the heightening of the media’s role in military action. This chapter discusses the role of war reporting in the 2003 Iraq conflict in the light of the debate about reporter evaluation, objectivity and stance in the context of studies regarding ideological stance inherent in journalism. It has been suggested that television coverage, rather than heightened political interest, may have lured audiences; and one of the features of the television coverage was the role of the embedded reporter. By assigning reporters to coalition units the Pentagon was attempting to ‘manage’ the information eventually reaching the public, with the aim of getting both the public and the press ‘on side’. On the other hand, the ‘embed’ programme was criticized by some reporters who saw it as yet another way to stage-manage the coverage. The role of embedded reporters raised questions about the type of working relationship existing between the military and the media. Despite their creed to remain ‘impartial’ and ‘objective’, the obvious question was whether reporters’ duty to seek the ‘truth’ was compatible with their physical position, and whether they were able to balance their necessary trust in their host troops with the viewers’ need for objective information.