WRL: The ‘ghost war’ and war reporting

I tend to push most of my war reporting links through Twitter rather than on blog posts these days but I thought this little collection was worth a quick update.

1. Sean Smith chronicles three months on the front line in Afghanistan:

"High explosive is zooming back and forwards, so the enemy is certainly there, but go to the position from where they have been firing and there is usually nothing to be seen. Once, we arrived at a compound from where there had been firing and found four glasses and a teapot set out on a tray; the tea in the pot was still hot enough to drink. But you don’t see anything, not a thing. I never even saw a blood trail. It’s like a ghost war."

2. Richard North discusses media management of the 200th British military fatality in Afghanistan. (That number has already ticked over to 204).

"As long as the media is intent on using the completely artificial "milestone" of 200 deaths as a trigger for a torrent of (largely hostile) coverage – the government will attempt to manage the news, to mitigate the adverse effects."

3. A television news producer working in London predicts the demise of the TV correspondent in an interesting insider’s post on where he thinks the industry is heading:

"With a little bit more technology and foresight the social networkers of today will be our ‘man in the field’ tomorrow, posting credible updates on breaking news events and producing compelling, high quality video blogs."