REPORTING ON WAR

Reporting on War



Reporters have a difficult task when reporting on War

Introduction

Any activity that leads to reports in the fields of journalism, finance, business, beat, traffic and court is termed as reporting. Reporting has been a difficult task for reporters when reporting on war. Through this paper, it has been critically analyzed that being a journalist, reporting in war was no more than the interesting line of work. Reporting in war is no more than to face occupational hazards that might lead to imprisonment and death. Reporters reporting on the war always pass through a period of brutal wars and facing critics of authoritarian post communist and extreme nationalist regimes (Katarina, 2001).

Discussion

Reporting on war is always difficult for the reporters or journalists to handle with. Their lives are at risk from the different occupational hazards in order to cover the stories behind the war. Military has been focussing that Troops' endurance and strength can be boosted by responding to combat stress. All organizations should understand the same in order to encourage the journalists towards reporting on war. It is they who are responsible to give a true picture of the story behind any scene. Up till now it has been agreed by the combat reporters that the preparations like the protective gear and security training shall be provided against such dangerous assignments. For this purpose technical tip sheets and packing lists have been considered extremely helpful towards boosting strength among the reporters reporting on war. However, this trauma has been addressed by many organizations but they have not done much work in providing shield to these reporters (Schmickle, 2003).

War crimes, corruption, violation of human rights, are issues that are being reported by the reporters. Such reporters have always been at the risk of life from different threats. Media scholars have classified existential journalism into two different instincts of basic journalism. The first part is subjective and other part is objective. Subjectiveness accounts to sense oriented journalist instincts. Objective resembles to face oriented journalist instinct.

Subjective journalists are very enthusiastic towards presenting themselves, their reports and their judgements on the news of the day. They are never satisfied in being mere bystanders. Face oriented journalists are those who consider journalism as a disinterested activity. According to them, journalist's prejudices, feelings, biases, judgements or opinions have nothing to encumber the audience (Katarina, 2001).

Advocacy journalism and personal judgement are often given short shrift by the objectivist's journalist. Some reporters would say it like reporting to all sides and not to play favourites. Some other would say that it is always a danger to get too close to any story. Diehl says that particularly for journalists who witness horrific events, "being as objective as possible, being an observer and not taking ides is something they all struggle with" (Picchiard, p26). Subjective reporting has been criticised by such reporters as these reporters would present bias or stereotype reports that are never good for the audience who are receiving such reports or ...