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The recent war with Iraq has had the greatest impact on journalism since the Vietnam War. Before the next war arrives, how the news media cover conflict -- and international affairs more generally -- should be scrutinized. The questions explored in this book include:* Were embedded journalists' reports from Iraq overused and was context sacrificed in favor of drama?* Is the relationship between news organizations and the Pentagon too cozy?* Has Al-Jazeera's impact been underestimated?* Is the Internet superseding other media?* Has public diplomacy become mired in clumsy propaganda? * Do policy makers understand how news coverage affects global politics?Beyond the Front Lines examines news coverage of modern war, with particular emphasis on the performance of journalists during the 2003 U.S.-Iraq war. It also analyzes the relationship between news coverage and American foreign policy, as well as how globalization is reshaping the news business. Philip Seib also describes the changing technologies and ethics of modern warfare, suggests ways journalists might carry out their job better, and offers a new perspective on the role of the news media in a high-tech, globalized, and dangerous world.
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ADDITIONAL PRAISE FOR BEYOND THE FRONT LINES:
“Philip Seib is a journalist, a student of journalism, and a teacher of journalists, who has the rare talent of asking the right questions. His book, Beyond the Front Lines, has to be helpful to anyone who worries about the place of the news media in an increasingly complicated and dangerous world.” —Stephen Hess, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution, and most recently co-editor of The Media and the War on Terrorism (Brookings, 2003) “A valuable book for journalists, military officers, and government officials alike. Seib raises all the right questions about the media and contemporary warfare, and offers some useful and even provocative answers.” —Albert C. Pierce, Director, Center for the Study of Professional Military Ethics, U.S. Naval Academy “Beyond the Front Lines is a first-rate and much needed explanation of the contemporary domestic, foreign, and global media in the crisesladen post-9/11 era. Illuminated by the rich insider knowledge of a former journalist and the healthy detachment of a journalism professor, Seib’s volume offers an authoritative account of the new challenges and responsibilities that journalists, news organizations, and governmental decision makers face in the changed geopolitical realities of the early twenty-first century. This well-written volume deserves not only the attention of journalists, students of communication, political science, and sociology but of the general public as well.” —Brigitte L. Nacos, Columbia University “In Beyond Front Lines, Philip Seib presents a highly readable and thought-provoking review of news media coverage of the 2003 war in Iraq. He examines journalistic triumphs and defeats and raises the tough questions that must be addressed by the news media before the next major U.S. military conflict. An outstanding work!” —Kathy R. Fitzpatrick, DePaul University
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BEYOND THE FRONT LINES How the News Media Cover a World Shaped by War
Philip Seib
BEYOND THE FRONT LINES Copyright © Philip Seib, 2004. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published in hardcover in 2004 by Palgrave Macmillan First PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™ paperback edition: March 2006 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS. Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Pre