The Pros and Cons of Allowing Media Presence in Combat Zones Essay

The Pros and Cons of Allowing Media Presence in Combat Zones - Essay Example The researcher states that although critics perceive the presence of the media in the combat zone as a defective step favoring military interests, large numbers of reporters viewed it as a victory for the people’s right to know. They argue that war reporting was substantially better than distant or impersonal reporting. Allowing the presence of the media in the combat zone may have advantages. First, the administration will learn to honor its pledge of freedom of the press and freedom of speech. Second, implanting the media will allow journalists to give ‘actual’ or ‘personal’ coverage or reports about the war, providing a more vivid picture of the chaos and horrors of war. Third, journalists on the combat zone could amend incorrect statements of military staff and unearth facts that may have been concealed by military officers. Ultimately, although critics claimed that reporters in the combat zone can get ‘intimate’ with military personn el, advocates emphasized that military officers can also provide additional ideas and disclose vital information to these implanted reporters. However, the practice posed many dilemmas to objective reporting of war activities. First, the rules for attaching reporters to combat units are not intended to allow unrestrained liberty to cover the war, but to make sure that the military account of the conflict is the only one publicized. Members of the press are not permitted to travel alone, which implies they could merely depend on a small number of sources aside from the military personnel. Interviews have to be documented, which implies average service personnel were less probable to scrutinize military operations or protocols. Officials are permitted to edit report and control electronic communication or broadcasts for ‘operational secrecy’ (Pfau et al., 2004) which may be described as anything the general in command of the troops wanted to expunge. Second, it would be h ard to stay neutral when journalists rely on the military for basic necessities like information, security, transportation, shelter, and food. Gordon Dillow, a reporter who experienced actual exposure in war, revealed (Exoo, 2009, 107): I found myself falling in love with my subject. I fell in love with ‘my’ marines. Maybe it’s understandable. When you live with the same guys for weeks, sharing their dreams and miseries, learning about their wives and girlfriends, their hopes and dreams, admiring their physical courage and strength, you start to