Old Story, New Tools

While the Gulf War 2003 may seem in many ways like a replay of the Gulf War 1991, the intervening advent of the Internet and the subsequent creation of micro-publishing tools - i.e., blogs - is resulting in a resurgence of a more intimate, more personal form of war reporting. [ See Harold Evans' essay on the history of conflict correspondence ]

Some newspapers, such as the New York Times, are publishing photographs and short bios of their reporters on the web. Reporters from others, such as the Christian Science Monitor, are writing daily journals. And some online journalists, such as Jeff Jarvis, head of Advance.net and BuzzMachine blogger, are compiling weblogs of war news.

The digitization of audio and video enables broadcast journalists to go a step further. CNN correspondent Kevin Sites, operating on his own in Iraq, files a daily audio blog.

Newspapers are slow to adopt new technology and new reporting techniques without the impetus of competitive pressure. I am heartened to journalists pushing themselves to find new way to cover one of life's oldest and saddest stories. [ Read my earlier post: Covering War in a Free Society ]

Here are some examples:

 New York Times: Bios about and reporting from its correspondents.

 Christian Science Monitor: Daily journal from Kuwait by reporter Ben Arnoldy.

 Minneapolis Star Tribune: Audio, video, photo coverage; bios of reporters.

 Raleigh News & Observer: A daily journal by reporter Jay Price

 Seattle Times: A news blog by editor Tom Brown.

 Kevin Sites: Audio blog from Iraq by CNN correspondent.

 Poynter Institute: A journal by Boston Herald reporter Jules Crittenden

 Poynter Institute, Coverage Diary: Stories about media coverage or issues.

 Jeff Jarvis: War in Iraq weblog (runs on 10 Advance.net sites).

Tim Porter