The term pooled journalism refers to the journalistic coverage of events, particularly international conflicts and wars, by a comparatively small and therefore controllable group of reporters. In the United States, the Department of Defense (DOD) established in 1987 the so-called DOD National Media Pool as a system designed to control media accessibility to American troops. Consequently, pooled journalism may be defined as a technique of political or military censorship. In a broader meaning, the term pooled journalism is also applied to describe news-gathering organizations pooling their resources in the collection of news. A video pool or pool feed, for instance, is then distributed to members of the pool who are free to edit it.

The setting up of media pools as a method of censorship first ...