War Coverage

The term war coverage refers to two dimensions of journalism. On the one hand it describes media content dealing with war and war-related events. On the other hand war coverage refers to the journalistic work process from which media content on wars emerge. This definition of war coverage is based on a specific understanding of war. Essential characteristics of a war are the involvement of at least two military or armed social systems, an extraordinarily high degree of physical force against people or objects, and a certain continuity of combat. This description goes beyond the traditional understanding of war as an international conflict. In civil wars or (partially) non-state conflicts, which have been dominating the statistics of clashes since the end of World War II, at least one of the war parties is to be assigned to the non-state sphere.

War coverage evolved with the development of a periodical press in the 17th century. For the aspiring newspapers of the absolutist European societies, the violent conflicts of 1618 to 1648 delivered the material for news which, in content and form, certainly resembled adventure stories. The relevance of this literary war coverage decreased in the 19th century when the basic principles of today's objective reporting, a differentiated journalistic profession and the role of the “war reporter,” developed. William Howard Russell, [Page 822]who, in 1854, reported to the London Times on the Crimean War, is regarded as the first protagonist of modern war coverage. During the following violent conflicts, war coverage changed considerably. Innovations in media technology, economic interests, the abuse of journalism for political purposes as well as information and entertainment desires of the audience represent characterizing factors of war coverage.

The current scholarly understanding of war coverage is mainly based on case studies. Every new war, extensively covered by Western media, induced a batch of respective analyses. Although a comprehensive theory on war coverage does not exist, there are numerous empirical findings on war coverage enabling insights into its effects on political communication. When exploring the production of media content, above all the relation between war coverage and the information management of security policy is, besides the characteristics of war reporters, the focus of scientific attention. International discussions center on, among other aspects, the legitimacy of the secrecy of military information, the chances of the so-called peace journalism as well as the significance of public relations instruments such as censorship or “embedded” journalism.

For the scholarly examination of war coverage, content analyses of media contents constitute the main part of research activities. The results show that, in the initial phase of a war, the subject dominates nearly the entire coverage. Already after a short time, however, the extent of coverage returns to a normal level: The war is again subject to the usual competition of topics. Longlasting conflicts as well as wars not corresponding to the criteria of news selection are, on the other side, marginalized in coverage. Whether a war is considered worth being covered or is left unnoticed depends, among other criteria, on the involvement of so-called elite nations, the possibility of follow-up communication referring to domestic events, the degree of surprise, the visualization of an event, and the cultural, political, and economic proximity.

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