Reporting War and Conflict

Janet Harris is an award-winning documentary producer/director, having worked for many years at the BBC and as a freelancer with experience of working in Iraq in war and post-war. She holds a PhD on the media coverage of the British military in post-war Iraq and teaches the practice and theory of documentary production at Cardiff University, UK.Kevin Williams was until recently Professor of Media and Communication History at Swansea University, UK. He has written widely on the history and theory of the media, including several books on war reporting, such as co-authoring The Fog of War: The Media on the Battlefield (1986) and War and Peace News (1985). His most recent book was International Journalism (2011).

Speaking personally, the book would work nicely for our MA provision in journalism, where these issues receive careful attention. It may well serve as required reading on our war and conflict reporting unit, and is certain to be strongly recommended as supplementary reading on further units. – Professor Stuart Allan, Bournemouth University, UKOne thing I would suggest would be particular attention to the differences in war reporting by platform—the special challenges and disadvantages, as well as advantages, to these platforms. This should be relatively easy to include, given Prof. William’s background in print, and Harris’s expertise in broadcasting. – Professor Linda Steiner, University of Maryland, USAThe authors inspire confidence. Williams has an impressive track record, including a very good book on the history of British newspapers that he published with Routledge and another book in progress on war correspondence that this proposal grew out of. Harris has expertise in television journalism and is also a seasoned teacher. The two authors appear to complement each other in a productive way. – Professor John Nerone, University of Illinois, USAI’d recommend the authors be more forthright in how they are conceptualising ‘risk’ and how this analysis explicitly underpins the organisation and content of the book [...] the chapter on reporting disasters seems to be somewhat out of kilter with the rest of the book [...]I think that their assessment is broadly correct and such a book would do well given the topic and the reputation of Prof. Williams. – John Steel, Sheffield University, UK

• Preface Introduction 1. Risk and war journalism 2. Bearing witness: morality, risk and war reporting 3. Organisational and occupational risks and war reporting 4. Technology and risk management: telegraph, telex and Twitter 5. Media on the battlefield: risk and embedding 6. Asymmetrical wars: reporting post-war Iraq 7. Risk and reporting new forms of war and conflict 8. Risk and the reporting of death, dying and the casualties of war 9. Gender, risk and war reporting