ABSTRACT
The history of war reporting is a well-trodden path. Phillip Knightley’s tome on the history of the war correspondent, The First Casualty, is often and correctly described as a ‘classic’. However, The First Casualty and many other histories of war reporting judge the performance of war reporters against a narrow range of criteria, most commonly objectivity, which is a problematic notion in peacetime let alone in a warzone. Globalisation and technological change are seen as sweeping away the need for a dedicated specialist covering war and conflict. The war correspondent is becoming redundant as combatants can communicate directly with the audience. Any revision of the history of war reporting must draw attention to the fragile identity of the war correspondent. The present changes in contemporary war reporting should be studied in the context of the continuity that prevails in the struggle between different types of news and information gatherers to gather and report war news.
