ABSTRACT
The reporting of the Great War should be understood as the final stage in the ‘extended trajectory’ of conflicts that led up its outbreak. The large number of reporters attending the wars in the early 20th century provided the opportunity for combatants to disseminate their message worldwide. Coverage of the Balkans wars was based ‘almost entirely on reports that correspondents were unable to verify’. The large number of correspondents covering the wars in the 20th century undermined the cohesion of the specialism. The trend observed during the wars in the first couple of decades of the 20th century was solidified when correspondents were integrated in 1914–1918 into the war machine. Filmmakers would co-operate with the military, whereby the cameraman would ‘arrange’ to film the troops in the war zone in apparently genuine military activity. The Balkans war press corps brought a more varied approach to the job due to the presence of members of the visual media.
