Robert Cappa’s famous quote of “if your pictures aren’t good enough, your not close enough”, was correct in the days of world war two, when war photography was not as dangerous as it is today. In the 1940’s the press was more patriotic to the nation, and were willing to self censor themselves for the good of the nation. Media represenatives were allowed to be embedded with operating units directly. Media personnel from World War two till the Vietnam war, were given free reign on how they reported the news of the conflict. The Military did not censor what the media captured, as they believed the media self-regulated themselves. This happened in every way till the Vietnam war, where television changed a lot of the perception of public opinion to war. Media information used to be a few days to a week behind reporting the events to the public. So sensitive information was never given to the public in real-time. Vietnam war changed this when television, when information of the conflict was only a few hours away. For also the first time, the war was a more brutal war than previous wars. The carnage and destruction was truely unedited, than previous wars. Also the media did not like previous conflicts see themselves as there patriotic duty to support the conflict. Sentiment at home also did not have the support of the conflict by the general population. Previous conflicts saw had a evil dictator, or ideology behind the enemy to distinguish themselves. The media also documented more on the destruction in the conflict that was inflict to innocent citizens who were classified as no combatants. In previous conflicts these images were taken after the event where the true anguish on the general population was not shown. E.g. population walking among the ruins of buildings where else in the Vietnam conflict images of the dead populance was taken and broadcast either via television or print media. These images swayed the public opinion to believe that the Vietnamese populance were the victims and the United States were the agressor. When Walter Cronkite made the famous quote after the Tet offensive in the Vietnam War that he could not see the United States winning the war, this swayed public opinion. The United States military learnt very quickly after wards any future conflicts they needed to control the flow of information.
Grenada and Panama after the Vietnam conflict were training grounds for the United States military to learnt how to control the flow of information. The United States military did not allow the media to be embedded with military units, and restricted where and how the media could travel into the conflict zone. Also the military controlled the images that were distributed back to the public. Both of these conflicts the United States military by controlling the flow of images was able to regain public support. These conflicts were not seen as unpopular with the United Stated populance.
Gulf War one, was a real test for the Military to control the flow of information. Units were no longer allowed to have any embedded media personnel. Media was kept back. This allowed the US Military to control the flow of information, and what was shown to the public. Each media personnel was assigned a Military laison media personnel who regulated what those media personnel could ask and capture (motion and still). Many freelance media personnel decided that they could get close to the action by embedding with other coalition force units, or travelled along side the units, in there own transportation. These freelance media units were close to the action to capture the images, and also outside the restriction of the United States military control. Also foreign media who travelled with there own nations military units were not as restricted in there control to capture information. Mainly this was the British media, who knew about the United States military control, and decide to circumvent this by travelling with Middle Eastern military units who where part of the coalition force. The United States military realised this by the end of Gulf War one conflict, as the United States media, followed suite with foreign and freelance media, and travelled outside the zone of the United States military control to obtain the information. This was pushed as freelance and foreign media hurt United Stated media by obtaining the information first. United States cable networks were hurt by the rating of foreign media. Also United States media networks had to purchase the information which cost them dearly. The United States military by the end of the Gulf War one realised if they did not control the conflict, they could not control the flow of information. The United Stated military were able to control the country’s media, but lost control by the end as they followed suite with they style and practices of foreign media. The damage was no where as serious as Vietnam war created upon the United States populance in belief to the truth to what there government told them.
The Balkans conflict was seen as gold mine for the media, where there was no media restriction, due to no United States miltary involvement till they joined the European peace keeping efforts at the end of the conflict. Sides on the conflict learnt from the United States military efforts from Gulf War one, and conflicts before, that the control of information can determine there status within the worlds populance. The many sides in the Balkans conflict allowed the media to travel with them to show how the atrocities of the other side. The images shown to the world where very distressing. Again like Vietnam the images captured shown were more of the civilian casaulties than the combatants themselves. Like Vietnam those images captured had a lot of emotion. More distressing were images of mass graves from the ethnic clensing, like the concentration camps of world war two. Again in the Balkans conflict had concentration camps. Instead of Germans killing Jewish people, it was Serbians and Croatians instead this time around. Each group was able to manipulate world opinion. When the European union with the Americans, Australians started the peace keeping efforts, the truth about both sides came out, and some of the worlds media realised how much they were manipulated by the sides of the conflict. The media got so close in this conflict that Robert Cappa would have been proud of them, by the closeness they in the conflict. Unlike the previous conflict of the Gulf War One, media travelled with the combatants, as in Vietnam and World War Two.
In the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts media were allowed to be embedded within military units. The United States military realised from Gulf War One and the Balkins conflict, it was better to have some control over the media than no control with the media. Again certain media personnel were punshed when they realised information that the United States military were not happy that it was released. This time thou the rules have changed, the media were also considered fair game as targets in the conflict. With the enemy (taliban and iraq insurgents) considered media personnel them the enemy. Many freelance media personnel were killed covering the news, and many more were kidnapped for money, or were then killed by the enemy to make a statement. Many media personnel became afraid of travelling alone, and decided that travelling embedded with the military was the only safe way. The United States military were happy as they were able to control the flow of information. Another outlet the worlds media saw to cover the information was to hire local populance to go out and cover the footage/images, that is now counted too dangerous. It also became dangerous for local employees of the world media once the enemy knew they who they were working for.
Israeli-Palestinian conflict took another step, with both sides the Israeli military created its own media laison unit. So instead of allowing the worlds media to embed themselves with the Israeli military, the Israeli military would only provide footage/images to the worlds media, instead of allowing the worlds media talking there own footage/images. The Israeli military camped there media laison unit in the same room as the worlds media, that the Israeli military allows to distribute there information. This was also a psychological warfare strategy where the Israeli military make friendship with the worlds media instead of treating them like the enemy as the United States military doctrine dictates. The Palestinians also picked up on this style of psychological warfare. They copied the Israeli military, by inviting/smuggling the worlds media into the Gaza Strip to view the horror of what the Israeli military. This did hurt the Israeli military information warfare doctrine, as the Palestinian were able to present there side of the story via the world media.
With 24 hour news channels now, patroitism, and duty to your country does not exist anymore (no common purpose and common sense of country). Media organisations now race to who can deliver the news snippet first. many times they do not, check if they give sensitive information away, nor sometimes do they check there information also. Some reporters such as fox news were removed from being embedded with units, due to leaking sensitive information of the units they were with (mainly location information). United States media organisations are the most hard hit by this change as the worlds media now cover the events themselves, where else in Vietnam, they used footage/images from United States media. After Vietnam there was a large uptake in freelance media personnel (greatest growth was during the Iraq/Afghanistan war. Another attribute to this was the worlds western media became targets themselves, and they hired local personnel to captured footage/images for them (also it was a cheaper option)), as the Worlds Media had a greater hunger for events to be captured.
Soldiers themselves are now blogging and posting images of what they do in conflict zones. Either these are blogs or images that soldiers themselves and post upon websites like flickr etc. The Iraq/Afghanistan conflict has taught the worlds militaries to that they could not contain this but created standards of what the military personnel could post upon the internet. A good example of this is when Australian soldiers posted upon there website that there equipment was sub-standard, the Australian media picked up upon this, and the Australian Defence force had to go into damage control. Equipment was changed to personnel who where deployed overseas. As the Palestinians have learnt from the Israeli military, that distributing there version of events worked well. The Taliban and Iraq insurgents have also created there own media distribution either via the internet or distributed to the worlds media. This made it harder for the western nations to control the flow of information. With the worlds media now a target themselves, and worried to travel out to gather the footage/images the British and United States military realise like the Israeli military, that they can have a role in control in the flow of information.
So from World War Two when Robert Cappa was embedded with the military it was a simpler time, as he was not considered a target. Todays media are considered a target by the enemy. That is why locals in those nations are hired to capture the footage/images. but even they have become targets themselves. So Robert Cappa’s quote “if your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough” can get you killed now, as respect for those who capture news are not considered a neutral target.
