war reporting

March 19, 2003 11:22 AM

The War is about to Start and for those of us without a TV we are part of a grand experiment to see if we can be as well informed. According to this Reuters article, Radio had World War II, Television had Vietnam, Cable TV had the Gulf War and now, the Internet may have the U.S. war with Iraq...reporters and producers with wireless laptops and handheld digital cameras will file reports from battlefields and military installations. Cameras are at key locations for live feeds 24 hours a day. Interactive, 3-D maps will update troop movements, casualties and weapons used. ''You're combining the speed of television with the depth of print,'' says Mitch Gelman, executive producer of CNN.com. ''This could define how future wars are covered.'' (more inside)
posted by stbalbach (19 comments total)

Mainstream feeds with broadband video pay options include:

Showdown: Iraq (CNN)
Showdown with Iraq (ABC)
Showdown with Saddam (CBS)
Takeing Position (Fox)
Target: Iraq (MSNBC)

What other good sources for war coverage?
posted by stbalbach at 11:29 AM on March 19, 2003

War's definitely my favorite spectator sport.
posted by signal at 11:38 AM on March 19, 2003

Is this the sort of thing you'd need a computer to know about?
posted by yerfatma at 11:51 AM on March 19, 2003

i'm subscribed to quite a few mail lists. i quite like channel4 news's snowmail, but if you've never seen channel4 news in the uk its tone may seem a little odd. the bbc and iht also have lists (i guess every major paper does, trouble is they're often just teasers to get you to click through to the site). the bbc's alert list is quite useful - a simple email whenever "something happens".
for random background, bbc monitoring is interesting, too.
(on preview - 2/4 topics on topic. 50% signal to noise. almost as good as /. thanks, signal + yerfatma, you're so entertaining. keep up the good work on driving mefi into the ground, why don't you?)
posted by andrew cooke at 11:56 AM on March 19, 2003

Those of us without t.v. may be more fortunate in that we don't have to see it, over and over again, 24/7, in all its gory glory. Images are available at all the usual online sources and since I live in an area where this radio station is available, I think I will get all the war news I can handle.
posted by Lynsey at 12:15 PM on March 19, 2003

What other good sources for war coverage?

Please no one say MetaFilter... *crosses fingers*
posted by Space Coyote at 12:24 PM on March 19, 2003

Excellent (all too rare) Iraq post! also see Reuters' Focus: Iraq, and of course Google News.
posted by phatboy at 12:29 PM on March 19, 2003

"Is this something you don't need a TV to know about?" is basically what you're asking...
posted by Orange Goblin at 12:44 PM on March 19, 2003

No Im really just asking what are some good links to follow the story since it is somewhat revolutionary War coverage due to the technology changes involved.
posted by stbalbach at 1:00 PM on March 19, 2003

Does anybody know what the current point-spread is for the Invasion?
posted by signal at 1:09 PM on March 19, 2003

Is the new war coverage is anything like the old war coverage, I'd rather stay "uninformed".
posted by O9scar at 2:02 PM on March 19, 2003

"During that Persian Gulf War, I was sitting in my living room, naked, with a can of Budweiser and a three inch steak watching the war, live, on TV. I had a six foot erection with a giant cheese burger on the end of it. "

-- Dennis Leary

I expect there will be no lack of information overload this time around.
posted by bondcliff at 2:07 PM on March 19, 2003

All war, all the time.... next thing you know there'll be a cable network that only covers war.

Whether you own a TV or a computer there's no way to avoid it. In some ways this is good - why should we be able to evade the knowledge of what we're doing?
posted by orange swan at 2:09 PM on March 19, 2003

Slate has posted an excellent summary of resources, including Arab, international, and governmental.
posted by phatboy at 2:27 PM on March 19, 2003

Great link phatboy! Lot of rich material there including a baghad residents/a> blog
posted by stbalbach at 3:28 PM on March 19, 2003

BBC is currently doing a free live video stream at http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/live/now3.ram
posted by Sirius at 3:56 PM on March 19, 2003

A war journalist for cnn is mostly audioblogging the war here. Could be a good source for an inside, unedited view on the war and its journalism. He seems to be pretty legit and becoming interested in the power of communicating directly to people.
posted by superchris at 7:13 PM on March 19, 2003

(wonder if CNN management knows?)
posted by Vidiot at 7:49 PM on March 19, 2003

Just buy a tv for God's sake. Just because you have a television doesn't mean you have to watch it 24/7 or make you any less of an intellectual...it's silly not to have one.
posted by Jimmy Olsen at 12:33 AM on March 23, 2003