Journalists and the social construction of war

This article draws on interviews conducted with all the journalists who accompanied the Task Force to the Falkland Islands. The article claims that in dealing with popular 'records' the historian ought to take account of those who create the record, in this case the journalists. The article also, however, using the notion of the social construction of reality, argues that in the case of the Falklands War the journalists began to see the world through a military rather than a civilian perspective and suggests, using empirical evidence, why it was that certain acts of war were not fully reported. In short, the article argues that the journalists became participants rather than observers.