Journalists at War: The Dynamics of News Reporting during the Falklands Conflict

In the years since the conclusion of hostilities, a number of books about the Falkland Conflict have been published. Journalists At War is unique among them, and will become the definitive source for understanding journalists at work during unusual wartime conditions. The authors have interviewed every journalist who sailed with the Task Force to cover the war. The book allows them to recount their experiences and comment on their professional approaches and practices. This ethnographic approach, write the authors, offers near perfect vision, a kind of bell-jar condition, for observing journalists going about being journalists. Thus, Morrison and Tumber use the story of the coverage of this war as a general treatise on the profession of journalism: they demonstrate that other journalists, in similar situations, would show similar patterns of behavior. The authors also examine the handling of the news in London and question the role of information in liberal democracies during war time. Their conclusions about the medias relationships with the military, the government, and the public, are provocative, and differ from those expressed in previous accounts. Essential reading for undergraduate and graduate level students in journalism, politics and mass communication A remarkably comprehensive analysis of how print and electronic journalism covered the 1982 Falklands War. . . . Their style is lucid. . . . The appendices and an index are helpful. Appropriate for upper-division undergraduates. --Choice An exceptional contribution to the study of news work in particular and mass communication in general. . . . In sum, this work humanizes journalism by placing news workers in the contexts oftheir actions, and permits them to tell much of their own story. It is apparent that this story diverges in some ways from that told by other chroniclers of the Falklands coverage. In this respect, Morrison and Tumber have contributed to the dialogue about war, peace, and the news media. That this is a significant dialogue to pursue seems beyond question. --David L. Altheide, Arizona State University Not only very readable and informative, but also important. --The News Line