Popular Culture Review Vol. 8, No. 2, August 1997 | Page 134

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Popular Culture Review

that technology has rendered useless such former obstacles as borders,
geographic barriers and governmental edicts? A CNN spokesperson,
Steve Haworth, explained his company's viewpoint in a personal
correspondence:
CNN is an independent news network which must make
its own judgement about whether to report information
which we have gathered and which one government or
another may claim is endangering to troops or
personnel. The international public's right to know and
a government's obligation to protect the lives of troops
and other personnel occasionally clash. The difficult,
sometimes painful, decision lies with us, as do the
consequences of our decision. (Haworth, March 2,1992.)
Rather than calling for an end to real time news coverage,
this writer is requesting media observers to structure their comments
to a more meaningful end and curtail the cheap shots and infighting.
For instance, what should be the guidelines for international war
coverage? If there is a worldwide code of journalism, is it only viable
until the first challenge from a power hungry tyrant? In the turmoil
of armed conflict, can reporting be perfectly packaged?
Below are listed some of the many contributions of live
coverage of war to popular culture:
(1) One of the more important rewards is surveillance of the
environment. This is what the three CNN reporters did so well on
the first night of the bombing raids in Baghdad.
(2) Since the reports could be received throughout the Middle East,
the descriptions of the attacks took on the added significance of
providing information to an audience potentially at risk.
(3) Real time coverage has a unifying effect—the whole world's
watching. CNN's coverage had global viewing, compared to
American viewing or listening in previous wars.
(4) Such reporting can actually have a comforting element. It takes
away the unknown and substitutes a sense of normalcy. Viewers can
watch an unsettling event, war, in the context of a familiar setting, a
newscast.
(5) With the immediacy, there is heightened awareness. When the
normal viewing schedules are preempted, viewers can sense the