JOUR90027 Chap.3 War Reporting, Objectivity and Attachment
War Reporting, Objectivity and Attachment
Week 3 asks what happens to the Western ideal of neutral, objective reporting in a war, especially a patriotic one, and whether peace journalism has a place. The chapter centres on Martin Bell, the BBC war correspondent who rejected what he called bystanders' journalism in favour of a journalism of attachment that cares as well as knows.
It works through his Sarajevo examples, his argument that the television camera changes the war it records, and his call to flinch less in showing violence, then sets out the readings that answer him and a model paragraph for essay prompt 5. It also sets Bell's argument beside the guide's other Week 3 readings, Galtung on peace journalism, McLaughlin on objectivity and war, and Ruigrok on Dutch journalists in the Bosnian war, so that you can test his claims against a normative alternative and empirical evidence.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Bystanders' journalism and the illusion of objectivity
- 02
The journalism of attachment and how it differs from campaigning
- 03
The Sarajevo sniper and the myth of the neutral observer
- 04
The mirror versus the camera: why television changes events
- 05
Good-taste censorship and the call to flinch less
- 06
Ward's reply, peace journalism and essay prompt 5
Worked example · free
Testing the neutral observer
- 1Apply Bell's mirror argument: her presence changes the event, so she cannot claim neutrality.
- 1Apply his refusal to stage action: filming on the militia's terms risks manufacturing the event.
- 1Reach a judgement that keeps fairness and accuracy, such as reporting the condition itself.
Key terms
- Neutral observer myth
- The neutral observer myth is Bell's name for the belief that a reporter can stand outside the events being covered, which his Sarajevo examples are meant to refute.
- Good-taste censorship
- Good-taste censorship is Bell's term for broadcasters withholding images of violence so thoroughly that war appears cost-free.
- Moral enterprise
- A moral enterprise, in Bell's argument, is what journalism becomes once the television image is understood to affect what it reports.
War Reporting, Objectivity and Attachment FAQ
What is the journalism of attachment?
It is Martin Bell's term for reporting that cares as well as knows and will not stand neutral between good and evil or victim and oppressor, while still promising fairness, impartiality and attention to facts. He separates it from campaigning journalism.
Why does Bell reject the mirror analogy?
A mirror leaves what it reflects unchanged, but a television picture can change the events it shows. Because coverage can change how combatants and governments behave, he argues that journalism is a moral enterprise rather than neutral recording.
Can I cite Ward's reply to Bell?
The Week 3 reading page pairs Bell with Stephen Ward's 1998 answer on objectivity and attachment. Read it in full through the Library before relying on it, and quote its argument from the published article rather than from summaries.
What is bystanders' journalism?
It is Bell's name for the detached BBC style he practised early in his career, reporting military formations, tactics and weapons from a distance rather than the people who start, fight and suffer wars. He argues it rests on an illusion of objectivity.
Does Bell want journalists to take sides?
No. He separates attachment from campaigning: crusading reporters find what they are looking for, whereas he still seeks out unfavoured spokesmen and promises fairness and accuracy. His claim is only that a reporter cannot stand neutral between victim and oppressor.
Assessment move
Read Bell's essay with a pencil: mark each story he tells and the claim it supports, then write one sentence on where the claim is weakest. That sentence becomes the critical move in an essay on prompt 5. Pair Bell with one reading that disagrees and one empirical study of war coverage from the reading list, so your argument rests on more than one reporter's experience.
When you practise, write the objection first and Bell's best reply second; that order keeps your paragraph evaluative rather than descriptive, and it gives the conclusion something real to weigh.
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