Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: When armies become media: Israel live-blogs and tweets an attack on Hamas

http://gigaom.com/2012/11/14/when-armies-become-media-israel-live-blogs-and-tweets-an-attack-on-hamas/
 
 
Nov 14, 2012 - 3:05PM PT
 
When armies become media: Israel live-blogs and tweets an attack on Hamas
 
BY Mathew Ingram
 
How does it change the way we perceive a war when the armies involved 
become media entities — publishing their own live news reports, 
uploading photos and videos and even live-tweeting their attacks as they 
happen? The Israeli army has started doing just that.
 
For decades — perhaps even centuries — journalists have been the primary 
witnesses to and chroniclers of war, piecing together news reports from 
eyewitnesses and military briefings. But what if the armies or military 
forces who were engaged in a conflict took on the role of publishers 
themselves, distributing their own live reports while the battle was 
being fought? That idea is no longer science fiction: it became reality 
when the Israeli Defense Forces started live-blogging and live-tweeting 
an attack on Hamas guerillas in the Gaza strip and uploading video of 
their rocket blasts to YouTube.
 
Social media, once thought of as a tool for bored nerds and marketing 
gurus, has taken on a whole new role it seems — one that could stand to 
change the face of modern warfare forever. As BuzzFeed notes in its 
round-up of Twitter posts from the Israeli army (a sentence I never 
would have imagined typing even a few years ago), the IDF actually 
warned Hamas guerillas not to show themselves on the Gaza strip or risk 
being killed in the attacks that began Wednesday morning, and the 
official Hamas account responded:
 
  IDF ✔ @IDFSpokesperson 14 Nov 12
We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior 
leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead.
 
  Alqassam Brigades@AlqassamBrigade
@IDFSpokesperson Our blessed hands will reach your leaders and soldiers 
wherever they are (You Opened Hell Gates on Yourselves)
 
In the hours that followed, videos of rocket attacks on Hamas 
strongholds were uploaded to YouTube, and the IDF blog carried a 
minute-by-minute breakdown of what was happening — how many Hamas 
rockets it intercepted, a strike by the Israeli Navy, and so on. It 
looked very much like the New York Times live-blog The Lede, except that 
it was being published by a military force: the front of the website 
even looks like a traditional news blog or breaking news site, complete 
with the usual social-media buttons for sharing content on Twitter, 
Facebook and other networks.
 
Not that long ago, CNN was the archetype of war reporting with its 
real-time video of the war in Iraq. More recently it has become the 
province of breaking-news blogs like The Lede from the Times, with 
minute-by-minute updates — or of National Public Radio editor Andy 
Carvin, sifting through live reports from civilians in Tahrir Square in 
Egypt and using his Twitter stream like a crowdsourced newsroom. Now, we 
have to add to that the army as a media entity, as symbolized by the 
IDF’s official live blog, Twitter stream and YouTube videos. What more 
could a publisher want? There are even infographics and a hashtag.
 
Blogging pioneer Dave Winer has written about how social media allows 
“the sources to go direct,” and we have seen the power that can have 
when a newsmaker adopts Twitter or a blog, the way News Corp. 
billionaire Rupert Murdoch has or the Pakistani resident who 
live-tweeted the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. But there is perhaps 
no better example of taking that principle to its logical — if 
unpleasant — conclusion than what the Israeli Defense Forces did on 
Wednesday. How does that change the way that wars are waged, or 
experienced, or covered by journalists? It is certain to do all three.
 
  Andrew Katz@katz
In print, this looks like extremists. On Twitter, this looks mainstream. 
Dangerous how diff platforms lead to diff conclusions.
14 Nov 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite
 
Governments and armies have always tried to influence the way their 
battles are perceived, whether by “embedding” journalists or by creating 
their own mouthpieces — people like Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally, who 
broadcast favorable messages as a way of destabilizing the enemy or 
turning the tide of public opinion (or both). But now, commanders and 
their political chiefs have tools at their disposal that would have been 
almost unthinkable even a decade ago: all the same tools that a 
newspaper or a TV network has, and probably more. Their message now 
lives or dies by the same principles.
 
As more than one observer has pointed out, the main issue when armies 
become media entities is how to sort out the truth from the marketing 
spin — and how to ensure that the other side gets fair treatment, even 
though it may not have as powerful a marketing department. Just as NYT 
media reporter Brian Stelter has said that having Rupert Murdoch on 
Twitter makes his job a lot harder, the advent of military publishers 
will likely force traditional war correspondents to up their game as 
well — and it will put even more emphasis on crowdsourced efforts like 
Andy Carvin’s Twitter newsroom.
 
  Mathew Ingram@mathewi 14 Nov 12
simultaneously fascinating and disturbing: the Israeli military is 
live-blogging and live-tweeting an attack on Hamas: 
theverge.com/2012/11/14/364
…
  Jim Roberts ✔ @nytjim
@mathewi Feels like a watershed moment.
 
-- 
Namib
--
I have examined maps of the city with the greatest care, yet have never 
again found the Rue d'Auseil (HPL)

 When armies become media: Israel live-blogs and tweets an attack on Hamas
 
il rav e il suo unico amico non hanno capito, ma qui Namib sta dando
un punto d'appoggio a Leonardo.


Nemmeno io (e non � certo insolito, temo) ho capito.


 Nemmeno io (e non è certo insolito, temo) ho capito.
 
ROTFL, per Bombacci il mondo si divide in pro nahum e contro nahum, e
crede di vedere questo secondo campo molto affollato. Certo, quella
sua pratica che danneggia gli occhi...
 

 ROTFL, per Bombacci il mondo si divide in pro nahum e contro nahum
 
ma proprio no. Quello è ciò che pensi tu che sei paranoico

 ma proprio no. Quello � ci� che pensi tu che sei paranoico
 
Se ci fosse un moderatore e' da molto tempo che questo troll sarebbe 
stato eliminato.
 
Cambia nome, percio' plonkatelo ogni volta, che il suo nome e' zizzania.
 
Am.