Popular Culture Review Vol. 8, No. 2, August 1997 | Page 125

Live Coverage of War: Electronic
Media's Most Important
Contribution to Popular Culture
Radio's and television's contributions to popular culture are
numerous, but no element has a more immediate and far-reaching
impact than news and public affairs. It is difficult to question the
significance of such matters as mass destruction, life and death
situations, impending doom or the fall of entire countries and
civilizations. Cable News Network (CNN) calls itself the world's
most important network, and the events of the Persian Gulf War did
nothing to reduce that claim.
Real time or live coverage of war is not new; radio coverage of
war began in 1936 in the Spanish Civil War. But television is
another matter.
CNN was the first American-based news
organization to broadcast live from a city under attack from the
United States. In the time span from 1936 from 1991 broadcast news
has created its niche as Americans' primary source for news
information. This article will examine the historical context of live
war reporting, discuss some of the objections to such coverage, and list
the tangible and intangible contributions of electronic journalism to
popular culture.
On September 3,1936, Hans von Kaltenbom was the reporter
of the world's first broadcast of a battle. He was actually sitting on
French territory which jutted into Spain near the small city of Iran.
His broadcast included the following descriptions:
Directly in front of me as I look through the dark of the
midsununer night is a bright line of fire rising from the
most important single factory in the c ity .. . . Late this
afternoon, we watched a Rebel airplane circling
overhead and dropping bombs. One struck directly into
the center of the match factory which began to bum and
which has since been blazing brightly so that the