{In war, truth is the first casualty}

-Aeschylus (525 BCE – 426 BCE)
Aleppo

A man in Aleppo, Syria films as a fighter jet passes overhead just minutes after  it bombed a house nearby. [Executive/Sam Tarling]

Today when you turn on a television or open up a newspaper you will most likely come across stories of violence and conflict in the news. In this era of globalization, we’re increasingly interested with populations and issues outside of our borders. Such news reports, provided by journalists and news organizations, give us insight into spaces we cannot access or do not dare. Though we consume stories of conflict neatly spread across the pages of our morning papers, how often do we think about the construction of such stories? How is it disseminated to us? Who are the key actors who carefully package our news?

The Conflict Medium: Constructing Stories About Conflict in the Mainstream News is a research blog dedicated to exploring how situations of conflict are covered by the mainstream news. This blog will introduce the actors, dive into the professional world of journalists, give access to interviews with journalists who cover conflict, introduce journalism theories that are shaping the industry today, and look at how new technology is influencing the way conflict is covered. I invite readers to provide input and share their own ideas in order to help expand and explore this topic further.