Up close and personal

NEW YORK -- "Shock and awe" takes on a new significance on the big screens and news tickers of Times Square.\nThe bombs look bigger. The orange glow that lights up the skyline of Baghdad is brighter. And the words "war begins" are shockingly immediate, halting the bustle of people in the media capital of the world.\nWherever students headed for spring break last week, they stopped what they were doing to literally watch a war.\nIn Florida, they left beaches behind to watch bombs over Baghdad. In Las Vegas, they listened to TV analysts betting on whether Saddam is alive. And in New York, they found themselves entranced by war coverage instead of Broadway shows.\nFor those who stayed in Bloomington, the scene was much the same -- students stayed inside to watch hours of war coverage.\nIt is the first war of our adult lives and history's most vividly broadcast war. Wall-to-wall coverage from Baghdad and more than 600 "embedded" journalists have provided hellish footage of bombings, troop movements and injured soldiers on stretchers. The coverage is impossible to ignore.\nBut is the reality TV-like coverage too much?\nNot as long as embedded reporters are part of a larger mix of pro-American and up-close-and-personal coverage, said journalism professor Paul Voakes.\n"Nothing wrong with a little modern-day Ernie Pyle coverage," he said in an e-mail interview, "as long as it's not the only coverage a news medium presents."\nThe war on Iraq began on the same day as the NCAA tournament -- ironic, considering the similar ebb and flow presented in the broadcasts of the tournament and the war.\n"In many ways, war coverage is like sports coverage," Voakes said. "The viewers are spectators of a contest in which there will be ultimate victors and losers."\nSome reporters do play-by-play, others are embedded (eavesdrop on time-outs on each bench) and some do analysis from a distance, like an anchor desk in New York, Voakes said.\n"I just hope people keep in mind that human lives, whether civilian or combat, Iraqi, American or British, are considerably more valuable than points in a game," he said.\nWhile reporters enjoyed more access during Vietnam, both journalists and military officials agreed it was too much access. The current conflict is only the second war with live TV coverage, Voakes said. But it is the first war with the Web.\n"This is one of the most important events in American history -- this country's launching of a preemptive war," Voakes said, "and it's important that American citizens be able to view as much of it as they want to in order for citizens to determine whether the cause is worth the cost"