Blogs of War
April 5, 2009
- © Robin Hamman on Flickr
Saw this picture and thought how relevant it was.
Video of peoples thoughts
April 3, 2009
Podcast on celebrities and military charities
April 3, 2009
This is a podcast about celebrity endorsement of military causes. See the “About” section of my blog for more of my podcasts.
Army veterans to get ID cards for NHS healthcare
March 30, 2009
This article about priority treatment for army veterans comes only a short time after I blogged about Johnson Beharry’s criticism of injured soldiers aftercare and access to NHS treatment. The new plans are that ID cards are issued to those who have served in the forces so that they will be able to receive treatment quickly. This was featured in many of the papers. The Mail adopts a nationalistic tone when it described the scheme as a measure to “bring back pride”.
The Independent referred to the plans for those who risked their lives in combat “to get front-of-the-queue treatment”. They also had a campaign for troops to get better care at the bottom of the article, which The Telegraph and the Mail didn’t have. However the Independent is similar to the others in its support of the troops. Their Fight for our Veterans campaign joins the other papers own initiatives to support troops, more of which you can hear on my podcast.
Mix up over pay
March 30, 2009
The front of The Metro recently chronicled the mix up over pay by the army’s computerised system. What the Metro referred to as a “shambles” was the MoD’s Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) system.
According to the Metro it was introduced in 2006, and intended to replace the old system of individual payrolls for the three services. This embarrassing mistake from a system costing an estimated £245 million wasn’t picked up by many other papers, I don’t know why. The Herald did a news story on it but it was the Metro that obtained quotes from shadow defence minister for the Lib Dems Nick Harvey criticising it.
Is this unusual? The seeming lack of interest in a story that from the outside looks like it could be a good scandal. The Metro seem to think it was worth it by putting it on their front page. What elements does the story lack to attract so little interest? One of the comments from readers on the Metros online version told of how a relative of the man had had this happen to him and was mistakenly given papers for leaving the army under the pay scheme when he didn’t want to leave. Then I realsied, human factor-that may be what’s missing form this story.
Twitter and blogging
March 30, 2009
© Darren Hester on Flickr
The British Army’s connection with social and digital media is quite varied like any major organisation it is now almost impossible not to be apart of internet networking technology. Here are a few examples…
I’ve been following the defence HQ feeds on Twitter. An example of what’s posted is a note about a meeting over army pay just before it happens and then a few hours later the results, an increase of 2.8 per cent. The immediacy of this approach appears to work well for the Army , Help for Heroes and SSAFA are also part of it. It was not always so popular among military forces. Last October the U.S army voiced their fears over Twitter and the potential implications it could have for terrorism.
In December 2008 the British Army launched a mobile phone application in a bid to encourage recruitment. Users can watch films from the MoD website on their phones and the army gets to see who is visiting their site.
The MOD also have a blog on their website, updated regularly with news, including image of the day. There are also links to defence videos on Youtube. Click here to have a look.
Army makes the front page
March 30, 2009
Splashed across the front page of The Sun today was a picture of injured Marine Ben McBean running on a prosthetic leg accompanied by the headline “The next step”. Looking back over the previous weeks the few times I’ve seen military connected stories making the front page of the papers are generally news related topics such as Obamas’ Afghanistan strategy.
This individual picture of a soldier is unusual-well perhaps not for The Sun who is a strong supporter of what it refers to as “Our boys” but in terms of the rest of the papers this stands out. The article by defence editor Tom Newton Dunn details the launch of The Suns’ campaign to raise 20 million for Help the Heroes the army charity.
This massive drive to raise money by using the front cover I think can only be done when a publication’s assured of its popularity. Would others risk not featuring breaking news? It seems it doesn’t need to chase buyers with this kind of content all of the time. It reminded me of an earlier post I wrote about the Daily Mails’ front page campaign for D-Day veterans.
Injured soldiers learn to ski
March 26, 2009
Yesterday on the news I watched a broadcast about a scheme called Battle Back which helps injured servicemen and women rehabilitate and get back into sports. Technically it’s been running since last year, the slot on the news followed a group of servicemen to the Bavarian Alps where they were taught to ski. I watched open mouthed as Lance Corporal Meadows who lost his leg while in Afghanistan skied down a slope on one leg.
The broadcaster himself was disabled and the some of the footage was shot from his adapted skis so you were able to see the slopes as he saw them. It was a really effective piece of TV because of this perspective. The idea behind the scheme was to build their confidence again, watching them career down the slopes made me think how much braver they were than the ordinary skier. Meadows balanced one legged while another serviceman who had lost both legs and an arm was filmed taking a drag lift with another skier. It was truly impressive and slightly terrifying watching them, I don’t think I would be that determined to suceed in that situation.
There is a ski club for disabled skiers I found that explains what options are available http://www.bscd.org.uk/
David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and co. meet injured soldiers
March 25, 2009
Today in the press there is quite a bit of coverage on injured soldiers meeting sports stars. The Express reads “England soccer stars humbled as they salute the real heroes”. According to The Express servicemen from the forces mingled with the stars. This was accompanied by lots of cheerfully posed pictures of soldiers with football stars Beckham, Gerrard, Terry and Rooney.
The Mirror’s headline read “The True Lions”. Brian Reade opens with “their roughly the same age and from similar working-class backgrounds” drawing comparisons between the two groups of men. He went on to say they “all fought for their country”. Just when I thought this is going too far he says “But there the similarities end.” The tone in The Mirror seemed to suggest that the players could learn a few things from the guys in the forces. This kind of article just highlights the vast divide between these two groups of men. It sounds clichéd but their mutual enjoyment of football seems to unite, a point the papers have not missed.
Campaigns for the military in the press
March 25, 2009
Scanning the broadsheets in the last week I spotted a piece in The Telegraph about combat stress carrying the title “The stigma’s gone-help is at hand”. It was an article on combat stress and the money the paper had raised in aid of it.
In the same week the Daily Mail carried the headline “D-Day the tide is turning” referring to their campaign to get D-Day veterans out to an anniversary ceremony in Normandy. Beside this was a picture of Rod Stewart and his wife Penny who had donated towards the campaign, to give it the celeb factor.
This kind of military appeal is proving very popular The Sun has run their ‘Help for Heroes’ campaign over the last two years. Newspapers often campaign on behalf of their communities, rallying MPs or fighting to save a school but this kind of support for the soldier in the press I think is re-emerging. I don’t remember military causes being so prominent in the press even five years ago, what has changed I wonder? Where has this support come from? The nationalistic tone even extends as far as topics that a few years ago were not talked so openly about, like the issue of combat stress as featured in The Telegraph.
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