Amidst numerous journalists witnessing the war in Iraq firsthand, Ron Larson's experience on the front lines is dramatically different. Larson, a graduate student at California State University-Fullerton, is reporting the war for the school's student newspaper, The Daily Titan.
\It's beneficial in that we get his perspective as to what the situation is in Kuwait right now from him directly. It's not a matter of talking to State Department or defense officials. It's him and his experiences,"" said Kimberly Pierceall, editor-in-chief of The Daily Titan.
In a war in which observers say coverage surpasses that of any other, Larson, 39, joins countless journalists as the first group to be embedded with soldiers to produce images and reports that were once heavily restricted by military officials.
""In the Gulf War, [the government] laid down all kinds of restrictions,"" UW-Madison Professor of journalism James Baughman said.
In the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War and the introduction of technological advances, Deborah Blum, a UW-Madison journalism professor and president of the National Association of Science Writers, is one of many who signed a petition the National Journalism Association sent to President Bush demanding better access this time around.
""When things first started looking like they were going to go south, every journalism association in the country said 'we are going to stand here right now and say we do not want this to happen again,'"" Blum said.
Martin Kaiser, editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, said the Pentagon made an influential change by allowing reporters to be embedded with American soldiers.
""We have two reporters embedded with troops in Iraq. It's making our coverage a lot better than it would be if we didn't have this,"" Kaiser said.
In light of these changes, Larson, 39, now produces stories from his firsthand experiences in Kuwait for his student newspaper via military personnel e-mail. According to Pierceall, after a simple, two-month process in which The Daily Titan contacted the U.S. State Department, the Pentagon informed Larson of his assignment to the Army's 416th Engineer Command.
Experts praise this new form of firsthand reporting and say this will, in turn, change how many people view war.
""I think that the worst kind of war coverage is the coverage that glosses over what war is. So the more you can get the reporters right there in the thick of it, the better the coverage is,"" Blum said. ""You want the war coverage to be grim because war is grim and the embeddedness allows you to do that? You get a lot of coverage you wouldn't otherwise.""
