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Younghusband
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Younghusband

Date

September 14th, 2005

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Hot Zone

The Hot Zone

Internet behemoth Yahoo! will be launching a new thematic news site at the end of the month entitled Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone. Kevin Sites is a journo whose mission is to cover every current armed conflict around the world in one year. It sorta looks like RYP meets MTV meet the Amazing Race. Keep your eye on it, I know I will. ( via Dr. Barnett)

Comments to this entry

Dusty
September 14, 2005
4:42 pm
Seems to me that it will be awfully superficial reporting. Why is Internet Behemoth Yahoo launching one reporter to ... cough ... cover ... cough ... 30 armed conflicts in a year?

Seem to me that is more like a Sites-seeing tour and something to give bloggers fodder for ... hmmm ... never mind.

Just a note: KS is the guy who gave the world the report on the Marine in Fallujah Mosque story:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4646406
Younghusband
September 14, 2005
5:09 pm
Good link Dusty.

This whole Yahoo! thing doesn't quite smell right, I agree. Are we seeing a popularization of war correspondance? Are there going to be reality shows and trading cards after this?

Although I am all for the general public taking more interest in affairs overseas, I am wary of slick graphics and the "Survivor-ization" of it all. This is _real life_ after all, not some voyeuristic simulation.

It is going to be very interesting watching how this turns out.
Curzon
September 14, 2005
9:16 pm
one reporter on 30 armed conflicts? sounds like a sweatshop to me!
Kushibo
September 15, 2005
9:31 am
When I first heard about this I was appalled. A new way to get money off of promoting war, is all it is.

When police have cameras on ride-alongs, as on programs like "Cops," there is evidence that they don't behave the way they normally would. Some ham it up, even to the point of using greater force, while others think too hard about how their decisions or actions will look on camera.

I suspect something similar could happen with an embedded reporter who is tasked with providing especially interesting content. It seems a bad mix to be putting in such a dangerous situation.
Younghusband
September 29, 2005
5:08 pm
The site is "up and running now":http://hotzone.yahoo.com. Go have a look.