If the first Gulf War put cable news and CNN on the map, the second Gulf War in Iraq has put video shot by soldiers in the spotlight. I first wrote about these videos in January, focusing on the ones that proliferated at the video-sharing site YouTube . But now, the phenomenon has exploded into the mainstream, with an MTV documentary, Iraq Uploaded and a full-length film, The War Tapes (“the first war movie filmed by soldiers themselves”).
PBS’ Mark Glaser describes the phenomenon and gives readers a guide to finding “trophy videos” online. More on this topic can be found on the Guardian Unlimited and from previous entries (Pentagon keeps eye on war videos) on this blog (Just as Vietnam was the TV War, is Iraq the YouTube War?).
