Blogging the Iraq War: Soldiers, Civilians and Institutions

Abstract

This article considers how blogs written about the war in Iraq that began in 2003 have informed public narratives. It examines how so-called citizen journalists were read and presented by established media organisations. It considers what motivated some of the more influential bloggers of the war to engage in life-writing in this particular media, and how they found, read and responded to one another. It details how institutions like the US military reacted to milbloggers, shifting from a phase emphasising discretion and in some instances overt censorship, to viewing them as allies, implicitly and explicitly advancing a view of the war that circumvented critical, civilian media filters. It looks at the balance of coverage of mil and civilian bloggers in the West, and how they and their readers communicated—or failed to communicate—across cultures. Finally, it poses questions about how mediated content complicates notions of 'authentic' war writing.