He noted that it’s becoming more difficult to urge other countries to mobilize behind the United States because other powers no longer want to emulate it.

“They say, “Really? You can’t make a decision,’” Cohen said Wednesday morning. “’You want us to be like you? You can’t make a decision. You’re engaged in a dysfunctional system that’s filled with sclerotic Engelisms. What is going on with the United States where your Congress can’t even arrive at a budget?’”

The government’s inability to make decisions both domestically and internationally has created an aura of doubt in the minds of other countries – not just in the United States, but in democracy in general, according to Cohen.

“There’s a real issue whether democracies can govern today,” he said. “Given the role of social media, given the role of fracturing interest groups into multiple pieces, can any country in a democracy make decisions for the good of the whole?”

Cohen touched on a range of issues, focusing on the future of defense, during his discussion presented by the Center for American Progress.

On the Middle East and ISIS

Just two days after ISIS released another propaganda video, Cohen said the United States is in the midst of an information war with the militant Islamic organization.

“We’ve got to really up our game in terms of putting out information and contesting that, as well as trying to contain the spread of the violence,” he said. “But, it’s going to be an information war and a propaganda war, and we’re losing in that regard.”

The United States has chosen some of its Middle East battles poorly, according to Katherine Blakeley defense policy analyst for the Center for American Progress.

“We have a failed state in Libya following international action, we have a failed state in Syria following international inaction,” Blakeley said. “We have an air campaign that’s still ongoing in both Iraq and Syria related to ISIS, as well as real déjà vu efforts to strengthen the Iraqi government.”

On Russia

Focusing on Russia’s continued violence in Ukraine, Cohen emphasized the need to arm Ukrainians, despite acknowledging that doing so would not be able to stop the Russian attack.

“I would [arm Ukraine],” he said. “They’re fighting tanks with rifles. That’s not necessarily a fair fight.”

He stated that the continued Russian disregard for guidelines set out by the rest of Europe calls for more and harsher sanctions.

“There is an inadequate level of participation by our European friends,” Cohen said. “That has been most evident during the Libyan mission.”

Despite all of the challenges abroad, the United States, first and foremost, must be able to make decisions at home.

“If we intend to remain a role model for the rest of the world, we need to get our own house in order,” Cohen said.

If the current political gridlock does not change, it will become increasingly difficult to take meaningful steps forward both with domestic and foreign policy.

“We have to have a global vision,” Cohen said. “That doesn’t me we have to be putting our military all over the world and that’s the only solution, it means we have to have active diplomacy, active economic investment and a very strong, capable military to back that up.”

“This is a direct threat to the economic security of American families and we got to stop it. If we’re going to be connected, then we need to be protected. As Americans we shouldn’t have to forfeit our basic privacy when we go online to do our business,” he said.

According to research from eMarketer, more than 3 billion people will be Internet users in 2015.

David Inserra, a research associate specializing in homeland and cybersecurity at conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, likened cyberspace today to a jungle in warfare.

The jungle is neither inherently good or bad, but it can be used by both sides in the war, Inserra said. Whoever uses the jungle better wins, which for cybersecurity means information and data either can be either protected or lost.

During Tuesday’s State of the Union address, Obama is expected to further outline a proposal to create a national standard for companies to inform customers within a certain timeframe if their information has been compromised.

Forty-seven states already have data breach notification legislation.

Obama said he hoped a national standard would eliminate some of the confusion and extra costs surrounding multiple state policies.

Inserra said a national standard made sense and would be acceptable if it was not overly restrictive.

“Moving to a single standard is wise so long as that standard isn’t burdensome,” he said.

Mark Jaycox, a legislative analyst at the pro-civil liberties nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, said an ideal law would ensure at minimum that a state attorney general could still act in accordance with his or her state law if it is tougher than the federal standard.

Obama also proposed legislation protecting consumer and student privacy.

Consumers should know what personal data is being collected by companies and be able to decide how those companies use their data, Obama said on Monday at the Federal Trade Commission.

His student privacy act would focus on protecting information of students who have to use technology to participate in classes at the elementary and secondary school level. Because students have to surrender some of their information to use the Internet for school, Inserra said, some level of protection is appropriate. He said it may be easier for businesses to have one federal rule that a number of different state rules.

Actual legislation detailing with the specifics of Obama’s proposals have yet to be released publicly.

Rep. Pete Olson, R-Texas, said in a statement Monday he is anticipating working on consumer privacy with the president but “the devil is in the details.”

“I agree that we need a federal standard for data breach notification, but we must take a balanced approach to protect consumers without putting unnecessary burdens on companies or hindering important uses of data.”

A number of companies have had national attention for recent data breaches: Target, Home Depot and Sony Pictures.

Five Things to keep in mind while watching the State of the Union

1. Cyber security is a leading issue: 2013 and 2014 saw data breaches at companies such as Sony Pictures, Target and Home Depot
2. The 114th Congress is controlled by Republicans: Obama’s hope of cybersecurity being a unifying issue may be unfounded.
3. Obama appears to be in good spirits heading to the State of the Union: At engagements this week, Obama seemed relaxed, even making jokes, a sign he is confident in his proposals.
4. Obama is proposing measures but no specific legislation has been released. What he’s mentioned so far are a national data privacy standard; free access to credit scores, a measure applauded by banks such as JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America; a consumer privacy bill of rights; and a student data privacy act.
5. A number of people and groups seem open to a discussion on cybersecurity, but the details surrounding Obama’s proposals will be a main thing to look out for during and after the State of the Union.

Cyber security recently grabbed the nation’s attention when hackers threatened to bomb movie theaters last year if Sony released “The Interview,” a satirical movie about a U.S. plot to assassinate North Korean President Kim Jong Un. The FBI claims the North Korean government was behind the attack, with some Internet security experts agreeing and others proposing it was more likely the work of a Sony insider.

“The recent destructive cyber attacks on Sony and related threats of violence on American moviegoers are deeply disturbing. Whether the perpetrator is North Korea or another bad actor, the United States takes these actions seriously,” Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on (the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said in a statement after the incident.

House Cybersecurity Subcomittee Chairman John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, had a similar reaction. “Any response by the United States must be swift and must send a message that there will be serious consequences for cyberattacks. We cannot encourage cyber terrorists or cyberattacks from nation-states such as North Korea, Iran, or China with a weak response.”

After major theater chains refused to show the film, it was later released at specific theaters and online.

The second major cyber attack came on Monday when hackers apparently linked to the Islamic State (IS) took over U.S. Central Command’s Twitter and YouTube accounts, releasing documents allegedly showing government scenarios on China and North Korea. Both accounts were taken down later that day.

Obviously physical attacks from groups such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State are ever-present threats. The recent attacks in Paris and Nigeria proved that. However, we may see the Internet developing as a new battleground in conflicts with terrorist organizations and foreign governments.

Stewart Baker, former assistant secretary of Homeland Security and a keynote speaker at Cyber Security Summit 2014, is convinced that North Korea was behind the Sony hack.

“The Sony attack is a very troubling new development in which foreign governments have gone from stealing our secrets to trying to get us to say things they like and stop saying things they don’t like…” he said. “That’s a development that goes beyond exposing personal data to actually forcing Americans to dance to foreign governments’ tunes.”

Baker argues that many Americans are vulnerable to cyber attacks, but the real threat is from foreign governments attempting to influence national policy.

“We’re facing the prospect that foreign governments are going to be stealing American intellectual property, bankrupting companies, extorting behavior that will have an effect on how our democracy functions…” he said.

Emphasizing the danger of such attacks, Carper issued a statement this week praising the passing of four bills on cyber security last year and demanding further cooperation and action to deal with this growing threat.

However, Baker expects to see more cyber attacks and is not convinced that America’s defenses against cyber attacks are strong enough.

“[North Korea] didn’t prevent the movie from being shown. But they came close. I think the fact that they came close will encourage them to try it again,” he said. “And others who are watching the events are likely to draw the same conclusion, because the U.S. has not yet found a way to retaliate in a fashion that will deter these kinds of attacks.”

With the wide range of topics that journalists cover, training in military and police affairs generally ends up falling by the wayside. But, for those journalists that do interact with the military and police, knowledge of military and police activities can be the only way to ensure accurate reporting.

“We realize that most area media, especially, have what we call ‘limited military knowledge,’” said Ryan Brus, Public Affairs Officer for Fort Knox in Kentucky.  “Basically, we explain things that we do as if we’re talking to our grandmothers.”

When speaking with journalists, military personnel attempt to refrain from using acronyms and advanced military concepts to keep from confusing journalists. But, according to Brus, reporters that are more familiar with military terminology are better prepared to ask the right questions and, thus, receive more in-depth information.

The same can be said for reporters covering police affairs. Reporters that are more familiar with the workings of the police are better equipped to ask applicable questions and gain the respect of the subjects that they are covering.

“Inexperienced reporters sometimes feel the need to ask questions that are not appropriate,” said Commander Jason Parrott of the Evanston Police Department. “The biggest thing for reporters to understand, we’re not going to give an answer that’s going to potentially jeopardize a case.”

Not only is knowledge of the military and police important in accurately reporting, it can also help in extracting information by gaining respect from the personnel.

“The lion’s share of media are just ones that are not too familiar with Fort Knox or the military,” Brus said. “It can make some of us in the military chuckle with what they come up with.”

Having an understanding of the workings of military and police business can give reporters credibility with their subjects and encourage them to be more forthcoming with information.

Embedded in Operation Iraqi Freedom

When Operation Iraqi Freedom commenced in 2003, journalists found themselves closer to the action than they had anticipated. Unlike previous military actions, the Pentagon allowed an unprecedented amount of journalists to report from frontline combat units as embeds with troops.

To make this transition more manageable, the Pentagon created a program for embeds that began with a weeklong boot camp. Over 600 future embeds were taught military policy, command structure, weapons capabilities and survival skills.

“Some of it, for a lot of the reporters that covered the military, was kind of redundant,” said Washington Post reporter Monte Reel, one of the trainees that went through the boot camp in December of 2002. “But a lot of the reporters that went to those embed assignments didn’t have much experience on covering the military.”

Reel’s boot camp focused a lot on logistical training to keep journalists safe and out of the way during missions. Journalists were taught how to ride in Bradley Fighting Vehicles, ride in helicopters, and parachute out of airplanes. Most of the exercises featured basic training to keep them safe in general combat and specific emergencies like the release of chemical weapons.

But the camp also spent time ensuring that the both the journalists and military could properly communicate with one another. Officers would lay out guns and weaponry, and give demonstrations of their function. This gave the embeds basic knowledge of the weaponry they would witness while in combat.

“It also gives you a little more credibility with the people that you’re writing about,” Reel said. “It can open up avenues of conversation if you can speak with them about it. In general, people really like talking about that stuff.”

This knowledge was important in gaining credibility with the personnel Reel dealt with on a day-to-day basis. But it was also important in his ability to accurately report what he witnessed, and gain credibility with his readers.

“’Make sure you get the weapons right when you write these stories,’” Reel remembered the foreign editor of the Washington Post warning him. “He said there was nothing they got called about more often than obvious mistakes in reporters describing weapons. If you make a mistake… it kind of casts doubt on everything you write.”

Journalists on the police beat

The Evanston Police Department does not offer specific training for journalists who cover police or crime beats, but Cmdr. Parrott has met to informally talk with reporters who frequently write about police matters.

“Usually it’s kind of a work in progress, so they can have a feel of where I coming from and I can have a feel of where they’re coming from,” Cmdr. Parrott said.

As a spokesman for the department, he said it is smart to speak with reporters before they start filming to discuss the story and address any questions that may arise.

Cmdr. Parrott stressed the importance of journalists clarifying information with the police.  They should be more careful about details, especially when they are reporting on the scene.

“Just because they’re getting information from the public, there may be slight inaccuracy with it,” Cmdr. Parrott said. “We always find discrepancies [because] they’re only getting one side.”

Details such as descriptions, actions, and properly identifying the offender can be misrepresented if journalists only write based off of what they see.

“Law enforcement [is] interviewing everybody and we may have access to some things they  [journalists] don’t have access to,” Cmdr. Parrott said.

Journalists should not assume what a certain term means if they are unfamiliar with it. Cmdr. Parrott explained that it is easy for journalists to get information from the Internet, especially regarding weapons. While the Internet can be a good foundation for knowledge, it should not be relied on.

“I think it’s always best to get law enforcement’s perspective on those weapons just because law enforcement is much more knowledgeable in the function and operation of weapons or trained in those weapons instead of just going off information on the Internet or somebody who doesn’t have proper credentials to talk about those weapons,” he said.

However, Cmdr. Parrott said the most common inaccuracies he sees in articles are misquotes and spun statements, rather than details. For both, gaining experience on the job is the most important factor in being able to be accurate, more so than specific training.

“The more experience they [journalists] have in dealing with different police departments or different law enforcement agencies, they have a little better grasp on what to ask and what not to ask and to help them guide their story that they’re trying to present to the public,” Cmdr. Parrott said.

Unlike journalists who cover war, journalists who cover crime do not face much danger while reporting. In situations where police and journalists are on the scene of a dangerous event, the police make sure the media is separated and not in the way.

“They’re not going to be anywhere near the area where there’s potential harm to them and/or the public,” Cmdr. Parrott said.

Because they are separated from police action, journalists covering crime to not need weapons training for their protection, as could be the case with journalists who cover war, but some familiarization with weapons and police operations is helpful to inform their stories.

“Get it right”

Kerry Luft, an editor at the Chicago Tribune, also stressed the importance of getting details right. He said he frequently sees basic errors in stories that should be preventable. Luft, who has competed in target shooting, sees a lot of misinformation regarding weapons.

“Most [errors] are in the category of typos, but it calls the credibility into question,” he said.

Luft said because many readers have a least some rudimentary knowledge about firearms, small inaccuracies could make them less willing to trust the rest of the article.

“If we were this inaccurate about everything we wrote about, the recipes in our food section wouldn’t work and no one would trust us,” Luft said.

A detail that might be insignificant to someone who is not familiar with weapons could have a big impact on the story for someone who is familiar with weapons. Reporters sometimes confuse an automatic weapon to mean a fully automatic weapon, which fires as long as the trigger is held down, while the term automatic weapon also describes a semi-automatic weapon, which fires once when the trigger is pulled.

Another misconception is the comparison between an AK-47 to a squirrel rifle. “Most people’s knowledge of firearms comes from what they read and see–TV shows, news reports,” Luft said.

This media portrays AK-47s as the more dangerous and frightening weapon. In reality, a squirrel rifle, while it may sound less intimidating, is similar in power and can be modeled to look like an AK-47.

Luft referenced the coverage of the sniper attacks that took place in October 2002 in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. He said the speculation about the sniper and his background in firearms caused a lot of hysteria. The speculation was not accurate, and the situation could have been better handled if the media was more informed.

Accuracy in reporting about weapons is even more vital because firearms and gun laws are such controversial issues.

“You don’t want to add to that by being inaccurate,” Luft said.

Journalists today make more errors about weapons than in the past. Luft said less journalists are exposed to firearms growing up, and there are less veterans in the newsroom. His own experience with shooting makes it easier for him to see others’ mistakes regarding weapons. He said most journalists do not take advantage of opportunities to familiarize themselves with weapons, such as a firearms class.

While it may not be practical for all journalists to go through extensive training on weapons, some better research and clarifying with experts or police would be helpful.

“The more you know about any given topic, the better off you are as a journalist,” Luft said.

Journalists’ knowledge of what they cover is key in being able to best inform their readers.

“It’s incumbent on the media to be more educated than the public,” Luft said.

For journalists who are not fully educated on the technical details in their stories, they still must strive for accuracy. Luft said the most important piece of knowledge to have can be summed up in three words: “Get it right.”

When Capt. Dustin Cammack joined the National Guard in 1996 to help pay his tuition at the University of Illinois, he planned that his commitment would be short and he would not likely be deployed into armed conflict.

“My first thought was, ‘Six years, and then I’ll get out of the military,’” said Cammack, Chicago Public Affairs officer for the Illinois National Guard.

Cammack’s “six years” became a 17-year history with the National Guard. He watched it transform from a standing force to an operational force in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In 2004, he served in Iraq for two years. He was redeployed in 2009 to Afghanistan. He now continues his service out-of-combat as a PAO.

“There wasn’t a whole lot going on in the world before 9/11,” said Cammack. “I guess you know it can happen when you enlist, but it really wasn’t on my mind at the time.”

As the armed forces began withdraw from the Middle East, the National Guard was poised to make another transformation. The question stands as to whether the Guard will remain an operational force, revert back to a standing force or take on a new role all together.

The Guard

The National Guard, the longest standing component of the Armed Forces of the United States, serves a dual purpose: they have an obligation to both state governments and the national government.

“Our first priority is the state of Illinois. You’ll find that across all the state guards,” said Cammack. “But our second is to the federal government to fight the nation’s wars, although we didn’t see a lot of action pre-9/11.”

The National Guard, which serves as a reserve force of the military, is comprised of mainly volunteers. These volunteers are diverse in their age group and level of experience with the Military. Like Cammack, many are seeking financial relief, especially from student loans. Maj. Brad Leighton, the current Illinois Public Affairs director of the Illinois National Guard, attended the University of Massachusetts on the National Guard’s pay.

“Looking into college, my father had just lost his job and I’d just spent a year at a Catholic school which was very expensive,” said Leighton. “The Massachusetts National Guard had a bill that waived a tuition at state schools, so I joined and went to U-Mass on a free ride.”

The commitment to the National Guard is also less time consuming than any other military branch, allowing guardsmen to separate civilian life from military life.

“It’s just one weekend a month, two weeks in the summer, with the obvious potential of being deployed on a mission at home or abroad,” said Leighton. “We get the great benefits of being in the military and we do our jobs, but we also live civilian lives. When you’re deploying the guard, you’re deploying America.”

The missions vary year to year, but the Guard’s focus remains the same: protect and serve those who need it. The National Guardsmen all live by the same motto: “Always Ready, Always There.”

The National Guard during Iraq and Afghanistan

For over 375 years, the National Guard has been called to respond to natural disasters, emergencies and issues that arise across the globe.

“From the American revolution through the most recent wars, we’ve been called up to help with floods, snow storms, and, as in the case of Hurricane Katrina, some of the worst natural disasters,” said Leighton. “It’s our duty as a dual-mission service to be ready for the call.”

But before the turn of the century, foreign deployments were usually one-month stints. Since the 9/11 attacks and the ensuing war on terrorism, most deployments abroad are a minimum of 12 months.

The Illinois National Guard has deployed more than 22,000 soldiers and airmen to Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11, and lost 33 soldiers and one airman overseas. Leighton was in the Guard for 16 years before even being deployed.

“I’d been in the guard since 1988, and still not traveled abroad,” said Leighton. “I heard earlier in probably 2004 that I’d be going into the war. But I volunteered because I owed it to the military.”

When President George W. Bush declared a war on terrorism in 2001, the National Guard watched its role change from a reserve force to an active member of the military. The federal deployment of units abroad became common, as troops were sent overseas to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I don’t think there was anyone who joined the Guard after 2001 who didn’t expect to go overseas,” said Leighton. “But war doesn’t make things easier on families.”

But with the deployment of most other military branches in effect, the National Guard was essential in support of the war efforts. According to a Congressional Research Services report from 2008, the National Guard made up seven percent of the U.S. forces in Iraq.

“We have become an operational force as opposed to a strategic reserve,” said Brig. Gen. William Cobetto, the Illinois National Guard’s Assistant Adjutant General. “If you go back in our country’s history the National Guard was a strategic reserve.”

Members of each unit leave behind unique responsibilities to their families, education or careers. Others were called on multiple deployments, and find that each tour presents different challenges. Cammack, for instance, went on two deployments. During his first tour he was single, but he left for his second just 60 days after his wedding. He said that the responsibility of having a family changed his outlook on the deployment.

“As a single guy, I was out there doing my training and I was very much focused on me,” said Cammack. “When you have a family, the whole paradigm shifts.”

The process through which members are called up to assist the federal government is complex. Cobetto says that most of the men are willing to volunteer to go in to combat, but find it difficult to explain the decision to leave to their families.

“If you tell your wife and kid, ‘I volunteered’ versus ‘I mobilized,’ there are some nuances there,” said Cobetto.

With its increasing deployments overseas, however, the Guard changed. The six-year commitment people expected often became longer than 10 years. The brief periods spent overseas began to lengthen.

“Deployments change everybody,” said Cammack. “It was kind of a shock, but if I’m needed and I’m asked to go, then I’ll go.”

As the responsibilities of the National Guard shifted, leaders worried that the possibility of fighting in the Middle East would hurt recruitment among those people that sought a lesser commitment. However, Cobetto said that recruiting was only minimally impacted.

“Coming off 9/11, it didn’t hurt recruitment because there was a lot of patriotism, our numbers were up,” said Cobetto. “Right now, as this war continues to be the longest war this country has ever had, our recruiting numbers are down just a little bit. As a matter of fact, we’re still surprised our numbers are where they are.”

The Guard also has to compete with the same work force that is suitable for careers in law enforcement. However, the poor economy has helped the Guard’s recruitment numbers stay higher. It provides jobs that relate to many different backgrounds, such as those in communication, medicine and engineering. But with the drawdown of troops overseas as the war on terror comes to an end, the Guard still has an important role both nationally and internationally.

The Future of the Guard

In 2011, President Obama announced the U.S. would begin withdrawing forces from Afghanistan in an attempt to phase American troops out of the conflict. Leaders at the Chicago NATO Summit in May 2012 reinforced this notion. They reached an agreement to turn over control of security to the Afghan National Security Forces by the end of 2014.

With a larger portion of the Guard serving overseas in recent years, a few challenges have presented themselves. PTSD, homelessness and unemployment are a few of the many hurdles veterans face.

While these issues were apparent in the active forces for some time, the National Guard was not used to so many of its members returning from combat. The Washington Post reported in 2011 that suicides among soldiers serving on active duty decreased modestly in 2010 while the Army National Guard saw an increase in the number of soldiers taking their own lives.

Cammack said his personal struggle with returning from combat was the struggle of adjusting from the structure of the military to married life and a civilian job.

“Instead of answering to a colonel, you’re answering to a wife,” said Cammack. “You have to communicate differently. You can’t talk to her like a soldier.”

As the Guard made a transition into a more operational force, the Army had to recognize and devote resources to new issues among its reserve troops coming home. Once this issue was acknowledged, Congress created the Yellow Guard reintegration program was created in the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008. It provides information, services and outreach programs to National Guardsmen and their families throughout all phases of the deployment cycle.

“We had to recognize that a problem that the active forces had already recognized,” said Cobetto. “Since then, the Guard has been a tremendous help to those coming home”

Cammack and Leighton each had a unique reintegration experience. Leighton says his relied on family to help make the transition easier.

“It was absolutely terrific to return home,” said Leighton. “It can cause some stress to get back in the fold but being away actually strengthened my relationship.”

Additionally, Cammack says working as a PAO for the Guard after deployment did a great deal to ease his transition home. The Guard provided a work experience with people from a shared military background and job security.

“One increment of stress coming home both times came from the question, ‘When I leave, will my job still be there when I come home?” said Cammack.

As it was before, the National Guard’s first priority will continue to be the security of each state. National Guard troops were essential to Hurricane Sandy. According to the United States Army, more than 61,000 Guardsmen were available to assist local law enforcement in affected states.

“The threats on our homeland will keep us occupied and busy,” said Cobetto. “A lot of states do not have the capacity to respond to the national disasters we’ve been seeing. That’s where we come in.”

The Illinois Guard, in particular, will continue to train with local law enforcement to prepare for local flooding disasters and to protect resources. If the active duty forces shrink, the Guard is a good place to put them.

“Right along with serving overseas, we’ve had a domestic focus too,” said Leighton. “We’re not deploying the whole guard overseas. We always have guardsmen back here.”

With the drawdown, it is more difficult for those reserve troops who want to transition to active duty to do so.

“It’s tougher and more competitive,” said Cobetto. “We take all those members we can get and that’s what helped our numbers stay really high.”

The transformation of the Guard into an operational force was a significant investment, and the Guard is not likely to revert to a standing force. The National Guard is also more cost-effective than the active force. It is an inexpensive force to maintain.

“It’s important to keep the guard strong,” said Cobetto. “I don’t think the work will diminish just because we wind down in Afghanistan or Iraq. We’ll help stabilize their region.”

This stabilization is one way the Guard will revert to a role it had years ago as a building capacity. Many state Guards are in partnerships with developing countries. They help governments and militaries develop their own forces. Illinois is the only state partnered with Poland. This relationship is unique because Illinois has the largest state population of Polish immigrants and their descendants.

Although the tasks of the National Guard may change in the near future, their objectives will not. They will continue to have a place internationally as well as nationally. Cobetto says the strength of the Guard is its ability to respond to whatever the future may hold.

“It kind of depends on what happens,” said Cobetto. “The whole idea of remaining an operational force is any time you can get called. And we are ready to answer that call.”

Last year, Al-Jazeera English closed its Beijing bureau after Chinese authorities refused to renew a correspondent’s press credentials. The move was the latest in a line of news organizations that have decided to pull reporters out of China. For myriad reasons, mostly financial, more than 20 major newspapers have cut their foreign bureaus entirely in the last 15 years, not to mention television networks like Al-Jazeera English. So while the United States today faces some of its greatest ever political and economic competitors in Asia, the traditional model of foreign correspondents bringing news from abroad directly to the homes of Americans seems to be drawing its final breaths.

China, the biggest issue of all, is facing its own journalistic challenges as government censorship limits western ideas of a free press. But, because of the withdrawal of news organizations from the Asian sphere, the issue of disseminating news from China will only grow more urgent.

“I think we’re past the point where many news organizations will be stationing foreign correspondents to Asia.” Kerry Luft, Nation and World editor for the Chicago Tribune, said. “The only major outlets I’m aware of are those like the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal. But the era in which most major newspapers would routinely have foreign correspondents is past, and I don’t see those days coming back.            Luft, who among his other duties is largely responsible for coordinating efforts on reporting stories of interest from outside the United States, is one of the increasing number of journalists who feel that having foreign correspondents just isn’t in the cards for the media anymore, largely due to budgetary constraints in a hemorrhaging business. Instead of the traditional model, with reporters based abroad, Luft advocates buying “as much foreign coverage as possible” and then making targeted trips into the region for stories that are valuable to my readers.” This way, rather than forgo sending journalists to Asia entirely, he aims to have reporters visit the region periodically to follow leads of interest.

“Obviously it would be better having journalists living there. You won’t understand the culture as well, the psychology as well, and the context as well without them. But at this point, it’s financially impossible,” he said. “It just doesn’t make a lot of sense in this environment to send correspondents over when you can get the stories from other sources.”

Yet, with the Asian sphere playing an increasingly dominant role on the world stage each year—China owned $1.2 trillion of U.S. Treasury Securities by the end of August while sustaining the second largest economy in the world—it is easy to see that the American public stands to benefit from comprehensive news coverage of Asia and particularly China. In a transitional period for international news coverage, Luft and those like him are overseeing the transition to new methodologies of covering international news.

The question, then, is how this new methodology will be incorporated into existing Asian journalistic institutions. Will American reporters face similar difficulties in obtaining visas as happened with Al-Jazeera English? Local journalistic culture could point the way for American news organizations to head.

In Japan, for example, news has long come through an entirely different reporting structure than exists in the U.S. The kisha kurabu, sometimes known as “kisha clubs,” are important organized structures of reporters. These press clubs have the ability to monopolize coverage of things like press conferences for their specific affiliated organizations, completely shutting out foreign media. It is in some ways an idea foreign to Western notions of free press, but not necessarily inaccurate in its reporting.

And consider China, Asia’s self-proclaimed hegemon and economic powerhouse. Government-owned publications have long been common there, and a well-publicized history of censorship could cast doubt on the effectiveness of Chinese reporting. Reporters Without Borders, a non-governmental organization dedicated to freedom of the press, reported that China “has more journalists, bloggers, and cyber dissidents in prison than any other country” in its World Press Freedom Index 2011-2012, and ranked China 174th out of 179 countries in overall press freedom.
If China is to be perhaps our biggest economic and political competitor in these times, American news organizations are either going to have to devote more resources to establishing foreign news bureaus or they will have to rely on local Chinese journalists. Despite the censorship reports, journalism is growing exponentially in China, according to Gerald Kato, Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Just because these systems are different from the objective and independent model treasured in the United States does not mean they are less effective, he said. In fact, this new generation of reporters might be able to do the reporting for both Chinese and American news organizations.

“I think there are very good local journalists in China,” Kato said. “There’s a high degree of professionalism. The irony of it all is that China is actually expanding its journalistic presence in the world at a time when the U.S. is contracting.”

Kato directs the Parvin Fellowship Program, run through the university, which began in 1980 as a way to bring young Chinese journalists to America and give them exposure to American journalism culture. Despite a history of tension between the media and the Chinese government, Kato recalls a history of strong, dedicated Chinese reporters.

“Even during the days predating the communist takeover there were quite a few people from China whose interest in journalism was such that they travelled to the United States and elsewhere to study it,” Kato said.

A strong Chinese press seems to be an accurate and necessary reality, perfect for the news organizations in the absence of true foreign correspondents. Monte Reel, for instance, used to be a foreign correspondent for the Washington Post stationed in South America. But after Reel left the position, the Post decided a replacement was an extravagance it could not afford. In fact, while the Washington Post no longer has the correspondent resources to cover many areas of the world, Reel said, it’s using the resources it has left to try to keep up in Asia.

But even then, Reel acknowledged that the numbers of foreign correspondents in general are on the decline. “There is definitely a dwindling amount of resources that goes into foreign coverage in terms of mainstream media.”

Where mainstream media is failing, however, social media is coming to the fore as a source for citizen journalism and the spread of information. While many the Chinese government has a history of shutting down internet and arresting bloggers, Kato said government influence is not as restrictive of a factor on the ability of Chinese reporters to investigate as may be assumed. In actuality, he has seen social media directly influence government action and allowed to do so.

“They’ve let certain kinds of activity play themselves out,” Kato said. “The central government in some instances decides that they want some exposure of corruption, especially in the provinces. It may be a way of dealing with a problem out there.”

That said, Kato acknowledged that social media brings people together in a way that the government might not always approve.

“It’s sort of a double-edged sword here. As for the future, how effective the government can be in controlling social media is unsure.”

The spectre of censorship continues to be an important issue in the news reporting coming out of China. For that reason, if U.S. publications are to use local reporters as their primary resources in international reporting, the careers and safety of the journalists reporting to them are a primary reliability factor.

“They know there are certain kinds of limits imposed by the government of China,” Kato said of his students. “We’re not here to train them to be revolutionaries. I think all of them are very bright people. They are interested in having good careers in China. By that very fact they understand the limitations under which they work.”

That does not mean current Chinese reporting isn’t at a valuable level, Kato continued.

“There are journalists in China who are very courageous. They will do things and write things they know will get them in trouble. They will do whatever it takes for good journalism.”

So what does this mean for the future? With matters as they stand, the prospects are still somewhat ambiguous. With China’s tendency for censorship and Japan’s self-limiting media, it isn’t entirely clear how the growth of civilian media and the diminishing degree of international reporting will affect changes for the future. There is no doubt, however, that the way journalism evolves in the Asian political sphere will have lasting repercussions for journalism as a whole abroad.
Several possible models for moving forward present themselves; but of the many, three in particular seem likely.

The first option involves civilian journalism. Whether through blogs, crowdsourcing videos, or other direct reports, citizens who are not professional journalists have already made an impact on the effectiveness of journalism here in the U.S. In China, this type of content can be—and is—censored, but the question remains as to how long the government can continue to control what its citizens broadcast. It may be that the current system will erode over time, and pave the way for a new breed of journalism where citizens produce the majority of content, while professionals speculate and offer informative commentary.

“These new journalists are all very young, some of them in fact are employed in the new media part of the newspaper, so they probably know more about it than I do in some cases,” Kato said. “They know its uses in terms of how it can be used for distributing journalism and helping to gather information. And for that matter they’re smart enough to know how it can be used for political purposes.”

As such, another possibility is that this new generation of Chinese journalists will return to their native country and reform the media there from within. That way, the foreign news sections of U.S. papers can all access the relevant information from Asia without sacrificing resources by establishing and maintaining politically fragile bureaus they can no longer financially afford.

The final model—essentially what Luft works with and the current model—involves a select few foreign correspondents funded by major papers. The information from those reporters gets consolidated, organized by a content manager, and redistributed to newspapers around the country. While this model is cost-effective, it also may provide the weakest coverage, as only a narrow scope of the actual information can be observed by so few reporters.

Whichever model is best, it is certain that the stories in Asia and especially in China will not disappear or become less important. American news bureaus will have to respond accordingly.

[field name=”by”]

Philip Grey served in Iraq starting in 2003.  He now reports for The Leaf Chronicle and experiences mild Post-Traumatic Disorder (PTSD).  He compares his symptoms to a low-level toothache; there is no way of getting rid of it, but his life can continue.

Last November 16, Grey attended Common Ground: A Workshop for the Media and the Military.  The daylong event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. focused on PTSD.

 According to sponsor’s website, the University of Kansas, the conference featured medical professionals, military officials and journalists as panelists.

 Attendance was recommended for journalists who cover combat, their editors, and health care reporters.     

Hearing journalists speak about their own PTSD struck Grey in particular.  It was a side to the issue he hadn’t heard before. 

“Some of the journalists there said things like when they walked in to the newsroom they felt noconnection to the people who hadn’t experienced what they experienced,” he said. “They felt there were stories they just didn’t want to do. There were places they just didn’t want to go.”

 He noticed similarities between this attitude and the mindset that he, and other military veterans grappled with assimilating back into daily life after returning home from combat.  He calls it “the battle of coming home.”

“I’ve heard the same thing from people in the military who come back,” he said. “And you knowexperience the same thing. You are suddenly in a world where everything that other people think are important, those things aren’t important to you anymore.”

 According to the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, between 86% and 100% of journalists witness trauma while reporting in the field.  Up to 28% of journalists experience some form of PTSD.

PTSD Media Consultants refers to journalists as “first responders.”  Even those who are not in war zones witness traumatic events like fires, car accidents, murders and natural disaster.  Coverage of any of these events may lead to PTSD.

 “It’s tough, particularly for foreign correspondents,” said Dr. Anthony Feinstein, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto. 

 “They’re far from home and they’re often working in countries where there may not be psychiatric services,” he said.  “And so it becomes very difficult for them to receive local help.”

 Feinstein said resources for journalists dealing with stress are much more readily available than they were ten years ago when he conducted a study with the American Journal of Psychiatry that found war journalists who experienced symptoms of PTSD were no more likely to receive help than journalists who experienced no symptoms. 

He attributes his findings to a lack of communication that existed ten years ago.  Larger news sites are only now beginning to mend, because they are starting to recognize that war can scar journalists not only on the outside, but inside, too.

In order to facilitate communication, responsible news organizations are beginning to partner with Employee Assistance Programs, which offer confidential consultation and therapy for employees and loved ones dealing with issues including stress. 

“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can respond very well to therapy,” Feinstein said.  “It is something that can be dealt with.” 

It is just a matter of making available the right kinds of treatment and opening the lines of communication, Feinstein said.

 Admitting to PTSD is still difficult for journalists like Grey who cannot help but compare their own experience reporting to that of the people directly involved in the trauma. 

 “As a journalist, what are you going to do,” he asked, rhetorically.  “Are you going to talk about your feelings of being traumatized with the soldiers you are there reporting on?”

 Feinstein maintained that it is the responsibility of news organizations to provide resources for journalists asking questions like these.  One such resource that news organizations are distributing to their journalists is the confidential link to a self-assessment questionnaire developed by Feinstein.

 “It’s a very useful way for journalists who are far from home to get a quick check on their mental well being.” 

 The questionnaire focuses on PTSD as well as depression, substance abuse and general psychological wellbeing.  An algorithm calculates whether the journalist’s responses indicate cause for concern and based on the results, whether or not it would be in their best interest to seek psychological or medical attention.  All collected information is strictly confidential.

 Feinstein stressed that his assessment is “not supposed to be comprehensive” and that “face to face contact is preferable.” 

 Personal communication, however, does not limit itself to talking with medical professionals.  Norwegian journalist, Paul Refsdal, who has embedded with insurgent troops in foreign conflict, said it is important to find a community with other journalists, who have also covered trauma. 

“When you come back, no one really understands what you are talking about,” he said.  “So I really don’t talk with people about what I have done, unless they ask me.”

Refsdal expressed difficulty in finding community among Norwegian war correspondents who he calls “hotel-room journalists.”  He said lacks a sense of common experience with them.

“I’ve always been the one who’s different in the Norwegian press corps,” Refsdal said. 

Refsdal has embedded himself in foreign conflicts with insurgent troops for 28 years.  In 2010, while reporting with a unit in the Taliban, he was kidnapped.  The Taliban released him after six days. 

Refsdal said he was not scared at first, because he knew the kidnappers from his embedment; however fear struck when there were negotiations about selling him to an Al-Qaeda terrorist cell, where he knew he would die. 

“I’m a little bit of a control freak,” he said.  “I have the impression that I was kind of controlling my own kidnapping in a way.  I don’t like these things when they are in motion and you can’t do anything.”

Although Refsdal reported that he has never experienced symptoms of PTSD, he did say that after embedding with rebels in Chechnya, he noticed an “instinctive” reaction to the sound of planes overhead.

Refsdal said his job and its danger affects his family, particularly his daughter, more so than it impacts him.

“I have to bribe my daughter every time I go to a dangerous zone.”

Refsdal said that talking to reporters about his experience is easier, because he doesn’t think he has PTSD or any other psychological damage.

“If I had, I’m not sure I would have shared with people at all.”

For a freelancer like Refsdal, those sentiments could be dangerous, according to Feinstein, who has noticed that smaller news outlets and freelancers do not receive the same resources or awareness about PTSD as larger organizations do.  Feinstein’s advice for freelancers is simple.

“They better look after themselves.”

Some experts believe changing the name from PTSD to PTSI, Post-Traumatic Stress Injury, will remove the stigma that comes with the word “disorder.”

More journalists, they argue, would come forth about their problems.  The American Psychiatric Association is considering the change for its newest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.  

To Feinstein, however, debating the official diagnostic name for PTSD is irrelevant.

“You can call it a disorder,” he said.  “You can call it an injury.  You can have long discussions about what to name it, but at the end of the day, you are going to be dealing with the exact same thing.”

Grey believes the blanket term PTSD is incorrect.  Instead, people should talk about post-traumatic stress in general. 

“[PTSD] wrongly paints this as a common situation of people being dysfunctional to a point of being either a danger to themselves or the people around them,” he said.  “That’s not common.”

In terms of long-term treatment for PTSD, Dr. Feinstein mentioned that a pill might help weaken symptoms and severity, but he stressed it’s very far down the road.

“It will be years before such a pill is ready,” he said. 

Dr. Jelena Radulovic, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, was the senior author of a study looking into the development of such a pill.

Radulovic and her colleagues wanted to isolate the triggers that made people with PTSD so overly alert and sensitive to stimuli.  They centered their focus on the hippocampus, the part of the brain where signals are fired to create new memories.  They hypothesized that traumatic events affect the switch in the hippocampus that generally turns off these signals.

In experiments, Radulovic wanted to see if the signals could be switched off and manipulated chemically.  She tested the pill on mice by exposing them to trauma—confinement, followed by slight shocks. 

After this, scientists administered chemicals to the mice, and after several hours, the subjects acted normally.

The pill, which has yet to go through clinical trials, functions in such a way that would keep memory in tact, but would remove the excessive response after the fact.  She expects the pill will be ready in three years time.

Radulovic stressed that the pill would not cure PTSD. 

“For people who already have the disease it’s very unlikely to work,” she said. “It’s very useful if it’s taken in the phase between the traumatic event and the development of the disease.”

Radulovic said it is a tough situation because people would be taking medication when they feel fine.

News organizations have improved over the last decade in providing their journalists with resources to help combat post-traumatic stress symptoms.  But there is still room to improve.  Feinstein said the key lies in education.  With increased awareness of the emotional health risks journalists face in the field, policy can change organizationally.

“To try to change the attitude,” Feinstein said, “there is nothing better than education.” 

 Conferences such as the recent workshop hosted by the University of Kansas might do the trick, said Grey, who had never attended a discussion about PTSD in journalists before.  The communication fostered therein and the information disclosed allowed for an open dialogue about a tricky issue.  And Grey, who described PTSD as “a very alone feeling,” found a community of common experience at the conference. 

 “I almost wish it would have been two days instead of one,” he said.

McCormick junior Charlotte Thayer, 20, is a midshipman in Northwestern’s Naval ROTC (NROTC) program. Both of her parents are NROTC alumni and her brother, Peter, is completing the program at the University of Texas. Thayer said she joined the program out of a desire to “serve in the military and get a good education.” But not everyone with these aims can be accepted into ROTC.

With scholarships in short supply, NROTC candidates hoping to compete must meet all of the requirements for a spot at a top-tier university. Excellent grades and standardized testing scores are musts, as well as leadership in extracurriculars and participation in athletics. According to Captain Brian Koehr, commanding officer of the Naval ROTC Chicago Consortium, the Eagle Scouts provide NROTC with many midshipmen.

But recruits also need to give equal attention to fitness. In order to receive a NROTC scholarship, midshipmen must pass the Navy’s Physical Readiness Test. The test comprises 100 points, awarded based on repetitions completed or the speed of completion. To receive an outstanding test score (90/100), for example, a female midshipman between ages 17-19 must perform 102 curl ups, complete 47 pushups, run 1.5 miles in 11 and a half minutes, and swim 500 yards in eight and a half minutes.

All these demands serve another purpose besides finding the best future officers. The rigorous application process weeds out those interested in NROTC for the wrong reasons.

“The thing about ROTC is it’s something that people have to want to do it,” Thayer said.
“It sounds like a lot of people might do it for a full-ride scholarship to a school like this, but people find out very soon that if they don’t want to be in the military they’re not going to last very long.”

Thayer is one of about a dozen female midshipmen in the Northwestern NROTC unit. The unit has seen a greater number of women join, with women now making up roughly half of its members. Just ten years ago women accounted for only a third of midshipmen, according to Northwestern NROTC alum Casey Osterkamp, who graduated in 2005. Women have only been allowed in the NROTC program since 1974, though they have been able to serve in combat since 1948.

“I didn’t feel like in ROTC people treated me differently, but definitely in the real world people treated me differently,” Osterkamp said. “There are definitely those old white men who’ve been around forever in their 40s and early 50s, and they remember a time when there were no women there.”

The physical standards for male and female midshipmen differ, but all complete the same biweekly physical training, take the same naval science courses and are held to the same academic standard.

In comparison to their female comrades, male midshipmen between the ages of 17 and 19 must perform almost twice as many pushups and run 1.5 miles a minute and a half faster to receive the same “outstanding score.”

The Marines have recently raised their physical fitness standards for women. By 2014, physical fitness tests will require all female Marines to perform pull ups. In the past, female Marines needed only to complete a flexed arm hang.

“As women are getting more jobs, as more opportunities are opening up, their standards are increasing,” said Thayer.

Opportunities for women in the military continue to expand. Two years ago the Navy changed their policy to allow women on submarines. Women are currently excluded from participating in ground combat, but this year the Marine Corps permitted women to enroll for the first time in the Infantry Officers Course, which trains Marines for this type of warfare. In February, the Department of Defense opened up about 14,000 new military posts to women by amending military policies which had banned women from certain jobs, particularly in the Army.

“The Navy is moving towards completely integrated forces,” said Lt. Mac Marrone, a professor of naval science at NU NROTC. “The Navy is definitely trying to see where the boundary is, if there is a boundary. Things are happening as we speak, it’s an interesting time.”

While in many areas women are progressing, other factors can prevent them from reaching their career potential in the military. Osterkamp said that one of the reasons she left the Navy was institutional ignorance about needs specific to women. Her first deployment was on a ship with 250 men and just 5 women, and she encountered a few difficulties.

“Just the little things like, how do you get tampons while on deployment? Oh, wait, there’s only 5 people that need them,” said Osterkamp.

Additionally, women find that starting a family proves a major obstacle to their career progress, the extent of which their male peers cannot understand.

“The Navy doesn’t think about the fact that oh, when women have babies that takes time away,” Osterkamp continued. “As a result they haven’t really thought about how that changes their career trajectory, and so women are disadvantaged because of that.”

In a 2008 study of female ROTC cadets, University of Virginia professor Jennifer Silva found that 84 percent of cadets interviewed said they did not want to pursue a military career because it would hinder their ability to get married and have children.

Still, Osterkamp sees women’s presence in the military continuing to increase.

“I definitely think that more women are in the military now than there used to be even ten years ago,” she said. “I think people are slowly adjusting. It’s basically going to take those old men who have been there forever to get out of the Navy.”

At Northwestern, the trend can be seen in the large percentage of female midshipmen. Aside from the high representation of women, though, the unit is also unique for its size. Due to the school’s high price and selectivity, the number of Northwestern NROTC recruits remains fairly low.

Recruits may receive an NROTC scholarship, but they also have to get into the school. The program size is also affected by budgetary constraints—NU and other private schools cost more than public universities. With limited scholarship funds, the Navy realizes that money goes farther at a state school. They can put two or three midshipmen through a public university for the cost of one at NU. With politicians moving to reduce the defense budget, the Navy may soon have even less to work with.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean the ROTC budget will decrease,” Koehr said. “You never know how that’s going to play out.”

Ultimately, Thayer feels there is a tradeoff to allotting more scholarship spots to public universities.

“We have jobs engineering nuclear reactors. So would you rather have a public state school person doing that or would you rather have someone trained at Northwestern engineering school doing that?”

According to Koehr, cuts in the Navy budget have most affected the 2 year scholarships, which he says have “drastically reduced nationwide.”

Said Koehr, “The Navy is trying to beg for budgeters to make that money available, but if it’s not in the bank, there’s not a whole lot we can do.”

The poor state of the economy in recent years has made the limited scholarship spots even more selective because more students are applying.

“More people are looking for it—it’s the reality of down economic times. It’s a great opportunity for them,” said Koehr.

Thayer’s younger brother, Peter, is a freshman midshipman at UT. Peter did not receive a scholarship, so he currently participates in ROTC as a college programmer, a midshipman who completes ROTC training but does not receive scholarship money. While these individuals may be able to pick up a scholarship during their college career, many will never get financial assistance.

Koehr compared the college programmers to the walk-ons of a football team. “They don’t necessarily get to play, but they put in all the blood, sweat and tears.”

Because of this, Koehr has an even greater respect for college programmers. “They’re doing it on their own volition. There is a higher level of commitment there.”

Peter, meanwhile, is concerned that current and possible future budget cuts will affect his scholarship chances.

Charlotte Thayer said of her brother, “He’s worried with military cuts happening, spending going down, that there’s just not going to be a spot for him.”

Having seen her brother’s frustration, Thayer recognizes the potential implications for a smaller ROTC budget.

“Sometimes it doesn’t matter how competent you are, how well you’re doing at school, or in the unit,” she said. “It just doesn’t happen for you.”

Once a soldier, always a veteran. At least as far as the medias concerned.

Whether its a business, profile, or crime story, a persons status as a veteran is always relevant. A person who served in the military isnt just a family member, businessman, or plainclothes member of society. They are a 54-year old veteran in a way that a Barnes & Noble employee is never a 54-year old bookseller.

As the intersection of crime and veterans affairs continues to make headlines, its important to examine how this coverage affects the publics perception of veterans. Obviously, some media consumers might perceive veterans as criminals, but only a small number of veterans have committed crimes. However, it can be hard for civilians who have never served a tour of duty to understand how veterans reintegrate into society, and how their service affects them physically and emotionally. This means a constant stream of veteran-turned-criminal stories can distort the publics view of veterans, and can drive a deeper wedge between the two groups.

This affects veterans reintegration into civilian life. The Pew Research Center reported in October 2011 that 27 percent of veterans found reintegration difficult. This was particularly true for soldiers that were seriously injured or experienced a traumatic event.

Physical injuries occur on a wide spectrum, but one of the most common psychological injuries is post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. The Department of Veteran Affairs reports more than 170,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan have been diagnosed with PTSD.

In the course of filing stories the media can (unwittingly) stigmatize veterans through their descriptions of PTSD and of a veterans actions. Its important for the public to understand that one negative story about one veteran isnt representative of the entire population of veterans. If the media provides coverage for those types of stories, its important that veterans are shown in a fair light.

This is not to say that the media is obligated to provide consistently positive and biased coverage of veterans affairs. It is merely to say that stories should not jump to identify those who commit crimes as veterans (if they are) unless that persons military career and experience has something to do with the crime committed. Further, the medias description of veterans and soldiers with PTSD should move beyond the idea that those with the disorder are ticking time bombs, or irrational simply because theyve been diagnosed with the disorder.

As journalists, its our job to understand the challenges facing veterans, from the myriad of changes they face as their military careers end, to the medical, specifically psychological, challenges many of them face. Todays veterans face a different post-war landscape than did veterans of previous wars, namely that the Afghanistan and Iraq wars have petered out rather than ended abruptly with an armistice or treaty. This means that veterans have gradually returned to society, rather than returning all at once, as a community. Veterans were able to reintegrate together in the past; today they are much more isolated as they re-enter society. Coupled with psychological trauma, isolation can be harmful to veterans trying to move on with their lives.
Therefore, we must understand how veterans are portrayed in media today, and must understand how issues regarding veterans are covered. We must also understand where coverage of veterans affairs is lacking, and from there, make suggestions on how we can improve coverage.

Current media coverage

On April 19, 2012, TV host and psychologist “Dr. Phil” devoted an episode of his show to veterans with PTSD. Called From Heroes to Monsters, the show talked about how veterans and their families dealt with their return home, and with the disorder. Wives (and ex-wives) of PTSD-affected veterans talked about how the disorder destroyed their families, ended marriages, and left victims with nightmares. Commentary throughout the show dubbed the veterans damaged goods that have come home disabled from the turmoil of war.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is an anxiety disorder. According to the National Library of Medicine, its caused by traumatic events and experiences that threaten death or serious injury. It occurs after natural disasters, assault, domestic abuse, and a host of other events, and veterans can come home from war with it. Its symptoms range from debilitating to stressful and strong reactions, if the sufferer has a flashback. However, it doesnt always manifest in violence, and is more often than not an internal struggle for the sufferer.
The shows original intent was to educate its audience on an unseen injury from war, but lacked nuance, branded the veterans as violent, and caricatured those who suffer from PTSD.
This kind of framing is at the heart of the veteran on a rampage trope. Documentarian and producer of the PBS documentary Street Vets Issac Goeckeritz sees a delicate relationship between media producers and consumers, and sees media sensationalism as a serious problem.

“The media is driven by hits, they are driven by views, they are driven by the people who are on their websites, and how they want the story to be told,” said Goeckeritz. “It comes down to the viewer to recognize that the majority of our veterans are wonderful people, they are enlisting for the right reasons, they have protected our country. And they deserve the respect that all veterans here, now, and in the past have deserved.”

Goeckeritz also expanded more on his view on the attitude producers should have when dealing with sensitive subjects and topics. As a filmmaker, I really feel the responsibility to be ethical to tell the story as it is, Goeckeritz said. And when a subject is willing to talk to me, I need to recognize that and treat that with caution and express their opinion as they want to be expressed.

Granted, Goeckeritz is a filmmaker, not a journalist, and his coverage of veterans affairs will come from an angle in a way that journalists coverage shouldnt. However, journalists can learn from Goeckeritz in that stories should always accurately represent veterans thought as theyre expressed. This doesnt mean that stories about veterans should be advocating and defending veterans opinions; it does mean that veterans deserve truthful and equitable storytelling.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, there are more than 22 million veterans living in the U.S.; they account for seven percent of the population. Of that population, eight percent are women.
The 170,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans living with post-traumatic stress disorder have resources through the Department of Veterans Affairs, such as the National Center for PTSD. However, the stigma of seeking help can cripple efforts to treat the disorder, and coverage of PTSD in veterans can be inflammatory. This is where the need for improvement is most apparent.

Tension between veterans and civilians

Portraying veterans as troubled, damaged and potentially unstable has damaged the civilian-veteran relationship. For example, civilians no longer feel comfortable around veterans, to the point that establishing care facilities for veterans has been met with significant civilian opposition. VAntage Point, the official blog of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, reported in March 2012 that San Diego residents opposed a city residential treatment program; they felt unsafe having the facility for the program close to area schools.

The argument between school officials, neighbors, and the Department of Veterans Affairs eventually ended with a vote in the Departments favor at a city council meeting. The program is meant to treat veterans with PTSD and mild traumatic injuries, with rehabilitation and occupational therapy for veterans. The roadblocks it faced show how media consumers can conflate one news story with their conception of all veterans, and how that conception can warp public affairs.

Combat and other military experiences can have repercussions on mental and physical health, and can cause problems among veterans, but the effects vary from case to case, and the majority of veterans reintegrate without significant problems. The idea that the situation is an epidemic is arguably delusional. But the media highlights erratic and violent behavior among veterans because its a juicier lead and draws more attention. Though the number of veteran-criminals covered by the media is large, its a small number relative to the overall population of veterans.

If coverage of mental health disorders as they relate to veterans remains blunt and without nuance, media consumers will stereotype veterans, especially by those who already lack a clear understanding of what it means to live with PTSD.

It is important to expose problems related to violence and crime, but where veterans are concerned, generalizations develop. Veterans have been trained for combat and in the use of force, but they have not been desensitized to violence and coverage should not imply that they have a mindless propensity for murder. And the constant connection brought up about past war services– the recurring description of a person as a veteran, no matter how long ago their tour ended or the bearing it has on their life now, has deterred veterans from openly speaking about their experience, in fear of being stigmatized.

This problem has is more serious regarding post-9/11 veterans due to the increased number of diagnoses of PTSD. With a larger veteran population to deal with, a media with wider reach, and more complex medical disorders and illnesses to cover, the challenges to providing comprehensive and accurate coverage have grown. People with mental disorders can be portrayed as crazy, dangerous and loony for the sake of providing coverage that is easy for the public to understand; this is especially true because much of the public does not have comprehensive knowledge of mental health disorders.

Reintegration in the present climate
Having noted the publics perceptions as covered by the media, its also important to understand what happens to veterans as they reintegrate into society following a tour of duty. At the end of the day, some things do slip through the cracks in the reintegration process; its how veteran-criminal stories came to be.
The process of veteran reintegration is twofold, and depends on a soldiers status following a deployment. If hell remain enlisted, he goes through training that centers on medical in-processing and a psychiatric evaluation.
It was laughable, said Nolan Peterson, a journalism graduate student at the Medill School at Northwestern University, and a veteran. Theres no follow up, he said, which is problematic because the evaluation is fairly casual and not intensive. Once a soldier has finished a tour and gone through the evaluation, youre basically living in civilian society.
Thats a huge mental leap, Peterson said.

On the other hand, if a soldier is leaving the military, theres a separate transition program that focuses on career skillshow to find a job, how to build a resume, how to use the GI bill.
Petersons military career spanned a little over a decade. After graduating from high school he entered the Air Force Academy, and graduated in 2004. He served as an exchange officer from 2004 to 2006, and then entered pilot training. He served in combat from 2008 to 2011, after which he left the Air Force for civilian life.
His reintegration was of the latter variety. Peterson says he and his classmates were taught how to navigate the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the basics of looking for a job. A representative from Mens Warehouse came in to speak to his program to explain how to wear civilian suits. The veterans knew how to wear a dress uniform; business casual, not so much.
Its just a series of classes you go through on just really mundane things, Peterson said. He added that little was done to foster a community among veterans. If you want to reach out to vets, you basically have to go on Google and figure that out on your own, he said.
Thats part of the reason why the transition from military to civilian life can seem abrupt. While serving in the military, servicemen have the support of peers who go through the same situationstraining, combat, and day-to-day military lifethat they deal with, too.
You have a 24/7 support network when youre in the military, Peterson said. Youre able to deal with a lot of those mental health issues without seeing a therapist because of that network of support. However, that changes when soldiers reintegrate to civilian life.
That lack of professional therapy becomes apparent, Peterson said. The lack of a social network once youre in the civilian world kind of brings those problems to bear very quickly.
Peterson thinks his own experience reintegrating was different because he went back to school. Once he finished serving in 2011, he enrolled at Medill. He says its easier to make friends since hes in classes interacting with people; had he entered the workforce immediately after his service, he may have been more isolated.
I think the lingering kind of difficulty is Im 30 and Im going to school, he said. Sometimes theres a little bit of a disconnect between what Ive done and what other people have done. You dont blend in quite as easily.
The lack of community is also compounded by the nature of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. World War I ended on November 11th, 1918, when an armistice ended hostilities between Germany and the Allies. World War II ended once the Japanese surrendered. Both Iraq and Afghanistan have drawn out over considerable time. While the war in Iraq has come to a close, it was a slow and lethargic close; troops trickled home. Afghanistan is set to meet the same choked and halting end.
There isnt a day when it ends, said Peterson. In previous wars, There was a day when the war was over… Veterans all reintegrated at the same time. It felt like you were a part of that. Now, its different.
It seems that we trickle back out into society, he said. Now, soldiers and other members of the armed forces come home company by company, or squadron by squadron. Its harder as an individual to reach out because you feel so alone.
Peterson thinks the situation would be different if there was better-structured community of support for veterans when they arrive home. While veterans from earlier wars still get together at VFW outposts, no one from our generation or my generation uses that, he said. There isnt a resource that exists to bring together disparate private and public efforts to help reintegration, and so veterans are left to sort out the situation on their own. Not having fellow veterans, or supportive families, is where the problems begin.

Moving forward

With the amount of difficulties veterans face with reintegration, the media plays an important role in maintaining a stable relationship between the veterans and the public.

Captain Brian D. Koehr of the U.S. Navy emphasizes the importance of respecting the military and veterans. The military is not running around trying to get into war, said the Captain. Its actually the last thing that the military wants. It causes a lot of damage to infrastructure, to equipment, and to people. The general public needs to be accepting of what the military does. And we need to support them and give them the respect they deserve.
Ultimately, covering war can be difficult because of the conflict of interests between the military and journalists. Where the military sees the media as an extension of its public relations departments, journalists strive to cover conflicts in an unbiased, truthful manner that accurately tells readers whats happening. The same standard of care needs to be applied to coverage of veterans affairs. From frank discussions of PTSD and other mental illnesses, to the stigmas related to reintegration, there is room for improvement among the press corps. This coverage is owed to veterans not because of a patriotic duty to protect and serve their interests, but instead because they deserve the same fair representation just like the rest of the subjects and people we choose to cover.

In 2008, Randy Brown was told to prepare for deployment to Afghanistan.

As a member of the 2nd Brigade, 34th Infantry of the Iowa Army National Guard, Brown was one of 3,000, the largest deployment of National Guard soldiers from Iowa since 2002. Days before he was ready to ship out, after almost two years of training, Brown learned that because of his mandatory retirement date, he could no longer go.

Instead, he decided to visit his unit as a civilian-embed and become a reporter on the ground.

Brown is not alone. He is a part of a larger calling of soldiers who look to the field of journalism after a life in the military, either as a way to call attention to details in the war that many civilian reporters may get wrong, or simply to write as a way to make sense of their own work in the military.

As they report from the ground and bring their information to the public via books or blogs, they begin to slowly bridge a widening military-civilian gap.

 A lack of presence

Last year, the Pew Research Center reported less than 1 percent of Americans have ever been in uniform as a part of the active military, compared to World War II, when at least 9 percent of Americans were in service.

 George Harmon, a professor at the Medill School of Journalism and a veteran of the Vietnam War, said this may add to the public’s general ignorance of the war and the military. He cited the lack of veterans in Congress and many politicians in the public eye today, like Dick Cheney, Bill Clinton and Mitt Romney, who never served in the military.

“I’ve seen surveys that show that an enormous percentage of the population, no one in their family serves in the military, they don’t even know anybody that serves in the military, they’ve never even met anybody that serves in the military,” he said.

So when it comes to average-Joe reporters who need a proper understanding of the military in order to write about it, Harmon said they may fall short.

“The public makes mistakes on this stuff all the time,” he said about military reporters. “They should know better but they don’t.”

Nathan Webster, who was in the Army in the 1990’s and served as a civilian photojournalist in 2007, said this culture may have changed when the way people entered the military changed.

During World War II, Korea and Vietnam when individuals were drafted into the military, he said most people could assume they were going to know someone who was serving and anticipate having a close relationship to the war.

But with the advent of a volunteer-based military, he said it’s easy to view the military in a different light because of a lack of connection to it.

 Mistakes: the “wall” between the public and the military

 “Not just reporters, but the public in general lacks clear understanding of military structure,” says Maj. Brad Leighton, the public affairs director for the Illinois National Guard. “Ranks, units, the difference between a commissioned officer and a non-commissioned officer … it’s pretty confusing. Without some basis in the military, it’s hard to pick up that stuff.”

Other errors in reporting result from not understanding military jargon, Leighton says.

“When you’re talking to other military people, you use a lot of jargon and acronyms,” Leighton says. “I think journalists have to slow military people down and say, ‘You need to spell this out for me, because you don’t realize we’re not sharing the same lexicon.’”

For example, Leighton says a common mistake is quoting a military member with the title “specialist” when someone with a higher rank should have been contacted, he says.

“Quite honestly, (a specialist is) not a military authority. That’s a kid, shortly out of basic,” Leighton says.

 Killers or heroes?

Harmon says on an everyday basis, he doesn’t witness an actual mistrust that gets in the way of journalists’ work. He said compared to post-Vietnam, when both the media and the public lacked trust in either the government or the military fighting for them, “we’ve come 180 degrees.”

“Now there’s probably too much trust,” he said. “We’re seeing now that unemployment is much lower among veterans. Many years ago, they said we were killers, and now every one of us is a hero.”

Webster believes this change of heart also leads to misperceptions. Too much trust in the military, he said, also lends itself to inaccurate reporting.

“You get two types of coverage, ” Webster says. “You have super patriotic coverage because as a civilian reporter, you end up reporting from a position of, you don’t want to criticize them. They are soldiers and they are great and they’re heroic and that’s one side. You’re not critical enough, not critical in a bad way, just not critical.”

The volunteer-based military, he said, also causes civilians and reporters to tend toward a respectful view of military men and women.

“I think that after 9/11, when you had these multiple deployments shared by a small percentage of people, the average civilian … doesn’t want to put their patriotism on the line by criticizing people who have been to Iraq and Afghanistan four or five times each,” he says.

On the other hand, reporters may see active members of the military as people with whom the public should sympathize.

“The other side is that you’re too sympathetic, in a pitying sense,” he says. “You think, ‘Oh these poor lower class people who had no choice, they had to join the Army because of their difficult conditions or rough lives and society is taking advantage of them.'”

Webster cites the reason for the two extreme sides of reporting to the lack of civilian perspective on the military lifestyle.  

“Because I do have that military experience, when I reported about the guys I met in Iraq, I think the reason I was fairly successful and fairly honest about it was because I was empathetic not sympathetic.” he says. “Yeah, they were crying and whining and complaining, because that’s what 22-year-old soldiers do. They’re the biggest bitching, complaining crybabies you’ll ever meet. I know that because when I was 22 in the Army, I was a bitching, complaining cry baby. That’s a soldier. They bitch and moan and then they go do their job.”

He said the general public, or even civilian embeds, who may be surprised by their actions and immediately want to pity them, can perceive their complaints as a sign of “low morale.”

“No, morale isn’t low, it’s how guys are,” he said. “It’s 125 degrees in Iraq, no one’s waking up in the morning saying how happy they are to be there.”

 Breaking down the civilian-military barrier

Before Afghanistan, Brown had created an alter identity. In 2009, while in training for deployment, he started a blog under the pseudonym “Charlie Sherpa.” His blog, Red Bull Rising, was named after the 34th “Red Bull” Infantry Division.

At first, Brown, who worked in internal communication and networking, said it was a way to help him understand his job in the military.

He wanted to be able to use his blog as a way to do research.

“I was a writer at night, soldier by day,” he said. “Which was a useful tool. I was using it for a couple of reasons. One of them was to test how the Army would find somebody writing about them.”

In particular, Brown said his brigade commander had asked him about their social media and blogging policies. This was something that was of new interest to the military, he said, as they became concerned about information leakage and operational security.

Brown recalled an incident during training when there was a death in his unit.

“I knew more about the circumstances of the death than I wanted to know because of what was being published on Facebook by well meaning friends and family,” he said. “We could anticipate a parallel experience, what would happen if we were downrange in Afghanistan and someone got hurt and well meaning friends and family started talking about it before family was properly notified, before the military was able to get all of its who, what, where, why and how’s put together.”

Sgt. Thomas Gibbons-Neff, who served in the Marine Corps and was deployed in Afghanistan in 2008 and 2011, said he believes it is partially veterans’ responsibility to tell their own stories.

Gibbons-Neff  has contributed to The New York Times and Time Battleland, is now a sophomore studying English at Georgetown University and plans to become a writer full-time after graduation.

“I think the best way to rectify (misunderstanding about the military) is … as a veteran you can’t be introverted when it comes to your experiences,” Gibbons-Neff says. “It’s almost like recycling to a certain extent. If you don’t do it, maybe it’s no big deal. But if everyone does it, it’s a big deal.”

He says he thinks his generation of veterans in particular is uniquely positioned to tell their stories, with the proliferation of blogging and other social media available for use.

“It’s the individual’s responsibility to be a liaison from the service to the rest of the world,” he says. “The more our generation does that, the better off we’ll be in the long run.”

Gibbons-Neff uses some social media (he’s on Twitter, though he says he feels he isn’t very good at it), but points to others he says use it particularly well.  

C.J. Chivers, a retired Marine and full-time conflict journalist at The New York Times, has recently started a Pinterest page to which he adds photos of weaponry and other military items to explain what they are.

“That tells a very different underlying story that could not be told without social media,” Gibbons-Neff says. “I think when you look at conflict, that’s one aspect … what the rebels are using and the organization of different factions running around Syria.”

Gibbons-Neff says besides the benefit of being able to communicate and relay information in real time, social media may provide more detail. Yet, he says of course, active duty military could never provide coverage of their own deployment.

“Active duty military can get in a lot of trouble for that kind of stuff,” he says. “That’s terrible operational security.”

Brown said in 2006 and 2007, when military blogs emerged in high numbers, a lot of the bloggers who were still on active duty felt compelled to write to compensate for shortcomings in national media.

“The perception was that mainstream media wasn’t covering issues downrange,” he said. “There needed to be a first-person, unfiltered, unmediated reporting of some sort.”

Similar to his own experiences, Brown said many of those military bloggers came home and continued to blog, but with less immediacy. He said this also has to do with media outlets picking up the slack, using more blogging and social media tools in their coverage.

“The urge to pontificate about the way things are, based on my experience, is great,” he said. “So a lot of military blogs, or milblogs, have been gravitating more toward political commentary or policy commentary.”

Working alongside embeds

Both Leighton and Gibbons-Neff said they actually had mostly positive experiences with journalists who were embedded with them overseas.

Leighton says when he was serving in Iraq, he felt journalists there tried their best to get both sides of the story and “do an earnest job.” He says he mostly interacted

“When I was over in Iraq, most of the journalists over there tried to get both sides of the story and tried to do an earnest job,” Leighton says. “Those were reporters, too, who were more educated about the military, reporting on military operations every day.

However, there were occasionally some exceptions to that “earnest job” rule, he says.

“What you were combating was people on the street who really don’t have any grounding necessarily,” he says. “They grab an Iraqi off the street who would say we killed 50 women and children, for example. In the military we can’t just say that. We actually have to research it and look at, make an assessment and it takes a little time to get that for on-the-ground facts. You’ll find out it wasn’t 50 women and children. It was actually 10 and they were people who were shooting at us.”  

Gibbons-Neff called the journalists embedded with him in Afghanistan (who came from news organizations including the BBC, Reuters and The Washington Post) “an interesting bunch.”

“They’re like the people fighting and doing the shooting, except they’re kind of free agents,” Gibbons-Neff says. “They’re kind of free agents, but they have the same personality types. They’re in the job, they like the adrenaline rush. I’ve never met a reporter that comes in with an agenda.”

A sense of camaraderie between them went a long way, Gibbons-Neff says.

“The reporters I’ve worked with understood that in order to get what they wanted, which was a story or something unique to tell, they had to adapt to us,” Gibbons-Neff says. “They knew if they came in, they weren’t going to get anything from us if they came for a day and then left.”

Harmon’s advice to journalists at the start of their military reporting careers is to be open to new information and to the learning experience of an embedding.

“I mean just like they should do everywhere, listen, and don’t be afraid to say you don’t know and say ‘if I’m going to write a good story you’ve got to help me understand,’” he said.

Journalists, he added, have to erase any stereotypes they have of the war and of the military, before reporting. Depending on what information they choose to consume, books and movies can give the wrong idea of the war is like.

“You’re only misled if you want to be misled.” he said.