Satellite imagery in media representation of global conflicts

Media organizations relied on commercial civilian “spy satellites” to survey the battlefields and movement of troops during the 2003 Iraq War. Satellite photographs were also used to report the impounding of an American surveillance aircraft on Hainan Island in China, the September 11 terrorist strike, the blackout in New York city, the Black Christmas bushfires in Australia, and the war in Afghanistan. The implications of the technology on accurate and fair reporting of international conflicts in countries inaccessible by journalists, such as North Korea, Iran, Russia and China, is thus worthy of critical examination. This preliminary research, geared for completion in mid-2005, aims to provide a framework for media educators and journalists to appreciate the ramifications of the technology on media accountability.