Blog Assignment #4 - Thucydides: The first war correspondent

1. As we listen, take notes about what you hear in this documentary. After your notes are complete, structure them into a 2-3 paragraph summary, which you should post to your blog.
   
   The Peloponnesian war started in 431 BC and lasted for 27 years. This historic war was fought between Athens and Sparta. Athens was urban and the city of Sparta was rural. How today´s society has so much knowledge about this war has a simple explanation. There was a man named Thucydides who recorded everything possible about this war. He is said to be the first war correspondent ever. From Athens he reported about the war and he used the imagery of plague to describe the corpses and all the deaths of the brutal war. Thucydides was later exiled to Sparta and got the war story from Sparta´s side as well. He carefully analyzed everything and was not interested in anything else but the truth and always wanted to be as objective as possible. The news he reported about had great importance to him and he never wanted them to be seen as gossip or even a story, therefor he only used information directly from eye witnesses or himself, he did not want anything else than primary sources.
   
   Thucydides was a wealthy and well-educated man who was primarily a historian and as I stated above, lived in exile. During his lifetime he made it his mission to tell the truth about the war and he was very determined to be neutral. Many people have through the years said that Thucydides had a computer in his brains. But it is hard to remember everything that every witness says as well as everything that Thucydides himself heard or saw, so he dictated to some person who wrote it all down on papyrus rolls. Thucydides revolutionized the way that news is recorded during his time and this has had a great impact on the present day and all the current news in the world.
   
   

Answer these question and post to your blog: 

• What are the most important qualities for a war correspondent, according to this documentary?

The most important quality of a war correspondent is to be objective about the event and not bias. If the news for example involve a war there should be absolutely no ”flattering” of any side. Thoroughness and passion are also valuable qualities. 

• How does Thucydides report on the conflict he witnesses? Why is his reporting still relevant today?

Thucydides travelled across the Greek nation and his goal was to receive all facts himself or by eye witnesses. He wanted to portray the objective truth, he did not rely on the stories first encountered by and the recordings he made were available on papyrus for the public.

What Thucydides did and went through to get all facts and an honest picture of the event, is exactly what war correspondence is all about. His way of working set the grounds of today´s news corresponding. This kind of reporting is the kind that lasts. It is the kind that still remains important and accurate even after hundreds of years passing by since the actual war or event.

• How has war reporting changed in the digital age? What would Thucydides think of this?

There are many changes since Thucydides lived and worked. Travelling is for example so much easier today with airplanes, trains and buses  Then of course there also is the Internet which spread news as fast as lightening. War correspondents today can easily copy another one´s notes or facts about the event without being live at the scene. This as well makes more news bias or altered to attract as many readers or viewers as possible. It is hard to find a true, objective and neutral recording of today´s wars.

Since all the differences between today´s war correspondents and Thucydides I do not think that Thucydides would like all the changes. He might appreciate the eased travelling but I cannot see that he would be so enthusiastic about correspondents reporting from places other than the actual scene of the event. He would probably want most to be more thorough and objective when recording and reporting in their professions.