The more difficult the times, the stronger the need to get specific answers to rather abstract and emotional questions fueled by anxiety, panic, and despair. In order to satisfy the information requests of the audience, mass media usually turn to experts for comments and assessments. In times of war, these are military media experts, or at least those who position themselves as such on the airwaves or in the columns of publications. A closed circle is triggered: the more often an expert gets a podium in the media, the clearer his image as an expert becomes, and the more journalists are happy to invite him to their programs.
They say honor makes the king. The same can be said about the military media expert. Sometimes they appear out of nowhere, but after gaining powerful media support, they quickly become the idols of millions. It is the media that determines who classifies the war reality for us, reassures us with an optimistic forecast, or vice versa — draws disappointing conclusions about the indifference of Western partners.
We conducted a study of military media experts in Ukraine and offer it the results
Professional journalists, answering our questions, told us: who they consider an expert, what they expect from him, what demands they make, who exactly they listen to in order to form an idea of the course of events.
What is the paradox of the request for military expertise?
We need assessments, judgments and forecasts in those areas where there are no unambiguous answers to questions. The element of war has nothing to do with the gold standard of knowledge, where there are only correct answers. In addition, it is possible to know the specifics of hostilities on a certain part of the front (it is often appealed to by insiders), but it is impossible to have an idea of the picture of the war as a whole, and even more so — to make predictions about its course and the date of its end. These are the messages that ordinary viewers so want to hear, and which are so abused by experts. What is characteristic is that they do it uncoordinatedly, and therefore the so-called expert noise is formed around the military topic. We would say expert cacophony, when many views accompany the same event. We observe a pattern: the lower the expert status of a commentator on military events, the more actively he provides assessments and makes forecasts.
What do military media experts comment on most often?
Analysis of media texts shows that experts make judgments and assessments regarding the course of hostilities, strategies of both sides of the war, international support for Ukraine, and forecasts for the future.
Who undertakes expert functions?
Former soldiers, journalists — international observers, scientists.
Our survey of representatives of the professional community showed that journalists prefer military personnel with managerial and political experience.
We asked the media what functions, in their opinion, should be performed by experts. As you can see, they preferred informational and predictive functions. And if the forecasts we seek in troubled times are more or less clear, then the lack of information in the age of information surplus raises questions. Local stories of military personnel, forced migrants, victims of war; limited time and space data from official sources; posts and comments of combatants and non-combatants in social networks — the information field of war is very saturated and colorful. However, it is too fragmented and does not give a complete picture of the war in its causes and consequences.
What requirements do journalists make to military media experts?
It is certain that a military expert must have a special military education, know the appropriate terminology, be competent in military affairs and attentive to details, be able to formulate thoughts precisely and not scatter attention on secondary things — all this determines the quality of the expertise.
Let’s recall, the famous Anthony’s triangle presents three levels of vision of the military situation — operational, tactical, strategic. This management model, adapted to military affairs, illustrates the ability of experts to have a panoramic vision of the current situation at the front. It is clear that insiders, who cover a purely operational level of vision of the situation, are not enough to form a comprehensive picture of the course of the war.
The majority of interviewed journalists expect a predictive vision of the situation from military media experts, many are interested in insiders and historical parallels. It is indicative that the emotional response to events is not a priority for the professional media community, which values factuality and objectivity of data. By the way, the majority of journalists (56%) rated the level of objectivity as average.
As for historical parallels, this is one of the most vulnerable areas of military expertise. Although appeals to history provide certain contexts and lessons, they ignore political contexts, technological innovations, and changes in military doctrines, and therefore distort the causal relationships of wartime realities important to informed judgment.
As you can see, military experts fill information gaps, satisfy audience needs in generalizations, assessments, and forecasts. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, their number is constantly increasing. Ukrainian specialists are joined by foreign experts who offer their unique perspective from the outside and also gather an appreciative audience.
Can we say that a new media institution is being formed — an institution of military media experts?
The answer is no, because currently:
- there is no single source or platform for expert information;
- ethical and professional standards for military experts in the media are not defined;
- there is no organization or institution that would unite these experts;
- there is no mainstream interpretation of the situation.
All these “no” leave many other questions for the researchers of military expertise in the media.
Who can be a military expert? How mandatory is professional training, should an expert have experience of participating in combat operations? Is emotional assessment appropriate when presenting information?
Next time we will tell you about the most rated experts. You will be interested to learn about the facts of their biography and level of competence.
Lilia Temchenko
