Reporting the news from the frontline has been a main element of in modern mass media journalism. Ernest Hemingway, Lee Miller, Ernie Pyle, Martha Gellhorn were legends of the trade in World War II. In later times Marie Colvin, Christiane Amanpour, Lindsey Hilsum, Jeremy Bowen have put their name on recent conflicts.

With AI, the dominance of unmanned and autonomous weaponry, is this now all over? Is it too unsafe, and too old fashioned to rely on the eyewitness at the scene of action? Can they be manipulated by the means they use to find the story and get it out? YouTube is now the predominant channel of video news. TikTok and WhatsApp require shorter bursts of information. Can’t we get a greater truth from the amalgam of visual, aural and verbal of AI? And are the main platforms of AI information now controlled by a unique band of ’tech bro' moguls, who answer to their own and their shareholders' whim?

Robert Fox will discuss reporting of upheaval and conflict in the mass media since it began just under 200 years ago – and the positioning of the reporter in the process – especially the milestones of the American Civil War, the continental conflicts surrounding the Great War of 1914-1921, the Uneasy Peace to 1939, the global and regional conflicts 1939-1945, the Cold War and the wars of colonial liberation. Then we come to our own time with the seismic effect of the internet and real time 24/7 reporting from the 1990s. Then we come to our time, and the effects of the conflicts in Gaza and the Middle East, and Ukraine.

About the speaker

Robert Fox is a journalist with 58 years of experience. He has worked as a broadcaster and writer for numerous outlets, including the BBC, Times Radio, Al Arabiya, Sky Arabia, Ashaq, Alghad, GB News, ITV and LBC. He was the Commissioner of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission from 2012 to 2018, and Chair of the Defence Commentators Circle between 2021 and 2025. Robert has reported on numerous wars, elections and insurrections, including in Northern Ireland, the Falkland Islands, the Middle East, the Balkans, Afghanistan and more.