Noted: Exposing celebrity reportage

Abstract

Review of: Conflict Coverage Promotion: High Quality or High Concept? By Chris Veits. Hamburg: Anchor Academic Publishing, 2014, 95pp. ISBN 978-3-95489-200-6.

Due to his background in entertainment television Chris Veits would seem uniquely qualified to conduct a semiotic analysis of the conflict coverage promotional spots on CNN International and Al Jazeera English. However, admirers of Al Jazeera English might be surprised to learn how both networks routinely employed high concept material in the segments lauding their reporting of the multinational intervention in Libya and the broader Arab Awakening. Although at times semiotic approaches can seem like the scrutiny of minutiae, the unusual choice of promotional clips provides an opportunity to demonstrate how image centric these channels’ claims about their professional integrity and morality really are.