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Word of the Week
Archive
embed
noun [C]
a journalist placed in a
military unit in order to provide news coverage during a war
embed
verb [I, T]
embedding noun [U]
‘…Top of the agenda, as news organisations frantically plan for the
possible war in Iraq, is not just the safety of journalists per se,
but those being deployed under the new euphemism embedding.’
(The Guardian, February 24th 2003)
read the complete article
here.
This specific sense of embed, which first appeared last year, has been
featured in news reports from both sides of the Atlantic during the
past week in the context of the potential war with Iraq. US military
officials and news organisations have been planning to place (embed)
hundreds of reporters, photographers and cameramen in military units.
Potential embeds have been offered specialist military survival
training. The whole operation, coined the Embed program, is
happening on a larger and more organised scale than ever previously
contemplated.
This new verb sense is of course related to the core meaning of
embed (i.e. placing something deeply into something else). The new
sense also has an intransitive reading, e.g.
Military
correspondents have said they would like to embed with a unit.
Predictably, the term has been used as a modifier in compounds such as
embed process and embed opportunity, and there is a related process
noun embedding. The countable noun embed, used to refer to such
journalists, has gained ground considerably over the past two weeks,
and a Pentagon news transcript talked on 27th February 2003 about air
embeds (journalists based in the air as opposed to with ground
forces).
Background
The concept of embedding (journalists going behind the lines with the
military) is nothing new. Before he rose to political greatness,
Winston Churchill was a war correspondent who first gained notoriety
through being taken captive during the Boer War. During the Falklands
War in 1982, journalists were stationed on British troop ships and
many were made honorary officers.
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