What is the role of the war reporter today? Through interviews with prominent war and foreign correspondents such as John Pilger, Robert Fisk, Mary Dejevsky and Alex Thomson The War Correspondent delves into the most dangerous form of journalism.

From Crimea to Vietnam, the Falklands to the Gulf and Afghanistan, Iraq and the War on Terror, the books examines the attractions and risks of war reporting; the challenge of objectivity and impartiality in the war zone; the danger that journalistic independence is compromised by military control, censorship and public relations; as well as the commercial and technological pressures of an intensely concentrated, competitive news media environment.

As history and ideology return to the reporting of international conflict, Greg McLaughlin asks what will that mean for a new generation of war correspondents, attuned not to history or ideology but to the politics of the next conflict.