Still Connected in Operations? The Milblog Culture

Abstract

With the development of new information and communication technologies, military organizations are confronted with a proliferation of new informal channels used by soldiers, such as military blogs (or ‘milblogs’). These consist of small websites created by defence personnel around military topics. Because they have the potential to reach a large audience, milblogs have become influential and, sometimes, controversial, pushing military organizations to be more open but also to try to control them. This article first describes the new forms of communication in the military, both at the institutional and at the individual level. Next it discusses the use of milblogs among Belgian soldiers in the field and the wider role played by the internet in operations, both as an information tool and a way to break the routine of the mission. Finally it examines how these information flows, while offering more diverse perspectives, also compete with official bureaucratic channels and elements of military culture.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author would like to thank Philippe Manigart for his helpful comments.

Notes

Jan Van Der Meulen, ‘Civiel-militaire betrekkingen in verandering: wisselwerking tussen maatschappij en krijgsmacht’ [Change among civil–military relations: interactions between society and the military], in René Moelker and Joseph Soeters (eds), Krijgsmacht en samenleving: Klassieke en eigentijdse inzichten [Armed Forces and Society: Classic and Current Visions] Amsterdam: Boom, 2003, p.69.

Mark S. Granovetter, ‘The Strength of Weak Ties’, American Journal of Sociology, Vol.78, No.6, 1973, pp.1360–80.

Howard Kurtz, ‘CNN's Jordan Resigns over Iraq Remarks. News Chief Apologized for Comment on Troops’, Washington Post, 12 Feb. 2005 (at: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17462-2005Feb11.html). This refers to an incident that happened a few months before when a group of conservative bloggers exposed flaws in a report on George Bush.

Katherine Q. Seelye, ‘Resignation at CNN Shows the Growing Influence of Blogs’, New York Times, 14 Feb. 2005 (at: www.nytimes.com).

WikiLeaks, ‘Afghan War Diary’, 25 July 2010, at: wikileaks.org/wiki/Afghan_War_Diary,_2004-2010; BBC News, ‘Excerpts: Leaked US Afghan War Records’, 26 July 2010 (at: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10760780).

Marshall Kirkpatrick, ‘Poll: Internet Now Considered More Reliable than TV, Radio News’, 21 Nov. 2008 (at: www.readwriteweb.com/archives/internet_now_reliable.php).

Officer Cadet Anne-Lise D'Hoop, ‘L'utilisation des blogs militaires dans le cadre de missions’ [The use of military blogs in operations], unpublished master's thesis, Belgian Royal Military Academy, Brussels, 2009.

Delphine Resteigne, ‘Enquête concernant l'utilisation d'internet et de blogs militaires en mission’ [Inquiry into internet use and military blogs on missions], paper presented at Belgian Royal Military Academy, Brussels, Jan. 2009.

Donald Matheson, ‘Weblogs and the Epistemology of the News: Some Trends in Online Journalism’, New Media & Society, Vol.6, No.4, 2004, p.444.

Melissa Wall, ‘Blogs of War: Weblogs as News’, Journalism, Vol.6, No.2, 2005, p.154.

Milblogging.com, statistics as of 15 June 2010 (at: www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry100304-153008).

‘Top 100 Favourite Milblogs’ is based on the number of registered users who have added the blog to their favourites, or a ‘Top Countries Ranking’ according to where users are located: the United States (1,934), Iraq (444), Afghanistan (112), Germany (54), Canada (25) and the United Kingdom (25). Statistics as of 15 June 2010 (at: www.milblogging.com/top100.php).

For a study of the concept of community in cyberspace and alternative ways of characterizing online social relations, see Jan Fernback, ‘Beyond the Diluted Community Concept: A Symbolic Interactionist Perspective on Online Social Relations’, New Media and Society, Vol.9, No.1, 2007, pp.49–69.

‘In Case You Missed the November BlogWorld Expo: Milbloggers to Journos: Can You Hear us Now?, 26 Jan. 2008 (at: www.milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry080202-013826).

Tony Cucolo, ‘The Military and the Media: Shotgun Wedding, Rocky Marriage, Committed Relationship’, Media, War & Conflict, Vol.1, No.1, 2008, p.87.

Matheson (see n.9 above), p.446.

Charles C. Moskos and Thomas E. Ricks, Reporting War When There is no War, Chicago: Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation, 1996, p.10.

Excerpt posted on 24 Dec. 2005 by Mike Hubbard (a British army reservist soldier who served in Iraq in 2005–06) on his blog (at: hubbyiniraq.blogspot.com).

Interview by Officer Cadet Anne-Lise D'Hoop with an American soldier (see n.7 above)

The research was limited to non-professional journalists holding a milblog but this profile of bloggers could nevertheless be interesting for future research.

‘NATO Launches New TV Channel’, 2 Apr. 2008 (at: www.nato.int/docu/update/2008/03-march/e0328a.html).

Irene M. Wielawski, ‘For Troops, Home Can Be Too Close’, New York Times, 15 Mar. 2005, at: www.nytimes.com.

On training, 56.1 per cent of soldiers were either rather dissatisfied or not satisfied with the pre-deployment training they had received.

Moreover, since mid-2007 American military personnel have been subject to tightened restrictions and are not allowed to use military computers to communicate through websites such as YouTube or MySpace. Dan Frosch, ‘Pentagon Blocks 13 Web Sites from Military Computers’, New York Times, 15 May 2007 (at: www.nytimes.com).

The Service General du Renseignement et de la Sécurité (SGRS) exerts control on that matter while trying not to deny the right to free expression and to respect private life. DGIP-APG-MEDPR-SSCC-001, ‘Droit du personnel de la Défense d'exprimer son opinion’ [The rights of defence personnel to express their opinion], Ministry of Defence, Brussels. A new regulation on the use of the Belgian defence computer network came into force in January 2004, but this does not apply when a soldier is using his/her own computer and internet connection. In operations, rules are more limiting and less blurred because militaries are not using a private connection and because their ‘duty of discretion’ is higher.

‘According to the Criminal Law, the disclosure of sensitive information can only be punished if this information refers to objects, plans, documents or intelligence whose secret concerns the protection of territories, the external national security or if the military personnel is aware of divulgating confidential information.’ Florence Oleffe, ‘La problématique de la divulgation d'informations sensibles dans les blogs militaires’ [The problem of divulging sensitive information on military blogs], SGRS, Ministry of Defence, Brussels, Apr. 2009, p.11.

Excerpt from an interview conducted with a US soldier by Officer Cadet D'Hoop (see n.7 above).

NATO, ‘MC 0457/1 NATO Military Policy on Public Affairs’, Brussels, Sept. 2007.

Allan Woods, ‘Web Warning Issued for Soldiers in Afghanistan’, Toronto Star, 15 Feb. 2008 (at: www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/303909).

Stuart Elliott, ‘Army to Use Webcasts from Iraq for Recruiting’, New York Times, 11 Nov. 2008 (at: www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/technology/12iht-11adco.17738635.html).