Ultimate reality TV

War as lifestyle (Credit: MTV)Embedded Media

Forget Survivor and Fear Factor. Thanks to embedded media you can now watch and read about the exploits of your favourite journalist in the midst of all too real war. Gideon Yago, a 25-year-old mtv reporter, hangs with the 1st Marine Division of the us Army in Kuwait. Ben Arnoldy, 26 years old, nervously files Internet reports for the Christian Science Monitor from an Air Force base also in Kuwait.

They are just two of the hundreds of reporters and photographers from news organisations all over the world who are currently ''embedded'' with American military units. Granted unprecedented access to military operations, these journalists hope to put a human face on war. Correspondents from new fangled cable and Internet news organisations may not know the difference between a b-1 or a b-52 bomber but they entertain hopes of engaging their audience with a personal style of reporting.

Their target is definitely not hard-core news junkies. Arnoldy admits that he doesn't know a "heck of a lot about the military". He confesses to buying his combat helmet online. But as mtv's Yago notes, ''We're playing a different game, a different sport. There's an amazing story to be told about these young men who are about to come of age with guns in their hands.''