From the very beginning, reporting on wars and conflicts has been at the core of news journalism. With today’s real-time reporting and smartphones, events come much closer to us than they did through early 20th-century newspaper coverage. Right now, the world is closely following events in places like Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran. Journalists, photojournalists, and increasingly also ordinary people living in those areas bring these events into our daily lives.

The Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 can be considered the first media war. The war began when Japan attacked the Russian naval base at Port Arthur. The conflict was followed closely, and there was an air of global war tension. Stereoscopic image cards, picture postcards, and the first newspaper-published photographs spread news and propaganda directly from the front lines. Both sides of the war produced photographic postcards to influence public opinion.

How do you follow the news about ongoing wars, such as the war in Ukraine? Do war reports make you feel anxious? Do you try to limit how much news you consume?