Terrorist groups depend heavily on international media outlets to give updates on U.S. troop movements and strikes, said Robert S. Pritchard, a public relations professor.

"International cable news organizations are the primary information sources for the Taliban and other terrorists," he said. "When U.S. military officials give generic information to the press, they avoid giving out details to terrorists."

In the coming months military public affairs officers will be adopting different approaches to this new challenge, Pritchard said.

"There will be little about where a unit is headed and more emphasis on the fact the unit is participating in the war on terrorism," he said. "They'll discuss less about the specifics of military actions, unless it becomes critical to keeping the international coalition together."

Pritchard spent nearly 25 years as a military public affairs officer in the Navy throughout the Pacific and Europe before joining the Department of Journalism. His teaching focus includes military and corporate public relations, crisis management, impact of technology on public relations and international public relations.

He said military public affairs efforts are guided by the strict Principles of Information, the result of decades of efforts in meeting the media's need for information and balancing it against the government's ability to protect people and operational information.

"While we are rethinking our conventional wisdom both on the military and information fronts, your military public affairs professionals are still focused on providing accurate and factual information to the American public via the press," Pritchard said. "This war on terrorism has changed the face of some of the information provided, but has not changed the goals of the people charged with informing the American public."

The American and international media will play a larger role in the war on terrorism than previous conventional conflicts, he said.

"The media can no longer expect to conduct "business as usual," Pritchard said. "Business will probably never be 'usual' for any of us again, but the media will play a far more important part in this battle than they did in Vietnam, Grenada, Panama and Desert Storm. They are an integral part of the battlefield."

By Marc Ransford, Communications Manager

(NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information, contact Pritchard at rpritchard@bsu.edu or (765) 285-9104.)