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OAKLAND, Calif., Apr. 10 (AScribe Newswire) -- Following is a summary of news sources who are willing to discuss issues related to how the media cover the war. Each of these organizations issued news releases on the AScribe newswire. This summary of sources is provided by AScribe as a service for the media.

Vilma Concha / Meredith College

Concha, a sociolinguist, is assistant professor of foreign languages and literatures. She teaches a course on "Language and Power" that focuses in part on the way the international media presents the Iraq situation. Contact Concha at (o) 919-760-2297; conchav@meredith.edu. Alternate contact: Melyssa Allen, Media Relations, 919-760-8455; allenme@meredith.edu.

Mark Pedelty / University of Minnesota

Pedelty, anthropology professor, wrote the book "War Stories: The Culture of Foreign Correspondents" in 1995. The book is based on his research on how the media covered war in El Salvador. In the current war, Pedelty sees many of the same patterns that he found in El Salvador. "The new and improved embedding is similar to pooling; the only difference is that it provides a ritual veneer of 'on-the-ground' information. We get more information about munitions, but none of the context that is so sorely missing." As for the American media, Pedelty found a lack of independent or critical reporting and many reports that foster the good guy-bad guy phenomenon. "Unfortunately, one needs to go to non-USA reporting to get that context, for the most part," he says. Contact Pedelty at 612-659-8237 or 612-625-6383. Alternate contact: Bob San, UM News Service, 612-624-4082.

Mary Vavrus / University of Minnesota

Vavrus, communication studies assistant professor, is an expert in the area of media studies, with particular emphasis on political economy of the media and women in the media. Vavrus offers a critique of media war coverage and can explain why we're receiving the current slant, quality and volume of war media. Vavrus says there are also policy changes and legislation that have reduced the number of critical voices heard in mainstream news media--particularly about the war. Vavrus says gender also plays a role in the coverage we read and see. Contact Vavrus at (o) 612-624-5515 or (h) 612-721-9157. Alternate contact: Catherine Peloquin, UM News Service, 612-624-8038.

Conrad Fink / University of Georgia

Fink, an ex-Marine officer and a former war correspondent, is able to address both sides of the war-coverage issue. The former vice president of the Associated Press is a professor at UGA's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Contact Fink at 706-542-5031.

Bill Lee / University of Georgia

Lee, a professor in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, is a scholar on first amendment issues. "The Pentagon policy of embedding journalists within military units is a significant improvement over the pool requirements in place during the Gulf War, which largely kept journalists away from the front line action," says Lee, However, he says "there will still be significant restrictions on what the press may publish." Contact Lee at (o) 706-542-4963; weyrelee@uga.edu.

Yahya Kamalipour / Purdue University, Calumet

Kamalipour, professor and head of the Department of Communication and Creative Arts, is one of a handful of researchers who studies mass media in the Middle East. He is the author of half a dozen books including "Global Communication" and "The U.S. Media and the Middle East: Image and Perception." He also is editor of Global Media Journal. "The media need to balance their reports by including diverse perspectives and in-depth analysis of the implications of the war rather than mainly relying on government and military sources or serving as megaphones for the administration's agenda," he says. Contact Kamalipour at (o) 219-989-2880; kamaliyr@calumet.purdue.edu.

Christopher Vaughan / Rutgers University, New Brunswick

Vaughan, assistant professor of journalism and media studies at the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies (SCILS), can talk about the global media's coverage of the conflict in Iraq. A former journalist who has covered conflicts in the Philippines, Vaughan studies media coverage of war and the cultural roles that media play during wartime. He has written about the U.S. media coverage of the Vietnam conflict and about the Spanish-American War. Contact Vaughan at (o) 732-932-7500, ext. 8170, or (h) 732-545-9296.

Richard Chapman / Washington University, Saint Louis

Chapman, senior lecturer in film & media studies, is the producer of "Shooting the Messengers," an upcoming documentary about how journalists reported the war in Vietnam. He also recently co-wrote the HBO film "Live From Baghdad.' which told the behind-the-scenes story of CNN's coverage of the early days of the 1991 Gulf War. He sees sharp changes in the military's treatment of journalists over the last four decades. Among the many casualties of the Vietnam War was the relationship between the Pentagon and the American press. Contact Chapman at (o) 314-935-8238; rchapman@artsci.wustl.edu.

Jane Kirtley / University of Minnesota

Kirtley, professor and director of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law can discuss the access media has to the war including a historical comparison of past media access to conflicts. Kirtley can also discuss the legal restrictions on media coverage of national security matters and media ethics in covering war. Kirtley was involved in all of these issues as a press advocate during the first Gulf War. Contact Kirtley at (o) 612-625-9038. Alternate contact: Catherine Peloquin, UM News Service, 612-624-8038.

John Burks / San Francisco State University

Burks, chair of the journalism department, can discuss aspects of reporters working with the military to cover the war. Burks, a former Newsweek correspondent and former managing editor of Rolling Stone magazine, follows media coverage of major events. Contact Burks at (o) 415-338-2663 or (h) 650-355-7169;jburks@sfsu.edu

John Theobald / University of California, Davis

Theobald, a lecturer in the Department of Communication, can comment how the public is affected by war coverage in the media. He can also discuss the politics that print and broadcast media encounter in attempting to communicate war news to the public. Contact Theobald at (o) 530-752-4916 MTW; (h) 707-942-1132;, (c) 707-322-6340; theobald@worldnet.att.net.

Bud Carey / Syracuse University

Carey, associate professor of communications, can address the cost of providing war coverage. Media companies have obviously been planning for coverage but those plans are, however, based on suppositions that may or may not prove correct., he said. "One thing is certain-the costs will be high. U.S. audiences have come to expect the availability of war coverage around the clock. . . . However, there is not any newsgathering organization that is going to risk being behind on this story. . . . It is highly doubtful that any U.S. media company will make coverage secondary to short-term profits." Contact Carey at (o) 315-443-3784; SUNews@syr.edu.

Ron Yates / University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Yates, professor and head of the department of journalism, was a foreign correspondent for most of two decades for the Chicago Tribune. He covered many military conflicts, including the Vietnam War, revolutions and guerrilla wars in Central America, and Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation. He also spent nearly four years in Army intelligence and special operations. Can talk extensively about the nature and challenges of war coverage, including the concept of "embedding" reporters in military units. Contact Yates at (o) 217-333-0709; ryates@uiuc.edu.

Rick Houlberg / San Francisco State University

Houlberg, professor of broadcast and electronic communication arts, has studied broadcast coverage of wars and how coverage has changed since the Vietnam War. Houlberg, a Vietnam veteran himself, is an expert on television news production. Contact Houlberg at (o) 415-338-7080 or (h) 415-833-9645; houlberg@sfsu.edu

Tom Kunkel / University of Maryland

Kunkel is dean of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism. His expertice includes media analysis and criticism. Kunkel served as top editor of the San Jose Mercury and Miami Herald and media criticism columnist for American Journalism Review. Contact Kunkel at (o) 301-405-2383 or (h) 301-879-8924 (home); kunkel@deans.umd.edu.

Chris Hanson / University of Maryland

Hanson is professor of journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism. His expertise includes media coverage of war; media-military relations; and journalism ethics Hanson was a combat correspondent in the Gulf War. He covered the civil war in Rwanda and has covered the Pentagon and State Department. Contact Hanson at (o) 301-405-6049 or (h) 202-257-7921; chanson@jmail.umd.edu.

Robert Thompson / Syracuse University

Thompson, professor of midia and culture, said, "The federal government learned a lot about how not to let journalists cover a war during Vietnam. Journalists learned a lot about how not to be allowed to cover a war during the Gulf War. Now, when a true "living room war" is possible on more news networks than there used to be TV networks, the federal government and journalists seem to be in the throes of negotiating a new equilibrium for the possible war in Iraq." Contact Thompson at (o) 315-443-3784; SUNews@syr.edu.

Susan Tifft / Duke University

Tifft, professor of the practice of journalism and public policy studies, was a national writer and associate editor for TIME Magazine, where she wrote major articles on politics, economics, foreign affairs and education from 1982-91. She served as an election analyst for NBC during this year's elections. Contact Tifft at tifft@pps.duke.edu.

Francis Ward / Syracuse University

Ward, associate professor of communications, said the media has not been skeptical enough. "The news media have not challenged the administration's position. Media (especially television news) have simply accepted the administration's claim with very little analysis of its basic premise. Some newspapers have been far more skeptical than television. . . . Also, until very recently, television news has done relatively little to cover the anti-war position. Criticism of the possibility of war with Iraq has never been a consistent theme in TV news coverage. At best, TV will do occasional interviews with a skeptic or critic of the U.S. war plans, but such coverage, whenever it happens, is small compared to the daily drumbeat from the administration and pro-war advocates." Contact Ward at (o) 315-443-3784; SUNews@syr.edu.