"LET'S FACE it, it's pretty obscene but it's no more obscene than channel-hopping." Thus Bono, reflecting on the latest addition to Zoo TV, a nightly satellite link-up to that most distressful city, Sarajevo.

It may last less than five minutes but this new spot abruptly shifts the meaning and tone of Zoo TV. Till now, it's been a masterclass in media manipulation, an exercise in exposing how technology can disturb our perceptions of reality. But this innovation goes beyond games with perception. From Sarajevo, reality enters bleeding and howling.

It isn't a standard news bulletin. Their link, an American called Bill Carter who works for the city's broadcasting organisation, gives a digest of the day's events, how the bombs and bullets look to the men and women cowering in the streets. Whenever possible, he introduces a guest to personalise and dramatise the struggle for survival against the Serbian stranglehold: one guy broadcast to Bologna, hoping his girlfriend was at the U2 show there, to reassure her he was still alive.