"How are Western journalists who are killed in the course of their work remembered? Using the biographies of journalists killed covering conflict, this article investigates the discursive repertoires through which the memorialization of journalists killed while reporting conflict is accomplished. Th
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e authors argue that such journalists are consistently constructed as humanitarian, cosmopolitan witnesses engaged in supererogatory moral projects involving justice and voice for those outside of these journalists’ geopolitical home communities. This particular articulation appears to herald a recent shift in the memorialization of the journalistic dead, although it is continuous with longer discourses in fields such as photojournalism and its idea of the ‘concerned photographer’. We speculate that this shift is consistent with material changes in the field – in particular, the precaritization of conflict reporting driving journalists into the material and social world of professional humanitarianism, whose discourses around the moral worth and cosmopolitan nature of the work have colonized the subfield of conflict reporting." (Abstract)
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"We conducted interviews with conflict journalists who covered the conflicts in Syria, Yemen, Libya, and Iraq and who work for the major international news agencies and media companies. These journalists did most of their reporting from remote locations as the conflict zones were too dangerous to be
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physically present. We investigated how the journalist did their jobs with the communicative affordances of digital tools and how digital trust-building occurred. The trust-building process between journalists and sources shifted across platforms and according to the technologies’ communicative affordances. We established that reporters had embraced the flow of news material on social media platforms as a valuable source of information, but after exercising extreme caution. Journalists upheld the boundaries that separated them from amateurs by emphasizing their role in making sense of events. They also fortified their gatekeeping role through verifying and vetting information – a task needed to maintain credibility and protect readers and viewers from misinformation and propaganda. Encrypted messaging applications such as WhatsApp played a major role in speeding up communication with and protecting potential sources and verification." (Abstract)
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"Rita Kohlmaier stellt 30 Kriegsberichterstatterinnen und -fotografinnen aus verschiedenen Ländern stellvertretend für den ganzen Berufstand vor. Sie bezahlten oftmals einen hohen Preis: psychische Belastungen, Entfernung von ihren Familien, ständige Unsicherheit. Einige starben bei einem ihrer E
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insätze, wie die Fotojournalistin Anja Niedringhaus oder die amerikanische Kriegsberichterstatterin Dickey Chapelle. Andere wurden ermordet, wie die russische Journalistin Anna Politkowskaja. Ihre Zeugnisse bleiben wichtige Zugänge zum Zeitgeschehen, und ihre Leistungen werden durch internationale Preise gewürdigt. Einzelne ziehen sich, wie Lee Miller nach ihrer umfassenden Dokumentation der letzten Monate des Zweiten Weltkriegs, ins Private zurück und sprechen nicht mehr über das Erlebte. Andere wiederum widmen sich ihr ganzes Leben öffentlich der Frage, wieso Menschen Krieg führen und zu den dokumentierten Gräueltaten fähig sind. Gemeinsam sei ihnen das Bestreben, Mitgefühl für die betroffene Zivilgesellschaft zu wecken, nicht zuletzt, um ihr Publikum zu einem Umdenken zu bewegen und einen Weg zum Frieden vorzubereiten." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Reporting on the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict poses a significant risk to the physical safety of journalists and other media professionals. At times of heightened conflict between the two sides, the magnitude of the risks journalists face increases exponentially. Journalists reporting from
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Gaza are particularly at risk from military attacks by the Israeli Defense Forces. In this article, I examine the practices of international news reporters during the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza. The data for the study comprise interviews with journalists and photographers who reported the war from Gaza. Particular attention is paid to the risks journalists faced during the war, as well as the measures employed to mitigate them. Such practices can be conceived as a form of resistance and resilience in an era of asymmetric war, which has seen risks to journalists increasing significantly." (Abstract)
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"Marc Engelhardt arbeitet selbst seit 20 Jahren aus anderen Ländern für deutsche Medien. Nun hat er für die Otto Brenner Stiftung das Diskussionspapier über den deutschen Auslandsjournalismus geschrieben. Er habe damit gerechnet, dass bestimmte Länder öfter in den Medien vorkommen als andere.
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Diesen Eindruck müsse jede*r bekommen, der die Nachrichten verfolge. Um nicht nur über Anekdotisches zu schreiben, erarbeitete er konkrete Zahlen. Dafür analysierte Engelhardt, wie oft Ländernamen und Regionen vom 1. Januar 2010 bis 31. Dezember 2019 in 23 führenden Zeitungen vorkommen. Mit Abstand am meisten berichteten die Zeitungen über die USA. Damit habe er gerechnet. „Aber auf dem zweiten Platz liegt Großbritannien, und das kommt auf nicht einmal die Hälfte der Berichte“, sagt Engelhardt. „Ich habe nicht damit gerechnet, dass es so viel Berichterstattung über die USA gibt.“ 34 Staaten kamen hingegen weniger als 50-mal in der Berichterstattung vor und aus 15 Regionen wurde gar nicht berichtet, darunter die umkämpfte Westsahara. Insgesamt verblasse die Welt in der Auslandsberichterstattung. Der Grund dafür sei, dass sich nur wenige Medien eigene Korrespondent*innen leisteten und in den meisten Ländern keine Korrespondent*innen aktiv seien, erklärt Engelhardt. Einzelne decken dabei mehrere Länder ab – sie sind teilweise für Gebiete mit mehreren Tausend Kilometern Breite zuständig [...] In seinem Diskussionspapier fordert Marc Engelhardt dafür öffentliche Mittel, denn es handle sich um eine gesellschaftliche Aufgabe. Über die genaue Ausgestaltung müsse aber noch diskutiert werden, denn die Regierung dürfe keinen Einfluss darauf haben, worüber Korrespondent*innen berichten. Aber der bisherige Weg habe keine Zukunft, „die Marktmechanismen reichen offenbar nicht“, findet er." (David Muschenich, Studie zu Auslandsjournalismus: Blinde Flecken, in: taz online, 1.3.2022)
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"This report focuses on Beijing's efforts to control domestic reporting by resident foreign journalists. It is based on interviews conducted by the IFJ in December 2021 with 19 current or recent correspondents from nine countries, who work across print and broadcast and whose experience in China ran
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ges from a couple of years to several decades. It also draws from Locked Down or Kicked Out, the Foreign Correspondents Club of China's 2021 Media Freedoms Report, and earlier FCCC annual reports based on surveys of the club's roughly 190 members. The research finds that China uses a wide range of coercive methods to control foreign journalistsf reporting. These include: outright expulsions, plus threats that make journalists feel compelled to leave; denials and delays in the granting of visas so that journalists are unable to start work on schedule or must live from one short-term visa to another, unsure if they will be there the following month; lighter scrutiny of journalists from nations viewed as 'friendly' or 'unimportant', although Beijing's attitude fluctuates according to political relations between China and the home country; lawsuits alleging breaches of reporting protocols, such as identifying oneself as a journalist, which carry the risk of being refused an exit visa until the case is resolved [...]" (Executive summary)
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"This report is based on a survey of journalists who belong to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China in Beijing and the Shanghai Foreign Correspondents’ Club. Conducted in December 2021, 127 of 192 correspondent members representing news organizations from 30 countries and regions responded
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to the survey." (Survey methods)
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"In an era marked by an unprecedented refugee crisis and ongoing, seemingly unending, borderland conflicts, foreign correspondents could play a pivotal role in helping create a global public sphere that incorporates the perspectives of those who are most effected by ongoing resource-fueled wars—an
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d least powerful. However, aspects of the historical development of foreign correspondence, as well as contemporary practices, do not allow the profession to reach this potential. Borderland takes insights from postcolonial studies, international relations, development studies, and philosophy and uses the site of the world’s largest UN peacekeeping presence, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as its case study. It examines the specific narrative styles, and news-gathering habits in these complex spaces and discovers neocolonial practices stymying ethical praxis. Brought to life through the autoethnographic descriptions and analysis of ‘behind the scenes’ events, Borderland seeks to introduce new, decolonized reporting techniques. And it argues for reporting that explores how local realities are impacted by global discourses. In a digital world where people access news direct from conflict zones, the role and value of foreign correspondents must be questioned. Borderland answers that question by proposing decolonized foundations from which foreign correspondents can be the storytellers needed in today’s global polity." (Publisher description)
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"There is a worldwide increase in hostility against journalists who report for external audiences, which especially impedes reporting from conflict areas and on important social and political matters. Some political leaders have sought to discredit and delegitimize both journalists from abroad and l
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ocals doing foreign correspondence, by branding them as threats to state security or spreaders of false information. When taking arbitrary actions and applying disproportionate restrictions on journalists reporting for external media, state authorities are breaching their obligations under international law. Mobilizations to strengthen protections for journalists’ safety and stamp out impunity have won increased support from governments, the legal community and other stakeholders; but the importance of protecting foreign correspondents merits more international attention." (Key trends, page 1)
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"In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden journalistische Arbeitsbedingungen während der Kriege im auseinanderbrechenden Jugoslawien untersucht. Anhand von Experteninterviews mit deutschsprachigen Journalistinnen und Journalisten, die in den 1990er Jahren in den Kriegsgebieten tätig waren, wird rückblic
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kend analysiert, wie sie den vielfältigen Herausforderungen begegneten. Wie waren die Arbeitsbedingungen während der Kriege? Welche Konsequenzen wurden daraus gezogen? Inwiefern haben die dramatischen Erfahrungen die weitere Arbeit geprägt? Darüber hinaus erfolgt eine Charakterisierung und Typisierung der Berichterstattenden auf dem Balkan. Mythen und Klischees, die sich um den Beruf reihen, werden auf den Prüfstand gestellt. Im Weiteren wird der Umgang mit der Komplexität vor Ort und der journalistischen Norm der Objektivität in der Berichterstattung untersucht. Die zeitliche Distanz ermöglicht es, die einstigen Erlebnisse zu reflektieren. Um diese Einsichten zu gewinnen, wurden zehn Journalistinnen und Journalisten aus Presse und Rundfunk interviewt." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"The recent “emotional turn” in journalism studies has yet to substantially focus on the role that affect and emotion play in specific practices of journalism. This paper examines the affective/emotional dimensions of journalists coping with exhaustion during a reporting assignment in South Suda
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n to explore the ways in which the these might meaningfully alter how the practice is performed. I argue that affect/emotion ought not to be understood as simply a form of failure to act rationally, or affective baggage picked up as a result of practice, but as integral to practices of journalism itself. I use the example of exhaustion, its effects on the practices of journalists and their responses to it to point to types of affective/emotional work that journalists undertake in order to both do journalism safely and successfully and to do work which is recognisably “professional” journalism." (Abstract)
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"Though news fixers are vital to the practice of international reporting-helping journalists to understand foreign languages, set up compelling interviews, and navigate unfamiliar terrain-their role is rarely made transparent to news audiences. Without news fixers, journalists would struggle to cove
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r stories that unfold outside their own countries. Yet, fixers are some of the most underprotected and undervalued employees in the foreign news industry. This book draws upon interviews with 75 news fixers from around the world, in hopes of learning more about fixers' own perspectives on their important work. Overwhelmingly, these news workers suggest that they play the precarious role of 'cultural mediator,' bridging the divides that might exist between foreign journalists and the people who live and work in the places the journalists cover. Fixers also suggest that they deserve more upward mobility in the field of international journalism, as well as more protection from the news organizations that depend so heavily on their work." (Publisher description)
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"This book investigates ways in which global media coverage of conflicts affects the worldviews of the social and cultural values of nationals from the war regions. It identifies the cultural patterns in remote communities that have been 'diluted' by IT and the extent to which the changes impacted t
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he values of the indigenes. It also describes the role that IT especially social media and broadcast media play in the understanding of war among residents in highly wired and remote communities, respectively." (Publisher description)
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"On 26 February 1976, after almost a century of colonization, Spain withdrew from Western Sahara, throwing the territory wide open for Moroccan civil and military occupation and abandoning tens of thousands Sahrawis to their fate. More than four decades later, the Western Sahara, officially the last
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territory in Africa that remains to be decolonized, is still trapped in political limbo, divided into three parts: the areas occupied by Morocco, those held by the Polisario Front, and the refugee camps in Tindouf (Algeria). Journalism is one of the many victims of this conflict, which has been forgotten by the media spotlight and left as a virtual news “black hole”. Morocco, ranked 135th in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index, controls information in the territory with an iron fist, ruthlessly punishing the practice of local journalism and blocking foreign media access. Torture, arrests, physical abuse, persecution, intimidation, harassment, slander, defamation, technological sabotage, and lengthy prison sentences are daily fare for Sahrawi journalists. Despite the severity of Morocco’s repression and its policy of deporting foreign correspondents, and despite the silence on the conflict reigning in world media, Sahrawi reporters of a new generation are running extraordinary risks to keep the torch of journalism burning and to prevent Western Sahara from being buried under the sands of oblivion." (Abstract)
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"This edited volume examines how the growth of social media and ancillary computer systems is affecting the relationship between journalism and the pursuit of truth. Experts explore how news is perceived and identified, presented to the public, and how the public responds to news. They consider soci
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al media’s effect on the craft of journalism as well as the growing role of algorithms, big data, and automatic content production regimes. The volume’s aim is to confront these issues in a way that will be of enduring relevance; the discussions about contemporary journalism inform current students and help scholars in the future. Chapters reflect on questions such as what is different and what remains the same in journalism’s pursuit of truth now that social media has become such a prominent force in news gathering, dissemination, and reinterpretation? How has reader participation and responses changed? What are the implications for journalistic information gathering and truth claims? What is different now about the social roles of journalists and media institutions? How does interaction between journalists and social media affect democratic practices? The chapters offer a mix of empirical and critical work that reflects on journalism’s past, present, and future roles in our lives and in society." (Publisher description)
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"The high-profile appearance of Chinese media organizations in Africa has attracted considerable attention. How Chinese correspondents in Africa actually go about their work is, however, little understood. A posting in Africa gives journalists at Xinhua News Agency or China Central Television a degr
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ee of freedom not experienced in China combined with greater local visibility than a posting in the West and more market opportunities. At the same time, it carries the rather heavy responsibility to act as a pioneer of a new, distinctive global voice for China envisaged by the Chinese government. Based on interviews and observation at several Chinese media organizations in three African locations and in Beijing over the course of 3 years, this article suggests that Chinese correspondents in Africa are unable to make use of the opportunities their postings offer. While the greater investments of Chinese media in Africa have been framed to date as a challenge to their struggling competitors, in reality, journalists working for Chinese media not only feel some of the constraints that have characterized international journalism in the past decade but also face additional ones: the problem of finding and communicating a clear identity; of remaining relevant in a space where national media are growing fast and becoming more professional; of testing new styles without appealing only to a niche." (Abstract)
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"This article examines some of the cultural differences between news ‘fixers’ and foreign reporters, focusing specifically on the expectations and experiences of the fixers, rather than the correspondents whose own perspectives have already been fruitfully explored. Drawing upon qualitative, sem
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i-structured interviews I conducted with 21 news fixers, I will answer three research questions: (1) How do fixers understand and value the work they do? (2) How do fixers view the cultural, ethnic, or racial differences that inevitably play into the professional relationships between local news staff and foreign news outlets? (3) How do these cultural differences impact the safety of foreign correspondents and fixers, most especially at sites of conflict? The study ultimately shows that fixers take issue with foreign journalists’ lack of background on the countries they visit and with journalists’ lack of attention to disparate cultural mores in the newsgathering process. Furthermore, the inattention to cultural difference in the field can endanger the lives of the foreign reporters as well as the lives of the fixers." (Abstract)
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"As part of China’s ‘going out’ strategy, China is using its media to promote its views and vision to the wider world and to counter negative images in the US-dominated international media. China’s Media Go Global, the first edited collection on this subject, evaluates how the unprecedented
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expansion of Chinese media and communications is changing the global media landscape and the role of China within it. Each chapter examines a different dimension of Chinese media’s globalization, from newspapers, radio, film and television, to social media and journalism cultures and practices. Topics include the rise of Chinese news networks, China Daily as an instrument of China’s public diplomacy and the discussion around the growth of China’s state media in Africa. Other chapters discuss entertainment television, financial media and the advertising market in China." (Publisher description)
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