1st Edition
Reporting Global while being Local Local Producers of News for Distant Audiences
International news has long been studied and understood as produced by outsiders – foreign correspondents working in exotic, international locales. This book challenges this established view by putting the spotlight on the insiders working in their own countries producing news for international audiences.
Western male foreign correspondents who report from areas affected by crises and conflicts for an ‘audience back home’ have long stood in as visible metaphors of international news production. But the understanding of who produces international news is starting to shift as scholars come to take into account the often-invisible role played by locally based, non-Western news-workers who have always been part and parcel of international news production. The roles and responsibilities of these professional, specialised locals within the global flow of news have only increased as falling news industry revenues have meant reductions in non-local staff in foreign news bureaus. Available research shows that the involvement of local journalists and fixers, as well as NGOs, as sources of news and information in international news production is marked by economic, socio-cultural and practice-related tensions. To shed light on these growing yet relatively less investigated changes happening in international news-making, this book brings together the latest of studies conducted on this form of journalistic labour around the world.
This book will contribute to both the breadth and depth of our future understanding of local news-work that benefits distant audiences, and also help cement the place of such journalistic work as a vital topic of analysis in its own right.
The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Journalism Studies.
Introduction: Reporting Global While Being Local: Local Sources of News for Distant Audiences
Saumava Mitra and Chris Paterson
1. Fixers as Entrepreneurs
Colleen Murrell
2. "Fixing" the Journalist-Fixer Relationship: A Critical Look Towards Developing Best Practices in Global Reporting
Shayna Plaut and Peter Klein
3. Beyond Puppet Journalism: The Bridging Work of Transnational Journalists in a Local Field
Ruth Moon
4. The Development of Roles in Kosovo: From Fixers to Journalists
Abit Hoxha and Kenneth Andresen
5. One Foot in Prison and One Foot Out: State-Appointed Local Journalistic Labor in North Korea
Soomin Seo
6. Hierarchies of Editorial Power in International NGOs
Muganzi M. Isharaza
7. "Translating" Russia: News Fixers and Foreign Correspondents in an Era of Political Uncertainty
Lindsay Palmer
8. Reporting Global While Being Local—Commentary for Special Issue of Journalism Studies
Stephen Jukes
9. Empowerment Journalism - Commentary for Special Issue of Journalism Studies
Maya Lefkowich, Britney Dennison and Peter Klein
Biography
Saumava Mitra investigates the gendered and geopolitical inequities inherent in the reporting of – and the acts surrounding reporting of – violent and social conflicts around the world. Prior to joining DCU, Mitra worked in journalism, communications and academia in South Asia, East Africa, the North and Central Americas and in Western Europe.
Chris Paterson researches the production of international news and communication for development. He has led funded research on the representation of modern imperialism in Africa, the role of development funding for journalism and climate change communication in Africa. His books concern television news agencies and the safety of war correspondents.
