International news reporting is undergoing a profound transformation. Western newspapers and broadcasters have steadily cut back on foreign correspondents and reporting over the last 20 years in the face of economic pressures. Now technology and cultural changes brought by globalisation are bringing additional pressures to news organisations and the internet has also allowed new voices to be heard. News organisations are having to adapt and redefine themselves in the face of turbulent changes to how we learn about the world.

This book reveals that 'fixers'—local experts on whom foreign correspondents rely—play a much more significant role in international television newsgathering than has been documented or understood. Murrell explores the frames though which international reporting has traditionally been analysed and then shows that fixers, who have largely been dismissed by scholars as 'logistical aides', are in fact central to the day-to-day decision-making that takes place on-the-road. Murrell looks at why and how fixers are selected and what their significance is to foreign correspondence. She asks if fixers help introduce a local perspective into the international news agenda, or if fixers are simply ‘People Like Us’ (PLU). Also included are in-depth case studies of correspondents in Iraq and Indonesia.

This book articulates the skills and perspectives that future foreign correspondents need to adopt in an increasingly globalized world. By revisiting entrenched traditions in the training and practice of international reporting, The Future Foreign Correspondent examines the changing role of a correspondent, outlining aspects that will evolve, the skills that will continue to be pivotal and those becoming even more important, such as the need for greater cultural understanding within the global media sphere. This book is a must read for journalists, media students and researchers interested in understanding what needs to be taken into consideration when reporting transcultural news spheres.

Through extended portraits of AP foreign correspondents, this book documents the practices and constraints shaping international news since World War II.

The book studies the current trends of foreign correspondence in Europe. The EU’s expansion has had abundant effects on news coverage and some of the European capitals have become home to the biggest international press corps in world. So, who are these "professional strangers" stationed in Europe and how do they try to make their stories, that are clearly important in today’s interconnected world, interesting for viewers and readers? This book represents the first Pan-European study of foreign correspondents and their reporting. It includes chapters from 27 countries, and it aims to study them and the direction, flow and pattern of their coverage, as well as answer questions regarding the impact of new technologies on the quantity, frequency and speed of their coverage. Do more sophisticated communications tools yield better international news coverage of Europe? Or does the audience’s increasing apathy and the downsizing of the foreign bureaus offset these advances? And how do the seemingly unstoppable media trends of convergence, commercialization, concentration, and globalization affect the way Europe and individual European countries are reported?

Inhaltsangabe:Der Studiengang International Media Studies wurde in Kooperation von der Deutschen Welle-Akademie, der Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg und der Universität Bonn eingeführt. Introduction: Motivation: As the Russia-Georgia war of 2008 started, I had just arrived in Germany. At the time, nobody ever really believed that military actions would ever take place between the two countries, though there was a lot of talk about the possibility. During the first days of the war, while in Germany, it was challenging to get information from the Georgian media. Later I learned of the hacker attacks on Georgian websites, and also that people in Georgia could not visit any Russian websites. I was having trouble even contacting my family through land telephone lines. It seemed that the information war between Russia and Georgia had gained strength. Russia Today was describing Georgians as the worst villains, and CNN was expressing its empathy towards Georgia. It was a confusing atmosphere of an enormous amount of discrepancies. After the war, there were a lot of manipulations and speculations about the causes and the flow of the military conflict. This triggered my reflection on whether media of directly involved parties under the combat circumstances can stay balanced and unbiased. Both Russian and Georgian media seem to face significant challenges related to media independence because of the relatively short and fragile democratic development taking place in both countries. It may be naive to expect an absence of bias from media organizations from either country; instead it would be more plausible to look to media of third countries to play a neutral observer role. Certainly, every media and every country represents its own interests but nobody speaks about ideal configurations. During my master study at the Deutsche Welle, I attended a seminar on the peace journalism which motivated me to come back to my previous questions and try to find out whether the reporting on the Russia-Georgia war was conflict-sensitive or balanced in any way. The conflict between Russia and Georgia is an ongoing conflict with varying phases of escalation and de-escalation. Visible and invisible consequences of the war are still unresolved such as insufficient care of the refugees, inexact data of casualties and other issues. Statement of problem and research question: People are always curious about what happens outside their own countries, about, so called, foreign [...]

This book takes a fresh look at the history of war reporting to understand how new technology, new ways of waging war and new media conditions are changing the role and work of today’s war correspondent. Focussing on the mechanics of war reporting and the logistical and institutional pressures on correspondents, the book further examines the role of war propaganda, accreditation and news management in shaping the evolution of the specialism. Previously neglected conflicts and correspondents are reclaimed and wars considered as key moments in the history of war reporting such as the Crimean War (1854-56) and the Great War (1914-18) are re-evaluated. The use of objectivity as the yardstick by which to assess the performance of war correspondents is questioned. The emphasis is instead placed on war as a messy business which confronts reporters and photographers with conditions that challenge the norms of professional practice. References to the ‘demise of the war correspondent’ have accompanied the growth of the specialism since the days of William Howard Russell, the so-called father of war reporting. This highlights the fragile nature of this sub-genre of journalism and emphasises that continuity as much as change characterises the work of the war correspondent. A thematically organised, historically rich introduction, this book is ideal for students of journalism, media and communication.