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    The political phenomenology of war reporting

    Markham, Tim (2011) The political phenomenology of war reporting. Journalism 12 (5), pp. 567-585. ISSN 1741-3001.

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    Abstract

    Drawing on interviews with war correspondents, editors, political and military personnel, this article investigates the political dimension of the structuration and structuring effects of the reporter’s experience of journalism. Self-reflection and judgements about colleagues confirm that there are dominant norms for interpreting and acting in conflict scenarios which, while contingent upon socio-historical context, are interpreted as natural. But the prevalence of such codes masks the systematically misrecognized symbolic systems of mystification and ambivalence – systems which reproduce hierarchies and gatekeeping structures in the field, but which are either experienced as unremarkable, dismissed with irony and cynicism, or not present to the consciousness of the war correspondent. The article builds on recent theories of journalistic disposition, ideology, discourse and professionalism, and describes the political dimension of journalistic practice perceived in the field as apolitical. It addresses the gendering of war correspondence, the rise of the journalist as moral authority, and questions the extent to which respondent reflections can be defensibly analytically determined.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): war reporting, political phenomenology, Bourdieu, culture of journalism, discourse analysis
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
    Research Centres and Institutes: Birkbeck Interdisciplinary Research in Media and Culture (BIRMAC) (Closed)
    Depositing User: Tim Markham
    Date Deposited: 19 Oct 2011 10:00
    Last Modified: 09 Aug 2023 12:31
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/4251

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