The Development of Roles in Kosovo: From Fixers to Journalists

Hoxha, Abit; Andresen, Kenneth

doi:10.1080/1461670x.2019.1639539

Cited by 11 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…In other words, "…there is a mutual learning process between the fixers and international reporters" (p. 1733). Some academics in the issue celebrate these local-global work ties while referring to fixers as "cultural translators and news gatherers" (Hoxha & Andresen, 2019, p. 1733. Others look critically at the role (Allan & Zelizer, 2004).…”

Section: The Local News Workers or Children Of Lesser Godmentioning

confidence: 99%

The fixer on the Pak-Afghan frontier: A de-skilled local labour in the global media

Ashraf

2021

Lib. Arts Soc. Sci. Int. J.

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This study examines power misuse in global news production by focusing on the role of “fixer.” Fixer is a local journalist who reports for global media on conflict-riddled areas or crisis situations. By interviewing forty fixers in Pakistan’s war-hit Pashtun Belt along the Afghanistan border, I examine the challenges they face in working with the global media’s visiting journalists before the start of the war on terror. Using Marx’s concept of proletarianization which is a process in which capital transforms a great mass of society into daily wage workers, I reveal how the local journalist, who works as fixer, is not only de-professionalized, but his precarity, due to living in a war zone, also forces him to misuse his local news traditions in working for the global media. I argue that fixers are far more than just assistants to global media outlets. Not only are they all practicing journalists in their own right, but, as locals, they also are geographically better placed to use their experience than those journalists who are coming from outside the conflict zone. Yet, this subsidiary role automatically erases this distinction leading to the real fixers’ de-skilling with consequences for the entire region.

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Section: The Local News Workers or Children Of Lesser Godmentioning

confidence: 99%

The fixer on the Pak-Afghan frontier: A de-skilled local labour in the global media

Ashraf

2021

Lib. Arts Soc. Sci. Int. J.

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“…In a special issue of Journalism Studies published in 2019, entitled "Reporting Global while Being Local: Local Sources of News for Distant Audiences," multiple studies investigated the interaction between international reporters and local 'helpers' or fixers. In one of the articles, Hoxha and Andresen (2019) map some of the research about the global importance of fixers. They show that this cooperation between international reporters and fixers has been crucial to global news reporting for a long time.…”

Section: Theoretical Framework: Fixers Journalism and Professionalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Globally, fixers have impacted the content and form of international news correspondents' work more than the public has been aware of. (Hoxha & Andresen, 2019, p. 1735 Drawing on the realization of the importance of fixers, a pressing question emerges of why this practice was mostly ignored in journalism studies for a long time.…”

Section: Theoretical Framework: Fixers Journalism and Professionalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the role of the fixer has evolved from translators to investigators, mediators, and embedded journalist. Fixers have become increasingly professionalized through cooperation with foreign reporters (Hoxha & Andresen, 2019). After the US invasion of Afghanistan, Pakistan became a frontline state against the war on terror, providing logistical support to the International Security Assistance Force and NATO.…”

Section: Pakistan As a Journalistic Hot Spotmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Researchers have focused on the varied tasks and role of fixers as they complete in different parts of the world and the dangers they encounter in the field (Armoudian, 2016;Cottle, Sambrook, & Mosdell, 2016;Hannerz, 2004;Paterson et al, 2012;Tumber & Webster, 2006). For example, fixers interpret elements of nonverbal communication, serve as cultural translators and news gatherers, assist the out-front reporters, book hotels and arrange transportation, find interview subjects, secure access to government officials, and cover dangerous locations (Hoxha & Andresen, 2019;Murrell, 2019;Plaut & Klein, 2019). Foreign correspondents don't just rely on fixers to facilitate the story, but it is often the fixer that unearths and reports the story (Murrell, 2010;Paterson et al, 2012).…”

Section: Roles and Risks For Fixersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reporting in Conflict Zones in Pakistan: Risks and Challenges for Fixers

Baloch

Andresen

2020

MaC

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As a backbone of reporting in war and conflicts, fixers offer essential assistance to the foreign correspondent in conflict zones, also in Pakistan. With valuable local knowledge and contacts, fixers can arrange travel to secure entry of foreign correspondents into conflict zones in addition to securing interviews with otherwise unattainable figures, while offering reliable translation services. Pakistani media, despite being one of the largest and most developed in South Asia, remains under the strict control of powerful military establishment and government, while seeming to mirror the overarching government sentiment with a distinct lack of research-based news. Challenging this state of affairs, local journalist fixers seek to conduct research and investigative journalism, making them an attractive asset for western correspondents travelling to Pakistan. Based on data from interviews with local fixers and journalists in Pakistan, this article reveals the many security problems for local fixers in the Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regions in Pakistan. It also shows that the fixers’ rights and interests are not protected by media organizations or the governments. Additionally, fixers face increasing censorship from security agencies and death threats from militants. This study discusses the harsh realities fixers face in the conflict zones of Pakistan where international press lack access due to increasing restrictions imposed by the government, and the violence perpetrated against media workers by the Islamic State and other radical groups, like Taliban and Baloch separatists.

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Journalism and the Politics of Mobility

Örnebring

Weiss

2021

Journalism Studies

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This paper presents a theoretical reframing of journalism as a fundamentally mobile practice and outlines a research agenda for studying the politics of mobility in journalism that is centered on the everyday work of journalists. Our reframing draws on geographer Tim Cresswell's work on the six components of a politics of mobility, which are motive force, speed, rhythm, route, experience, and friction (Cresswell, T. 2010. "Towards a Politics of Mobility." Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 28 (1): 17-31). Cresswell poses six key questions about mobility, and rephrasing them to to fit journalists, we get why do journalists move?; how fast do journalists move?; according to what rhythm do journalists move?; what route(s) do journalists take?; how do journalists feel when they move?; and what stops/impedes the movement of journalists? These questions entail a research framework concerned with the different conditions of movement for different bodies, thus drawing attention to previously understudied areas of journalism studies.

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The Development of Roles in Kosovo: From Fixers to Journalists

Cited by 11 publications

References 14 publications

The fixer on the Pak-Afghan frontier: A de-skilled local labour in the global media

The fixer on the Pak-Afghan frontier: A de-skilled local labour in the global media

Reporting in Conflict Zones in Pakistan: Risks and Challenges for Fixers

Journalism and the Politics of Mobility

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