Abstract
Becoming the Story: War Correspondents since 9/11 by Lindsay Palmer is a fascinating book analysing the work of conflict correspondents in war zones. Palmer’s book comes at a crucial time for journalism, as high and low-intensity conflicts emerge worldwide, straining the ability of news outlets to cover them in the face of shrinking staff and closing bureaus.
Palmer identifies changes in the dangers and duties of war correspondents from 2002 to 2012 by contextualizing critical moments in the lives of six reporters. The chapters are arranged chronologically, from Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping in Pakistan in 2002, Bob Woodruff’s injury in Iraq in 2006, Maziar Bahari and Nazila Fathi’s 2009 expulsion from Iran, the sexual assault of Lara Logan during the Tahrir Square protests in Egypt in 2011 and Marie Colvin’s death covering the Syrian Civil War in 2012.
Palmer advances the argument that conflict correspondence has become more dangerous in the early 21st century for three reasons. First, dire economic conditions for newspapers have led to budget cuts and layoffs, causing newspapers to increasingly rely on underpaid freelancers and local citizen journalists. As a result, journalists compete more fiercely to get the story first, increasingly putting them in harm’s way. Second, advances in technology, specifically lighter communication devices like cell phones, have allowed journalists to spend more time on the front lines. Meanwhile, hostile governments can increasingly track journalists with technology like Global Positioning System (GPS). Third, Palmer argues that the first decade of the 21st century was uniquely dangerous for journalists, as the ‘War on Terror’ caused journalists to be seen as associated with the US government or its allies, and therefore targeted. Moreover, with the rise of modern media, militants can disseminate information without having to rely on journalists, causing them to see journalists as increasingly expendable.
Palmer used qualitative methodology – comprised of site visits, critical discourse analysis, textual analysis of videos and 85 interviews – to reach these conclusions. Palmer has written her book clearly and logically. The book is well researched, with thoughtful insights. The detail with which Palmer pursued the topic is impressive. Most of all, by highlighting the events that made some journalists the story, she brings attention to the fact that many journalists have not become the story.
In many ways, the most interesting aspect of Palmer’s book is who has become the story and who has not. Palmer notes repeatedly that the deaths, imprisonments and treatment of non-Western, non-White journalists have received less coverage in Western media than that of White, especially male journalists. Even though local journalists often face the brunt of abuse, Palmer notes that they do not receive the same level of support and protection that Western journalists do. Lingering notions among news organizations that reporters should be individually responsible for their own well-being have furthered this disparity. The lack of media outrage for the thousands of local journalists who put their lives on the line for Western news outlets – yet do not get the same support or hostile environment training as Western journalists – is a saddening reality.
The chapter on Maziar Bahari and Nazila Fathi’s 2009 expulsion from Iran is perhaps the most interesting because it does not fit the trend of the rest of the book. This is the only chapter in which Palmer focuses on non-White, non-Western journalists; both Bahari and Fathi held dual Iranian citizenship. They were expelled from the country for covering the Iranian Green Movement in 2009 while working for Western news outlets. Neither Bahari nor Fathi’s expulsions received much media coverage, further indicating the dominant trend that only White, Western journalists become the story. Fathi’s experiences only became popularly known because she wrote a memoir. Any media outrage that was generated did little to help Fathi’s job security, as she was eventually let go by the New York Times.
The book’s weakest arguments are in its attempts to make wide conclusions based on only five case studies. The author’s conclusion that conflict correspondence became more dangerous in the early 21st century due to economic, technological and unique circumstances may well be true, but the book is not convincing beyond the examples listed. In this regard, the book would benefit by including stories of journalists from beyond the Middle East plus Afghanistan. Examples from the Americas, Europe, Africa or Asia may better support the conclusion that journalists have indeed increasingly become the story.
Palmer’s book is well worth a read for all those interested in journalists doing one of their most dangerous jobs – that of war reporting. As the last case study in this book is from 2012, further study should be conducted to see whether Palmer’s trends hold true for the second decade of the 21st century. Much has changed since the early 2000s, so updating and broadening Palmer’s work is of great importance.