Borderland

Reviews / Votes

It shouldn't but might come as a surprise to most western foreign correspondents that their journalism is rooted in journalism practices and stereotypes of the colonial era. They might also be surprised to know that every 2 seconds, a human being is displaced by one of the 40 conflicts currently raging: make that 41, with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. With so many fronts of conflict and people fleeing them, is media fulfilling its role if it fails to ignite the sociological imagination, as Giotis frames it, needed to foster a global public sphere? Making sense of war means reconciling lived realities, to understand that human resilience has many forms, that commonly used representations can be lazy and inaccurate, that place does not always define circumstance. This is a book which will make you think and reconsider the power of words and journalism to effect change. * Monica Attard, Professor of Journalism, University of Technology Sydney * This is a beautiful and powerfully written book that makes a crucial contribution to the literature on foreign correspondence. A must-read for anyone seeking to learn more about international journalism. * Lindsay Palmer, author of The Fixers: Local News Workers and the Underground Labor of International Reporting * Borderland is a thoughtful, self-aware interrogation of the colonialism persistent in the foreign correspondent's work. In narrating and assessing her personal experience as a reporter, Giotis unravels some of the structural colonialism of her position, while questioning what changes might be needed in order to decolonize international news. * Anjan Sundaram, author of Stringer: A Reporter's Journey in the Congo and Bad News: Last Journalists in a Dictatorship * A real-world solution is the frame reflection interview technique. Adapted from qualitative research in the social sciences, this technique led the author to conduct background interviews, which prompted valuable revisions to her reporting framework. Engaging anecdotes and lessons for better journalistic practices enliven this book's dense prose and theoretical jargon. * Choice *