[ecrea] Special Issue of Journalism Studies: Local sources of news for distant audiences

Call for Papers
*Reporting Global while being Local: Local sources of news for distant 
audiences*
Special Issue of _Journalism Studies_
Guest Editors:
Chris Paterson (University of Leeds) and Saumava Mitra (University for 
Peace)
There has been copious research over the years concerning foreign 
correspondents, but news professionals working in their /own/ countries 
but for /distant/ audiences only garnered passing attention of 
researchers. But such news-staff – who have been described as 
‘local-foreign’ – have long played important roles within international 
news production. To gather news in areas considered difficult to access 
for foreign journalists, local people are engaged by foreign journalists 
as logistical and linguistic aides, known as ‘fixers’. Local journalists 
– including visual journalists – are also increasingly employed by 
global news organisations to produce news from their home countries for 
distant and diverse foreign audiences. Local activists and 
non-governmental organisations and foreign news organisations 
increasingly collaborate to produce international news. As the costs of 
international news production rise and budgets for foreign bureaus are 
cut, and as the protracted conflicts of the 21^st  century have proved 
increasingly dangerous for foreign correspondents to navigate on their 
own, the importance of the local collaborators has grown. Consequently, 
‘local-foreign news production’ can be understood as expanding in 
magnitude and in the kind of actors involved.
In light of these changes, scholars have argued, international news 
today needs to be understood as a chorus of voices – both foreign and 
local as well as professional and non-professional. Research has shown 
that these voices within local-foreign news production arise from 
distinct geo-cultural but comparable socio-economic backgrounds in 
different parts of the world. International journalistic processes can 
also be shaped by both local story-telling objectives as well as efforts 
to conform news narratives to those perceived as preferred by foreign 
clients and audiences. The growing importance of local-foreign news 
workers is also understood as giving rise to tensions between 
international news-staff and local news-staff who work side by side. 
These tensions have been noted to arise from non-recognition of the 
journalistic labour provided by the local news-staff by international 
correspondents of news organisations, differing news values among 
international and local news-staff as well as differing working and 
employment conditions of the local news-workers as opposed to their 
international colleagues and counterparts. Research has shown that the 
work of local-foreign news-workers is typified by more precarious, and 
often dangerous, conditions of employment. In the case of the 
news-fixers, researchers are striving to better understand the nature of 
news-work performed by them because we are yet to understand the 
emotional and cultural aspects of the journalistic labour they perform. 
Furthermore, the long-criticized hegemonic practices within 
international news production which prioritise Western perspectives and 
norms are giving rise to frictions within international media 
organisations as local news-staff struggle to come to terms with them. 
The prospect of the stereotypes and biases in news produced from Western 
perspectives being challenged from within the processes of international 
news production by the local news-staff has been shown to be real, but 
dependent on the established hierarchies of editorial power within 
international news production processes changing from its current 
configurations.
The shift to reliance on local fixers and journalists within 
international news production continues unabated today as does the 
reliance on locally-based non-professional sources. This special issue 
is inspired by the need for geographically broad, theoretically deep, 
methodologically sound, and culturally sensitive understandings of these 
under-investigated processes of change.
*We invite contributions addressing any of the following questions:*
1. Is local-foreign news production ‘new’ or just more visible than 
before? What are the historical trajectories of and factors behind the 
recent growth in local-foreign collaboration within international 
news-gathering?
2. Are locally-based activists and NGO workers who collaborate in or 
provide a parallel production of international news, part of 
local-foreign news production? Should they be included within future 
research on local-foreign news production? What other type of 
news-related work can form part of local-foreign news production?
3. Are local news-staff safer or in more danger because they are local? 
In what ways do the threats and dangers faced by local news-staff differ 
from their international colleagues?
4. Are the precarious employment situations of the local news-staff 
changing as this type of news-work becomes more entrenched within 
international news production? What are the measures being taken by the 
news industry and the news-workers themselves, against their precarious 
labour?
5. Is the increasing importance of local-foreign news-workers within 
international newsgathering giving rise to tensions and conflicts within 
newsroom and news production structures of international media 
organisations? Do these tensions and conflicts reflect a battle within 
the traditional gatekeeping processes on which international news 
organisations relied?
6. In what ways do the local employees of international news 
organisations facilitate understanding of local events and actors across 
cultural, ideological, and linguistic boundaries for international 
journalists, as well as for international audiences through their 
journalistic labour? How are their local knowledge, contextual 
understanding, cultural sensitivities and political affinities – their 
‘cultural capital’ – negotiated with their professional affiliations and 
knowledge, by them and their employers?
7. Have local news professionals – and locally-based activists and NGO 
workers – now come to wield editorial power in the telling of global 
news stories by playing gatekeeping roles within global news production? 
Are there other, less understood ways that they are able to influence 
the production of global news stories and images?
8. How do local news professionals perceive their professional role as 
journalists and conduct their journalistic work for distant audiences? 
Do their perceptions and practices differ from their international 
colleagues? In what ways? What are the implications of any potential 
differences in professional role perceptions of local-foreign news staff?
Articles should be between 6000 and 9000 words in length.
Please send a 300 word abstract to the guest editors 
(_c.paterson /at/ leeds.ac).uk_ <mailto:(c.paterson /at/ leeds.ac.uk)> and 
_smitra@upeace.org_ <mailto:(smitra /at/ upeace.org)> by***21st September, 2018*.
We will notify authors if their abstract has been accepted by 12th 
October, 2018, and full papers should be submitted for peer review by 14 
January, 2019.  An invitation to submit does not guarantee inclusion in 
the special issue. We hope for publication in mid-2019.

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