Foreign correspondents and fixers: an investigation of teamwork in international television newsgathering

This thesis considers the relationship between television foreign correspondents and their locally-hired 'fixers' in order to ascertain the centrality and significance of this relationship in facilitating international news production. The design of this research project, with its emphasis on news production practice, was guided by scholars in the sociology of news tradition, such as Jeremy Tunstall, Michael Schudson, Stephen Reese, Pamela Shoemaker and Simon Cottle. The main research question asks to what extent, and how, is the relationship between the correspondent and the fixer important to newsgathering? Drawing on the theories of Pierre Bourdieu concerning the journalistic field and the acquisition of cultural capital, this research demonstrates how fixers possess vital stores of capital which foreign correspondents borrow in order to be successful in the field. This thesis explores in depth how the players work in tandem to overcome the difficulties posed by multi-skilling, parachuting, instant live reporting, and the 24-hour news cycle. Current newsgathering practice in Iraq is investigated as a case study, which reveals the difficulties of reporting from this dateline and reflects on how the level of danger has changed the nature of the correspondent-fixer relationship. Within this relationship, where a correspondent has the ultimate power to hire and fire, a fixer nonetheless brings significant influence to bear on story generation and story coverage. But does this influence bring into the Western news agenda stories that genuinely reflect localised, indigenous viewpoints? Or, in this globalised world, are fixers simply 'People Like Us' (PLU), who have absorbed Western news values and will reinforce them through the stories that they propose? In other words, are correspondents likely to gain an insight into localised communities and their problems that they might not otherwise have understood, or will they have their own views and presumptions reflected back at them? This thesis examines what the use of fixers reveals about the political economy of news and the changing context of international news production. It asks whether the growing importance of fixers in newsgathering reflects a move by media companies to eventually outsource international newsgathering to local employees. This thesis employs a qualitative methodological approach involving semi-structured interviews with foreign correspondents and fixers to explore their modus operandi and to investigate the building of overseas news teams.

本论文聚焦电视驻外记者（television foreign correspondents）与本地雇佣的“协调员（fixers）”之间的关系，旨在明确该关系在助力国际新闻生产过程中的核心地位与重要意义。本研究项目以新闻生产实践为核心侧重，其研究设计遵循了新闻社会学传统下的学者们的理论框架，涵盖杰里米·滕斯托尔（Jeremy Tunstall）、迈克尔·舒德森（Michael Schudson）、斯蒂芬·里斯（Stephen Reese）、帕梅拉·舒梅克（Pamela Shoemaker）以及西蒙·科特尔（Simon Cottle）。本研究的核心问题为：记者与协调员之间的关系在何种程度上、以何种方式对新闻采集活动至关重要？本研究借鉴皮埃尔·布迪厄（Pierre Bourdieu）有关新闻场域与文化资本（cultural capital）习得的理论，阐明了协调员如何掌握着驻外记者为在新闻场域中取得成功所需借入的关键资本储备。本论文深入探讨了各方如何协同合作，以克服多技能要求、空降式报道、即时直播报道以及24小时新闻循环所带来的种种困境。本研究以伊拉克当前的新闻采集实践为案例展开分析，揭示了该新闻发稿地的报道难点，并反思了危险程度的变化如何改变了记者与协调员之间的关系本质。在该关系框架中，尽管驻外记者拥有雇佣与解雇的最终权力，但协调员仍对新闻选题的生成与报道的开展施加着显著影响。但这种影响力是否能为西方新闻议程带来真正反映本土化、本土视角的新闻选题？抑或是在全球化时代，协调员不过是“同类人（People Like Us, PLU）”——他们已然接纳了西方新闻价值观念，并会通过自身提出的报道选题强化这些观念？换言之，驻外记者是否能够借此深入了解他们原本无法触及的本土社区及其困境，还是说他们只会看到与自身观点和预设相符的内容？本论文探讨了协调员的使用所揭示的新闻政治经济学（political economy of news）内涵，以及国际新闻生产所处环境的变迁。本研究同时探讨：协调员在新闻采集中的地位日益提升，是否反映出媒体公司最终将国际新闻采集业务外包给本地雇员的发展趋势？本论文采用质性研究方法，通过对驻外记者与协调员开展半结构化访谈（semi-structured interviews），探究二者的运作模式，并对海外新闻团队的构建展开研究。