The articles chosen for this week were tremendous – each one demonstrated what journalism has the capacity to be. Powerful and affecting, these were great examples of embedding. I’m struck by the quality and quantity of reporting that went into these, not just in terms of how they got the support to engage in such long projects, but also in the organization of information. Taub had papers sprawled out on his floor… how do you go from that to a tight article? Topically, I felt like these stories all showed underrepresented voices. In yours, Deb, I was most impressed by the final detail that Um Nour was facilitating sex-work; to survive means to take advantage of your social position at every rung of the ladder. Victims of economic violence perpetrate violence against others, unfortunately usually those lower in the ladder than them. This is a side of migration, and of everyday living, that normally is overlooked. Each story felt like it unraveled dominant narratives to show underlying ones: from fake chinese threats to the relationship between the BVT and Halabi, the real events are always shrouded in other narrative constructions. Particularly after this election, I think we need to key into the narratives that are created by institutions of power. The American voters were against Biden’s migration policy and “his” economy because they were led to feel that way. Narrative journalism can be weaponized by the state (Austria), or by individuals (Wang). Regardless, there seems to be an obligation to criticize and question the things we hear. We interact with narratives all day, and live our lives accordingly; knowing which ones to look into is difficult, and sniffing out those fake narratives feels essential to good journalistic work. 

Now, methods-talk again. I’m really attracted to embed-style journalism because of the wealth of details that comes out: that Sayyid takes away his empties because he’d be the one picking them up later, that one of the women on stage cried while dragging on her cigarette, that Pircher is called “rumpelstiltskin” behind his back, these details are what make a story great, and they show me that the reporter has done their due diligence. At the same time, I’m abundantly aware of the challenges embedding creates. Langfitt’s work is amazing, but I don’t think it could be done anymore. I talked about Langfitt with a friend who laments the impossibility of foreign-correspondance in China, and he joked that if you tried the “free Taxi,” bit now, your second or third passenger would be a CCP officer. Embedding is reliant on access. Taub bypasses this by using documents and investigates by moving around the subject, but even here he somehow has access (which to be clear, I don’t understand… how does he get all these internal documents!? How does he get top-secret BVT memos?). Embedding is a great tool, but there needs to be an open door to go through – how do you open that door? This “access,” question creates further challenges – Hessler is a foreigner, and so why Sayyid trusts him is slightly unclear… at a certain point, it’s to get something. Embedded reporting straddles a line wherein subjects become friends or collaborators. There’s some mutual exchange. As shown in the Langfitt article, this can have serious consequences. How do you make sure the information you’re getting is positive, reliable, etc? Hessler’s interaction with Wahiba shows another big problem in embedded journalism or immersive journalism. A lot depends on the social standing of the journalist themselves, or their identity! A foreign man could never see Wahbia and talk to her for a story, but there’s probably a good story to her life and to her. Without her perspective, a lot is lost in my opinion. Someone else could write a story with access to her. Just not Hessler. And to navel-gaze for a moment, I couldn’t write it either! Given my position and identity, more doors for immersive reporting are open to me than most. I’m abundantly aware of that privilege there. But at the same time, thinking specifically about trying to talk with Afghan women for my final paper, my position will create challenges. These articles also present an alternate to our norm, wherein the reporter is themselves the migrant, rather than the other way around. There is the challenge of possible misunderstandings – I guess the solution is to immerse so deeply that you don’t feel like an outsider any more, but getting that far feels difficult. Lots of words, lots of thoughts. Each of these articles was a novella unto themselves, so I feel like I could (and should) say more, but generally just impressed and motivated by these readings.