I love the story about the Dari\u00e9n Gap by the Atlantic\u2026 I just think it\u2019s tremendous. The stories from this week have raised more questions than provided answers, personally. Firstly, I want to interrogate the impact of the Dari\u00e9n story \u2013 it made waves when it came out, front page and cover story on their edition which feels huge for a migration story. But since then, what has changed? I have google alerts set for news about the Dari\u00e9n gap, and it\u2019s always the same news. At this point we know migrants from all around the world are coming through it (Africans, Asians, etc) and we get daily horror stories about deaths and abuses on the journey. How does a story about the Dari\u00e9n make an impact at this point? And when will real change happen? Alma Guillermoprieto writes that \u201cbecause the media were much more important than they are now, my articles (…) had to be taken seriously by the policymakers and by the public.\u201d I disagree with the value-judgment given to the media over time, but I do agree that policymakers used to respond to the media more. What has changed? Readings from this week more generally made me aware of the ways governments sanction migration, even in its illegal forms. Panama doesn\u2019t necessarily outlaw smuggling through the Dari\u00e9n, they just make it less safe. The US doesn\u2019t outlaw immigration, they make it more difficult. (1.6 million \u201cgotaways\u201d!!!!) I found the New Yorker article sad in how it affirmed the political machinations behind migration policy. I enjoyed the way it zoomed out from migration and showed it as an issue that sheds light generally on the current political landscape. What does it tell us? That we\u2019re in deep trouble. Minor things: one of the guys outside \u201cStripes\u201d says there\u2019s an app for human trafficking\u2026 what is it!? That is a fantastic story. Similarly, I\u2019ve heard surprisingly little about CBP One\u2026 are tech stories just not sexy? I imagine it\u2019s having a huge impact at the border, but I only ever see statistics. Writing about tech in an interesting way is deeply difficult.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m going to now turn to some \u201cmethods\u201d questions again. Particularly focusing on photography since we have Robert Nickelsberg in class with us. The photos in both the Atlantic piece and the New Yorker piece are striking, how does \/ did he select photos for articles? What does his editing process look like, or was the magazine work he did from El Salvador edited by others? The New Yorker piece in particular makes me think of Ken Light\u2019s Midnight La Frontera, a photography project I have personal issues with, but still find deeply, deeply compelling. How do you walk the line between taking photos that shock without doing so in an intrusive or voyeuristic way? I guess that\u2019s a general question to be applied to photography, but photojournalism carries its own independent weight. And he\u2019s done work on reconstruction of the past \/ confrontation of the past \u2013 at least that\u2019s how his photos are interpreted by the writers collected in Legacy of Lies \u2013 what did that process of creation look like? I think I just have general questions about photojournalism, but those can be left for tomorrow. Enjoyed these readings, questions float about. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I love the story about the Dari\u00e9n Gap by the Atlantic\u2026 I just think it\u2019s tremendous. The stories from this week have raised more questions than provided answers, personally. Firstly, I want to interrogate the impact of the Dari\u00e9n story \u2013 it made waves when it came out, front page and cover story on their<\/p>\n