Tired, Hungry, and on Deadline: Affect and Emotion in the Practice of Conflict Journalism

ABSTRACT

The recent “emotional turn” in journalism studies has yet to substantially focus on the role that affect and emotion play in specific practices of journalism. This paper examines the affective/emotional dimensions of journalists coping with exhaustion during a reporting assignment in South Sudan to explore the ways in which the these might meaningfully alter how the practice is performed. I argue that affect/emotion ought not to be understood as simply a form of failure to act rationally, or affective baggage picked up as a result of practice, but as integral to practices of journalism itself. I use the example of exhaustion, its effects on the practices of journalists and their responses to it to point to types of affective/emotional work that journalists undertake in order to both do journalism safely and successfully and to do work which is recognisably “professional” journalism.

KEYWORDS:

• Journalism practice
• affect
• emotion
• exhaustion
• conflict
• South Sudan

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 One of the journalists involved asked that they remain anonymous and so to practically respect this request, both the journalists’ names and the time period of their reporting has not been given.

2 A grant-making organisation with funds sourced from, inter alia, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Omidyar Network, the Knight Foundation, the World Bank and others. Their work is focused on developing new technologies and models of journalism on the continent, and their website can be found at https://innovateafrica.fund/.

3 United Nations Mission in South Sudan.