What's it Like to Be a War Reporter?

An immersion into the dangerous reality of covering war and conflict.

• Although many agree with the maxim that journalists should never “become the story”, war reporters often take risks to advance their careers and get a particular story they believe needs to be told.
• Many war reporters are freelancers, as budgets in the media business shrink and major news organisations often consider it too risky to send their staff into war zones.
• These freelance reporters often lack the kind of security, support and insurance staff colleagues enjoy while out on a job, and few have been given proper hostile environment training.
• Conflicts such as the Bosnian war triggered tighter security protocols for news organisations, and ushered in the practice of sharing logistics with rival reporting teams.
• The Arab Spring and the Syrian Civil War in particular created a new type of war reporter, as scores of citizen journalists documented violence with their mobile phones via social media.
• Such citizen war reporting is often said to blur the line between objective journalism and activism, but is increasingly often the only way to gather insights into a dangerous conflict.