Journalism ‘fixers’, hyper-precarity and the violence of the entrepreneurial self

Bibliographic Data

ID7477142
AuthorsSyed Irfan Ashraf (0000-0001-8471-4913), Sean Phelan (0000-0002-6488-1703, Associate Professor, School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing, Massey University, New Zealand; and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow (2020-2022), Department of Communication Studies, University of Antwerp, Belgium, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume24
Issue7
Pages1482-1498
Publication date2022-01-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournalism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-8849 • E-ISSN: 1741-3001
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14648849211065306
OpenAlexW4206905633
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited22

The figure of the so-called journalism ‘fixer’ has received overdue academic attention in recent years. Scholars have highlighted the role played by fixers in international news reporting, a role historically obscured in the mythos of the Western foreign correspondent. Recent research has produced useful insights about the work done by fixers in ‘the shadows’ of the international news economy. However, it has also tended towards a domestication of the role, where the local ‘fixer’ finds their place in a collaborative relationship with those officially consecrated as ‘journalists’ from elsewhere. This article presents a critical theoretical analysis of this functional role, building on the image of the fixer as a kind of ‘entrepreneur’. Rather than interpreting the latter designation as a source of empowerment or agency, we approach it as a euphemism for the hyper-precarious and exploitative underpinnings of fixer-labour. Our argument draws on different theoretical sources, including Foucault-inspired work on the entrepreneurial rationality of the neoliberal self, Bourdieu’s notion of symbolic violence, and Rancière’s concept of politics. The theoretical argument is supported by the first author’s reflections of working as a Pakistani-based ‘fixer’ during the U.S-led war on terror

Agency (philosophy · Argument (complex analysis · Epistemology · Journalism · Media studies · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Precarity · Rationality · Social science · Sociology · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Media Studies and Communication · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy

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