REVIEW: Contradiction, paradox and ambiguity

Abstract

The term ‘international news’ is illustrative of the conflicted nature of journalism. At one and the same time it is well understood and meaningful—and anachronistic in a global era. There is a tendency in many quarters to shy away from addressing an inherent instability in journalism, and instead bemoan the demise of the foreign correspondent, the symbolic ‘man [invariably a man] in gray flannel’ (Cohen, 1963, p. 17) who determined what was worth knowing about the world: a highly-privileged élite among élites. The expiration of the legend can be posited as the demise of journalism writ large.