Sandra Ristovska Analyzes Open-Source Investigation as a Genre of Conflict Reporting
Open-source investigation in conflict news “simultaneously opens up and limits opportunities for eyewitness images as a platform for voice,” our Fellow Sandra Ristovska writes in a new paper for the journal Journalism.
This timely paper examines the role and scope of eyewitness images in open-source investigation, with a focus on eyewitness images from war and conflict zones. It explores the work of the Visual Investigations Unit at The New York Times, the first newsroom team dedicated solely to open-source investigation.
Analyzing the video reports of the Unit and interviewing its journalists, Sandra Ristovska finds the genre paradoxical. While open-source investigation allows the inclusion of a wider range of voices in news about wars and conflicts, “reappearing old power formations” may narrow “the potential of those voices to achieve social recognition and agency.”
“Despite the journalists’ commitment to innovation, the logics of institutions, the corporate ethos of social media platforms, and the pervasive power of geopolitics continue to shape the articulation, recognition, and agency of voice,”
the paper argues.