ABSTRACT
This chapter offers advice and guidance to those reporters who both live and work in violent contexts, but also to those who may visit temporarily and “parachute” in. It provides some core principles, which could apply to both national and international media on either end and across the spectrum of “legacy” and “alternative” news. The chapter shows that both indigenous and international media can be guilty of sensationalism and misrepresenting urban violence. Urban violence is related to complex social, economic, political, and institutional processes. Journalism about urban violence should acknowledge that the phenomenon is rooted in a variety of exclusions, which range from the macro to the micro. The highly visible nature of gangs and urban violence can result in a phenomenal amount of media attention. For many journalists, living in communities under the control of drug cartels and gangs, what they report on and how they report it can be the difference between life and death.
