Introduction

Journalism about humanitarian affairs has never been more important. Yet, as this introductory chapter argues, conventional news coverage of crises is often selective, sporadic and formulaic. In this book, we explore the work of a group of increasingly influential humanitarian journalists who defy conventional approaches to covering humanitarian crises. We explain that their approach is informed by hybrid combinations of journalistic and humanitarian values, which lead them to focus on reporting under-reported crises in ways that ‘add value’ to existing news coverage, including by amplifying marginalised perspectives. We argue that, as a result, they not only make an important contribution to public knowledge about humanitarian affairs but also embody a kind of specialist reporting which merits dedicated critical attention. In this opening chapter we also explain our methodology, including how we identified these humanitarian journalists and studied their practices. This chapter ends with a detailed overview of the other chapters in this book.