ABSTRACT
In this concluding chapter, we summarise the key features of humanitarian journalists’ practice including their focus on reporting under-reported crises, amplifying marginalised voices and ‘adding value’ to mainstream news coverage, as well as their outcome-oriented role perceptions and relatively informed understanding of humanitarianism. Despite facing significant financial pressures, these journalists provide an important complement to coverage of humanitarian affairs produced by conventional journalists. However, we also caution that support for humanitarian journalists must be mindful of a tension: that efforts to strengthen their professional standing may inadvertently undermine some of the defining aspects of their work. Finally, we reflect on the wider implications of our analysis including the theoretical ‘blind spots’ within Eyal and Pok’s conceptual framework, the significance of non-institutionalised practices and what it really means to practice specialised forms of journalism.
