The Columbia Journalism Review has referenced an issue that so many in the Middle East journalism community often mention. A lack of local reporters. But is making this issue one of gender alone, overly reductive?
The report points out that “there are such a high number” of women in “leading correspondent roles in the Middle East” and that “women have filled the perhaps a majority of the prominent jobs in foreign corresponding in the Middle East.”
It then makes the counter-intuitive claim that a lack of local journalists might be a problem in the Middle East, because it could “disproportionately affect women.”
A lack of local journalists is important within Middle Eastern media. But not solely because of gender. As the report itself strongly implies, gender is by no means the largest barrier to greater participation and access for local journalists.
Economic background, culture, ideology and language also play a large role.
In the Middle East, there is an entire underclass of young men and women without jobs, voices or opportunities. Many can only dream of working in large media organizations, which are often inaccessible in every way imaginable - inaccessible in terms of expensive transport, in terms of language and culture, and in terms of access.
Both in the Middle East and in countries such as the UK, media jobs are reserved for the wealthy and often incubate an ideology that is not shared by the majority of the population. Sometimes that ideology is in direct antagonism to the majority of the population. This rift is no longer exclusive to the Middle East.
The Columbia Journalism Review has made an important point about local workforce participation in foreign news bureaus, and then reduced it to a single issue gender parity argument. This reflects the concerns and preoccupations of western institutions and media outlets as well as a rigidity of thought that is often counterproductive, and top-down.
An array of complex economic and sociological barriers to entry are faced by local journalists in international news rooms in the Middle East. These issues are not only important because they may affect one segment of the population. They are important because they limit opportunities for diversity of background, as well as diversity of thought.
John Lillywhite
