Reporting from Bosnia: Reconceptualising the Notion of a ‘Journalism of Attachment’

Abstract

Karoline von Oppen is lecturer in German at the University of Bath. She is currently completing a book on German perceptions of Yugoslavia during the 1990s and after, which explores representations of the conflict in journalistic and literary accounts. She has published in this area and on other aspects of contemporary German literature. Reporting from Bosnia: Reconceptualising the Notion of a 'Journalism of Attachment' Distant countries are like stories. Once such a story has become established it is difficult to break out of, once it has been moulded into a useful truth by being told again and again (Wiedemann 2004). 1 The story of Bosnia remains vivid in the western European imagination. In the early 1990s dreams of peaceful transition, poignantly encapsulated by images of East Germans scaling the Berlin Wall, were rudely interrupted by the outbreak of war in Bosnia. From 1992 onwards pictures of dead civilians on the streets of Sarajevo, or of emaciated Bosnian Muslims held behind barbed wire, reminiscent of the Nazi concentration camps, confirmed that the 'end of history' appeared to be over. The two

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“…These factors may include the relationship the media has to actors in the conflict and the independence the media has to the power holders in society. Oppen (2009) found that w orld has recognized that media can play a vital role in provoking the conflict. M edia can aggravate the conflict or suggest a peaceful resolution of a conflict only through the reporting and presentation of facts.…”

Reimagining Spain

“…Besides, I will draw on the idea of "journalism of attachment" as I focus on the way the text tries to engage the reader. Journalism of attachment is a contentious notion based on BBC reporter Martin Bell's call for journalists to involve themselves more in the wars they were reporting (Bell 1997;Ruigrok 2005;Von Oppen 2009). According to Bell, the reporter should take the stance of a "moral witness" to the conflict.…”