Mediating Conflict

Digital Media and Reporting Conflict: The book and the end of Mediating Conflict This blog has been dormant for a while and the publication of Digital Media and Reporting Conflict: Blogging and the BBC's Coverage of War and Terrorism is the right time to formally close it. It's been an amazing journey over the last five years or so and I've really... enjoyed working on the project, working with people at the BBC and meeting people throughout the media industry. I'd like to thank all the people who made this book possible - my family, my friends, my PhD supervisor at King's College London, everybody at the BBC who gave up their time to participate, the Frontline Club and the countless people I interacted with online. When I decide to do something I put everything into it. I hope the book testifies to the high standards and hard work that I tried to bring to it. But perhaps more than that I hope the book and the hundreds of blog posts I wrote continue to be a useful resource for students of warfare, media, journalism and the BBC. I took most pleasure from knowing that other people found my work useful and that it contributed in a small way to public understanding of the changing nature of reporting war and terrorism. Achievements come at a cost and over the last couple of years in particular I invested a lot of myself, my time, my financial and physical resources into seeing the book through. I also spent a lot of time banging at academic doors that I found were closed to me or only open if I was willing to work for free which I sustained for far longer than I should have done. In hindsight, all this effort was too much and I really burnt myself - not giving up is a great strength and a terrible weakness. I think it's a sacrifice I am only willing to make again in a different context. A wise man once said that you have to give up your life in order to save it. And it's time to leave a road which had become intolerably tough and start something new. I'm not entirely sure what that looks like yet but I have long ...Read More