War Reporting and Photojournalism (Special Reference to Sri Lankan War)

Abstract

Photojournalism plays an important role in journalism. War reporting is one of the genres of conflict reporting and War news has a high value. War photographs can describe the incident and deliver the truth more than words. Reporting a war is different from reporting news in civil society. Special skills are needed for war reporting. This study is about war reporting practice in Sri Lanka. How Photojournalists performed duties on the battlefield was studied by the researcher. The reporters who were there at the war zone were identified under two categories and held in-depth interviews. 10 news reporters from Sri Lankan newspapers and 6 news reporters working for foreign news agencies were selected for interviews. Data were analyzed using qualitative methods. The focus of this study was to identify the war photography knowledge of war reporters & the ability to perform the duty on the battlefield. In conclusion, it was proved that the contribution given by the war reporters was less and not up to the standard. In comparison to the foreign news agency reporters, the standard and the ability of local war reporters is not sufficient. Because local news reporters did not have any war reporting or conflict reporting training, updated camera equipment and basic knowledge of conflict reporting. Newspaper companies sent their journalists to the battlefield who were reporting usual political reports. All the war reporters faced Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and they have never met psychiatrists. Local war reporters haven not been to the front line to report the war. They have on duty in the area, which was cleared by the Sri Lankan Army. Local newspaper companies have not paid much attention to their reporters. The findings provede photojounalists must have the particular training for the better reporting.