Local hands, international news

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Abstract
Study of the production process of news about Palestinians rather than simply its final forms reveals the extent to which mainstream news is a cultural product not only of US society and western journalism’s professional norms, but of Palestinian society as well. Palestinian journalists working for international news contribute essential labor to the final product of international news. They serve as cultural and geographical guides for foreign correspondents. They are photojournalists and reporters on the scene covering both everyday political news and dangerous crises. Much of their work demands embodied skills acquired within Palestinian society under occupation. Yet, perhaps because journalism is generally thought of as intellectual work, and also because of the intensely local nature of these journalistic skills, Palestinian journalists’ contributions - which generally relate to the facilitation of knowledge production, rather than to the formulation of editorial positions - are rarely recognized in publication or in discussions of journalism