A Professional Kinship: Journalism and Advocacy

With media tools like video recording and Internet transmission now widely available, people and institutions all over the globe have the ability to commit journalistic acts.

Advocacy organizations such as Human Rights Watch and WITNESS have developed digital skills put to practice with the aim of informing the public–but also aggressively advocating for change.

Jessie Graham, formerly a public radio journalist and now senior media producer at Human Rights Watch, explores the shifting line between journalism and advocacy organizations. Advocates once depended on media to report on their research; now they can reach the public directly. Human Rights Watch and others also hire journalists, particularly photographers, to help with their work. The journalists’ reporting may end up on an advocacy website–and in the columns of mainstream media.

Together, the authors of this volume offer a glimpse into the new global, digital journalism. Call them innovators, social media experts, or activists–above all, they are excellent journalists who are redefining reporting in the digital age.