The American flew home and published her photos; meanwhile, Carlos was barred from entering the hospital again.Carlos and I met in 2016, when I was selected as one of six International Women’s Media Foundation Adelante Reporting Fellows. All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. He was hired as one of our fixers. Journalists know it. I have accompanied him along parts of his journey, doing interpretation and research. The term has different meanings in different contexts. It didn’t occur to the students that they might cause me professional harm. er ( fiks'ĕr ) In photography and radiography, a solution that removes both the unexposed and undeveloped silver halide crystals from the film emulsion and hardens the gelatin. In 2016, the prize committee described the winner as “regarded by visiting journalists as one of the region’s most trusted and knowledgeable fixers.” The committee has since adjusted its language, now honoring “a local freelancer who has made a significant contribution to newsgathering.”Carlos avoids the title “fixer,” preferring to be named a “producer,” which he feels grants him more authority to work collaboratively in shaping the final story. A fixer is a person who carries out assignments for someone else or who is good at solving problems for others. “It seems like there won’t be any acknowledgment that the term ‘fixer’ is discriminatory,” she says, “until
The fixer plays a critical role in the production of foreign news This scenario was characteristic. “Our professor told us that you work as a fixer,” one said.The difference between a correspondent and a “fixer” is not one of experience or qualification, but of geography.Juan Carlos, a photojournalist based in San Salvador, has extensively documented gang violence in postwar El Salvador, as well as the Iraq War and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. More than half of the fixers surveyed said that they were frequently put in danger.The title “foreign correspondent” has long been synonymous with whiteness, maleness, and imperialism—journalists fly in from North America, Europe, and Australia to cover the poverty and wars of the non-Western world. When my American and European colleagues introduced themselves as reporters working for major papers, the locals didn’t blink. Journalism is in crisis. Within the journalism industry, we must recognize the crucial perspective local reporters bring to stories. In journalism, a fixer is a local person who expedites the work of a correspondent working in a foreign country.In American usage, to describe a person as a fixer implies that their methods may be of questionable legality. Dixit has been an investigative journalist for 13 years, publishing widely read stories on human rights violations and gender-based violence.

In recent years, a push for diversity has meant that more women are pursuing stories in what was once the domain of men—conflict zones and fractured democracies—or in traditionally private female spaces. In 2016 and 2017, the Global Reporting Centre surveyed more than 450 journalists from 70 countries on the relationship between correspondents and fixers, and characterized it as “a deep-pocketed foreign reporter hiring a local journalist in an often-poorer country, to do his or her bidding,” resulting in troubling power imbalances. “Journalists who travel around the world are not ready to entertain this conversation,” Dixit tells me. “They view you as someone who adds value, as an equal.” One can hope for international journalism to always reflect that ideal, wherein the visiting foreign journalist and the local journalist meet on equal terms, each respecting the other’s role.In the past year I have been working with Paul Salopek, an American journalist who eschews the term “fixer” in favor of “walking partner.” This is meant literally—Salopek has been crossing northern India on foot for his project, called the Out of Eden Walk. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Fixer+(journalism)the chemical used to remove unexposed, underdeveloped silver compounds and to harden gelatin or emulsion on film.In photography and radiography, a solution that removes both the unexposed and undeveloped silver halide crystals from the film emulsion and hardens the gelatin. (Hearing this story, I was reminded of the 1978 memoir by Edward Behr, It is up to editors to see all contributors to a story as journalists, without typecasting based on geography or ethnicity or status. “Their storytelling is different than the way I do my work,” Dixit says. Dixit isn’t holding her breath. “Since it is for an international audience, they try to simplify complex matters, and lose out on the nuance.”Why not hire Dixit as a reporter, rather than as a fixer, which would likely lead to a better understanding of India’s complex realities? I carry an Indian passport, which allows me entry to fewer countries than an American or European passport. Less clear is what to do about it, and how to fix it. “Give me 10 years, and then I’ll be all right with telling my story openly,” a photojournalist says.