‘Fixers’ as journalists: The emotional labour of locally hired news gatherers in Afghanistan who work for foreign correspondents

This study incorporates qualitative interviews, analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), with current and former locally hired Afghan reporters (otherwise known as ‘fixers’) to examine the work they do as journalists in their own right. While research participants talked about the ways in which they exercise agency and autonomy they struggled to be taken seriously as journalists both by foreign journalists and other Afghans. Interviewees described some of the emotional consequences of the assumptions others made about them. The study illustrates how ‘fixing’ has both a global aspect and a local one for those doing it. Locally hired journalists reflect on the ways in which working for foreigners challenges local cultural norms. Yet at the same time, they struggle to fit into global industry work settings. Finally, since the job requires that difficult feelings be covered up in a work setting, it is suggested that ‘fixing’ can be seen as kind of emotional labour.