Travels with Herodotus. On Media Ethnocentrism, Otherness and the Mission of the Journalist Working as a Foreign Correspondent
Travels with Herodotus. On Media Ethnocentrism, Otherness and the Mission of the Journalist Working as a Foreign Correspondent

Summary/Abstract: The present article discusses the multiple facets of foreign correspondence journalism based on reflections on the matter encapsulated by the Polish writer Ryszard Kapuściński in his last book Travels with Herodotus (2004). Kapuściński, a worldwide renowned reporter of the 20th century, worked for the Polish Press Agency for decades, and his rich experiences as a foreign correspondent in Asia, Africa or South America constitute a fruitful compendium for aspiring journalists. The topics tackled throughout this paper include Kapuściński’s criticism of media ethnocentrism, as opposed to his preference for empathy, the measure for quality reporting, and for otherness, a concept understood here as evaluating your own culture and modus vivendi only in relation with other cultures and nations. From this point of view, for Kapuściński, more than a process of discovering the other, travelling is a way of growing better knowledge of and understanding yourself. Having Herodotus and his Histories as travelling companions, the Polish reporter builds several analogies between “History’s first globalist” and his own persona ‒ “cosmopolish writer” and “citizen of the world” (Michnik, 2008: 14).

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