Joshua Jaffa: Journalist for The New Yorker Reports on War in Ukraine

Joshua Jaffa is a journalist for the influential publication “The New Yorker” who regularly goes to Ukraine, spends a lot of time there and creates stories for the world about the Ukrainian people and the everyday life in the horrors of war. Joshua has been in Izjuma after the residents were expelled, meeting both those who were tortured in the cells and those who collaborated with the occupying power.

In Chernihiv, he created a story about the siege of the city and the beginning of the war in Kyiv, which became one of his most impressive reports.

“My first long article in the New Yorker was from the first days of the Kyiv invasion. It was a story of shock, trauma for this European city. I realized it was during a war. To talk to people, to be there. with them in this difficult time – it was very important to me,” said Jaffa.

The most complicated and ugly part of all wars, as Joshua said, is that situations and events are repeated – air strikes, cities, villages, dead people destroyed – and without awareness and inevitably by the viewers, readers and journalists themselves, not to mention the people of the country. Ukraine, very tired of it all.

It’s important to be honest with yourself, he says. In addition, there is no clear recipe for how to fight it.

“Ukraine is close to me, I have been connected to the country and the people during these years, but as a journalist I understand that there is no interest in this story anymore, as it was at the first, when it was terrible. and people followed closely,” Joshua admitted.

“These feelings, so sharp, fade slowly, and so do I. And I cannot persuade readers to think and feel differently than I do. And it is the most the best I can do in this situation is to try to find stories that are important and interesting and somehow show a new vitality in Ukrainian society,” he continued.

The main readers of Joshua’s writings are Americans, so it is much more difficult for him to sell the Ukrainian story to an audience further from the scene, so to speak.

Nina Nazarova, who works for the British broadcaster BBC News in Russian, is different. Here, people consume news about Ukraine with increasing interest, and it does not disappear even when the war is also raging in the Middle East – in Gaza.

“We are, of course, currently creating fewer stories about the war in Ukraine than at the very beginning – in February, March 2022. But a third of our content is still about the war in Ukraine , and this topic is on the At least half of our readers choose news about the war in Ukraine,” she explained.

Also in Latvia, which is next to Russia, the topic of Ukraine is better understood and important, but we also hear from time to time the opinion that there is too much war news.

However, one more important aspect should be taken into account, as experts say – this tired card is a very important tool of Russian propaganda.

“Russia is using this on purpose, carrying out its disinformation campaigns, influencing opinion in Europe and also in the US. Dealing with this issue of fatigue to some extent, that everyone is tired of this war, let’s stop it, let’s sit at the negotiation. album and so on,” assessed the center’s Baltic Media excellence executive director, Gunta Sloga.

“Fatigue has become something like our watchword, and in fact, perhaps we – journalists and the public – should look at this war a little differently, that is – how can we continue to support the Ukrainians, how can we continue to support ourselves and sustain ourselves. our moral stability, and don’t let the efforts of other countries tire us,” she said.

Do not rest and continue to work – this is currently the only possible and important thing to do, business experts conclude, realizing that there is no stronger recipe.

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