Gendered constructions of the professional journalist: a case study of discourses surrounding public and private around Kate Adie

The University of Sunderland has recently become custodian of the Kate Adie Collection, covering her time as a reporter from 1969 to the time she left the BBC as its chief news correspondent in 2004. The extensive archive includes Adie's own reporter's notebooks and drafts of broadcast scripts, as well as recordings of the broadcasts themselves, so offers a unique opportunity to explore the journalistic process that is integral to the role of the reporter. Adie's role has given her an international profile, especially in her capacity as war correspondent, and as a role model for aspiring women journalists.

There has been some significant academic research in the UK looking at the role of the broadcast journalist, ranging from the place of embedded reporters in wartime (Lewis et al 2003) to journalistic practices in the context of live broadcasting (Montgomery 2006). This has added to older research on the controversy that surrounded BBC coverage of the Tripoli bombings of 1986 (Masterman 1988).

The most recent work (Lewis et al 2003) has focused on coverage of the 2003 Iraq invasion, in which technological developments have made it possible to broadcast live or near-live television war reporting from the battlefield. As well as heightening visibility of conflict, this has also intensified the role of the named correspondent, making the journalist's style and personality part of the story.

Adie is not the first woman journalist to cover war, and earlier examples include photojournalists Dickey Chapelle and Lee Miller and newspaper correspondent Martha Gelhorn. However, Adie's significance lies in her position as a television broadcaster, working within a media platform more characterized by the development of a particular persona around the individual reporter. An early survey of the archive suggests that prominence was given to gender, with its attendant stereotypes, in the scrutiny of Adie's professional practice within dominant media and political institutions. For the first time it will be possible to see 'both sides' of the reporting as Adie's broadcasts are backed up by her notes and report drafts, as well as documents relating to the wider context in which the reports were filed.