Hollie McKay | Author, Only Cry for the Living; Investigative War Journalist
- Hollie is an author of a book titled, “Only Cry For The Living.”
- She is an investigative, international affair, and war journalist with over 14 years of specialized focus on warfare, terrorism, and crimes against humanity.
Podcast
Overview
We live in a highly volatile world where people and countries are getting into conflicts and wars based on ideologies, religions, and national security propaganda. With the recent Russia-Ukraine War and the Taliban taking over Afghanistan, we cannot even start to imagine the horrors that the victims of the war experience. A war reporter’s role becomes extremely critical to bring forward the many untold stories. In today’s episode, we talk to an investigative war journalist, who shares what goes behind responsible reporting.
[00:33] – About Hollie McKay
- Hollie is an author of a book titled, “Only Cry For The Living.”
- She is an investigative, international affairs, and war journalist with over 14 years of specialized focus on warfare, terrorism, and crimes against humanity.
[03:40] – What went into the research for your book?
- It started in 2014, and I was going in and out of Iraq and Syria for work.
- ISIS, at the time, had just come in. It was this new terrorist group that suddenly took over a huge amount of the country.
- I was very intrigued by what was happening. In around 2016, on one fine day, I noticed the little black notebooks where I was constantly taking notes and interviews and doing my work.
- I thought there is something more that I want to do with this because a lot of stories don’t make the news.
- When you are working on the daily news, it can become quite dry, and I wanted to tell a much deeper story than that.
- I thought there are so many stories that will never see the air unless I can put them into a more narrative form.
- I’ve always believed in highlighting micro-stories to tell the macro picture.
- We often look at a country or conflict, and it seems so confusing from the outside, and when we tell those individual stories it gives us the ability to relate and understand that big without being overwhelmed.
- The book takes you from 2014 through to the end of 2018. It is about the rise and fall of ISIS.
- It contains stories of displaced people, victims, and survivors along with accounts of different militaries on the ground and ISIS themselves.
[08:20] – Do you really feel that journalism can bring justice?
- It is something I struggle with a lot.
- There are certainly cases where journalists have been able to bring attention to things, but my concern in this day and age is that there is so much noise out there.
- There is a big conflict and confusion between journalism and activism.
- When I continue to work on these wars and continue to see horrors and nothing changes, it makes me a little depressed about it, but I also have to recognize that I’m not a lawmaker or a politician.
- I am a writer and my job is to write what happened.
RESOURCES:
You can connect with Hollie McKay – LinkedIn
Enjoy this podcast?
If you learned new insights about what goes in war reporting, subscribe and share it with friends!
Love to give us 5 stars? ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ If you do, we’d love a review from you. Help us reach more people to keep them in the know as we talk to leaders, high achievers, and thought leaders from diverse backgrounds and nationalities. Excellence can come
from anywhere; stay in the know, and hear from emergent high achievers and gurus.
Stay updated with what’s shaping the world today through the latest The Brand Called You Podcast episode. Follow us on iTunes, Spotify, and Anchor.fm.
You can find us at:
Website: www.tbcy.in
Instagram: http://bit.ly/3HO7N06
Facebook:http://bit.ly/3YzJOaD
Twitter: http://bit.ly/3wMBOXK
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tbcy/
YouTube: http://bit.ly/3jmBqfq
Chingari: https://chingari.io/tbcypodcast
Josh: http://bit.ly/3WWP0nB
Thanks for listening!
Profile
- Hollie is an author of a book titled, “Only Cry For The Living.”
- She is an investigative, international affairs, and war journalist with over 14 years of specialized focus on warfare, terrorism, and crimes against humanity.
