Synopses & Reviews
As Yahoo!'s first news correspondent, Kevin Sites spent the last year covering every major global conflict for "Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone" on Yahoo! News. These areas of conflict are typically left uncovered or underandndash;reported by mainstream news organizations. Sites bravely visited each one, often without help of any kind, and this book delves further into the dramatic stories behind Sites' adventures.
The reporting on display here is gripping and unforgettable, including an interview with an exandndash;U.S. Marine who is also the son of Somalia's most infamous warlord; the portrait of a former child soldier in the Congo who is rejected by his family and, with no other options, may have to take up the gun again at the tender age of 13; and an unsettling tour of Rwanda's "school of death." But Sites goes beyond the stories here as well, describing his earlier career as a journalism pioneer and his vision of the future of media, one in which fearless, mobile reporters like himself regularly outdo the mainstream outlets and use the web to reach an everandndash;expanding audience.
Review
“An essential read, especially for those who believe themselves to be world-wise or politically savvy.” Library Journal (starred review)
Review
“These images and dispatches form the numberless rooms of hell have an undeniable cumulative power.” Kirkus Reviews
Review
“Kevin Sites represents the next step in the evolution of journalism.” New York Post
Synopsis
Kevin Sites is a man on a mission. Venturing alone into the dark heart of war, armed with just a video camera, a digital camera, a laptop, and a satellite modem, the award-winning journalist covered virtually every major global hot spot as the first Internet correspondent for Yahoo! News. Beginning his journey with the anarchic chaos of Somalia in September 2005 and ending with the Israeli-Hezbollah war in the summer of 2006, Sites talks with rebels and government troops, child soldiers and child brides, and features the people on every side, including those caught in the cross fire. His honest reporting helps destroy the myths of war by putting a human face on war's inhumanity. Personally, Sites will come to discover that the greatest danger he faces may not be from bombs and bullets, but from the unsettling power of the truth.
About the Author
Kevin Sites has spent more than a decade covering wars and conflicts for ABC, NBC, CNN, Yahoo! News, and Vice magazine. He is the author of In the Hot Zone: One Man, One Year, Twenty Wars and The Things They Cannot Say: Stories Soldiers Won't Tell You About What They've Seen, Done or Failed to Do in War. He is also an associate professor of journalism at the University of Hong Kong.