Wednesday, January 27, 2010
The future of international journalism
The media's coverage of Haiti's earthquake generated generous aid from institutions, governments, individuals and groups. The media's success in telling stories continues and without global news, Haiti's prospects for rebuilding would be more dire.
But the TV news stations are pulling correspondents from international posts like Haiti to save money, according to a The New York Times article this week. The good news is many newspapers still have reporters in the country, but as Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center said, many Americans know more about Haiti's plight through visual images.
The waning TV crews in global settings is an insight into the looming issue of journalism's economic woes. Newspapers have cut foreign correspondents by half in many cases, relying on fewer reporters to cover a growing world of stories. Are there options to learn about contemporary global issues other than traditional media?
The bloggers and freelance writers in foreign countries are helpful resources for learning about regions in- and outside of the media's reach. And foreign foreign correspondents, or locals employed by news agencies to send reports about their country, are good alternatives to sending the national media abroad. But finding professional reporters in unfamiliar territories with strong foreign language skills for
But what about areas that don't have an Internet connection? Such destinations require money for transportation, security, food, equipment, etc...
And why do we care about international stories like ethnic rioting between the Uighurs and Han Chinese last summer in Urumqi? Urmqi is the capital of the Xinjiang region in China and civil unrest caused the government to execute nine dissidents, citing crimes such as murder and robbery, according to the National Post.
We need to preserve journalism. No voices, no journalism. There seem few ways to keep the cameras rolling and pages turning as media coffers dwindle. As news bureaus close and reporters abandon global regions, journalism is becoming standardized by large, consolidated, mostly Western companies. Unless we want to rely on the few remaining media conglomerates (Disney, Reuters and CNN, among others), the public will need to pay. Human rights activists are no doubt among the parties wanting to know more about the executions. But interest groups aren't the only reasons global news is essential to humankind's livliehood.
But the TV news stations are pulling correspondents from international posts like Haiti to save money, according to a The New York Times article this week. The good news is many newspapers still have reporters in the country, but as Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center said, many Americans know more about Haiti's plight through visual images.
The waning TV crews in global settings is an insight into the looming issue of journalism's economic woes. Newspapers have cut foreign correspondents by half in many cases, relying on fewer reporters to cover a growing world of stories. Are there options to learn about contemporary global issues other than traditional media?
The bloggers and freelance writers in foreign countries are helpful resources for learning about regions in- and outside of the media's reach. And foreign foreign correspondents, or locals employed by news agencies to send reports about their country, are good alternatives to sending the national media abroad. But finding professional reporters in unfamiliar territories with strong foreign language skills for
But what about areas that don't have an Internet connection? Such destinations require money for transportation, security, food, equipment, etc...
And why do we care about international stories like ethnic rioting between the Uighurs and Han Chinese last summer in Urumqi? Urmqi is the capital of the Xinjiang region in China and civil unrest caused the government to execute nine dissidents, citing crimes such as murder and robbery, according to the National Post.
We need to preserve journalism. No voices, no journalism. There seem few ways to keep the cameras rolling and pages turning as media coffers dwindle. As news bureaus close and reporters abandon global regions, journalism is becoming standardized by large, consolidated, mostly Western companies. Unless we want to rely on the few remaining media conglomerates (Disney, Reuters and CNN, among others), the public will need to pay. Human rights activists are no doubt among the parties wanting to know more about the executions. But interest groups aren't the only reasons global news is essential to humankind's livliehood.
# posted by CourtneyH @ 4:21 PM 0 Comments
Subscribe to Comments [Atom]
