We got through the basics—how I’d arrived in Libya, why I was there—in civil tones. Then the Inspector asked, “If you were a professor at Harvard, why did you quit your job to come risk your life in Libya?” I explained as best I could that I had not been a professor but a graduate student, and part of my training was teaching undergraduates. The academic job market was tough and demoralizing, and the rigidity of the academic lifestyle had never appealed to me that much anyway. I had suspected for a few years that I’d be temperamentally better suited to working as a reporter. “Why you work journalist? You don’t study journalism, you study history!”
—
What I Lost in Libya by Clare Morgana Gillis, a journalist who was captured by Gadhafi forces.
posted by Kattullus
on Dec 6, 2011 -
12 comments
Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting supports journalists covering dangerous areas and underreported issues on all continents except Antartica, as is shown by
this handy Google map showing all 45
projects. Among the projects are
Caucasus, focusing on the easternmost part of Europe where just today conflict broke out,
Scars and Stripes: Liberian Youth After the War,
The Soybean Wars, about the booming demand for soybeans in South America,
Alaska, global warming and its effects on Alaskan glaciers,
Understanding Iran looks at ordinary Iranians,
and Iraq: Death of a Nation? (Revisited). Links to stories are generally in sidebars on the left and right. The Pulitzer Center also has a blog called
Untold Stroies which is frequently updated and keeps tabs on all 45 projects as well as related events, such as the recent
TED Talk by PRI CEO Alisa Miller on the paltry reporting of international issues in American media with arresting graphs and visuals, which serves to place the mission of the Pulitzer Center in context.
posted by Kattullus
on Aug 8, 2008 -
5 comments
The death of Russia [google video]. A very interesting documentary made for Channel 4 in the UK on the state of modern Russia from
Marcel Theroux.
Marcel is older brother of
Louis Theroux and son of the travel writer
Paul.
Marcel's documentary style is more sober than that of his brother and he deals with a tragic subject delicately and with a sympathetic tone. A very depressing but nonetheless very watchable documentary told by a literate, compassionate journalist.
[48 minutes running time]
posted by ClanvidHorse
on Apr 9, 2007 -
18 comments
Sometimes, often even, life imitates art. Rarely is it as spot-on as this example.
Recall if you will, actor Robert Downey's character in Oliver Stone's
Natural Born Killers. Compare Downey's character to
this photo.
Now, try not to laugh.
No, really. Be serious, because this picture pretty much sums up
everything thats gone wrong with modern journalism (and does so without even so much as a caption).
posted by BentPenguin
on Dec 26, 2001 -
17 comments
Occupied territories no longer "occupied" on TV news The turmoil in the Middle East has been a top international story on television news since fighting broke out in the West Bank and Gaza. But amid the constant flow of footage showing violent confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers, a central fact of the conflict has been missing from almost all network TV coverage:
The West Bank and Gaza are occupied territories. The right to use force to resist foreign occupation is universally recognized and enshrined in international law. via
thewebtoday
posted by lagado
on Nov 14, 2000 -
0 comments
