Finding the Next Generation of Foreign Correspondents

Pamela Constable’s lament (http://www.concernedjournalists.org/node/670 [1]) for the state of the foreign correspondent is another falling barometer about the state of journalism today. Most appalling was Ms. Constable’s statistic that the number of American foreign correspondents from newspapers has actually declined by 25% since 2002.

This comes at a time when Americans should be learning more, not less, about the rest of the world. It also means that our world view is becoming smaller and more narrow.

How did we get into this state of affairs? And can anything be done about this?

Before 9/11, American journalism seemed to lose interest in foreign reporting. After 9/11, we seemed to recover from our concentration on the domestic side of reporting through the 1990s. News organizations sent reporters around the world and especially to the Middle East. Many hoped that news organizations were prepared to change and instead of leaving us informationally unprotected, that foreign reporting was going to assume a more appropriate and proportional role on the front pages and in the newscast “ledes.”

But the financial pressures are still besetting the industry. And so, important newspapers like the Baltimore Sun, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Boston Globe, among others, are repatriating their foreign correspondents in order to concentrate on local news to the exclusion of a local voice reporting important matters from around the world.

There are still significant news organizations that are committed to telling the story with American eyes for American readers, listeners and viewers. CNN, NPR, the New York Times and the Washington Post are still out there providing powerful journalism that is essential to our understanding of the rest of the world.

But fewer and fewer news organizations are sending their own reporters offshore. That means the responsibility for reporting the world to America is left in still capable, but far fewer hands. It also means that local and regional news organizations are less likely to develop their journalists who have an interest in overseas reporting. So it’s up to national news organizations to identify, train and promote their own talent.

Next Gen Correspondents

That means the pool for the next generation of foreign correspondents will not come from the deeper reaches of regional American journalism, but from the same few organizations that remain committed to foreign reporting.

Anthony Shadid is a case in point (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Shadid [2]).

Shadid is a former AP wire reporter who reported from the Middle East before becoming the diplomatic correspondent for the Boston Globe. He’s now a Pulitzer Prize winning correspondent for the Washington Post.

Shadid is like many correspondents who were given their first chance at foreign reporting from a wire service or from a regional newspaper. Although editors may not like to hear it, those regional papers along with local radio and TV stations often played the role of farm teams for the major leagues of journalism. And it took some courage for an editor or a producer to find the money to send a local reporter overseas especially when that reporter might end up being lured away to join another newspaper or network broadcaster.

But if there are fewer good regional or local reporters assigned overseas, where will the next generation of Anthony Shadids come from?

This is not the first time that domestic and financial pressures have caused news organizations to retrench.

A “Perfect Storm”

In the 1980’s a “perfect storm” of news, profits and technologies began to form over the news industry in America and Europe.

First, by the late 80s, news divisions suddenly became designated as “profit centers” for their larger organizations. That meant that the business side of journalism assumed a new importance since the news division was now expected to pay its own way, rather than be supported by Sports, Entertainment and advertisements from other departments.

By the early 1990s, so-called “news doctors” from consulting firms were hired to make the news divisions operate in a more fiscally effective way. In short, the “news doctors” who came from firms like McKinsey and KPMG, found ways to cut costs and to maximize profits. Newsroom downsizing was everywhere.

At the same time, new technologies and the digital revolution changed the way news was gathered and disseminated, thus boosting profits. Fewer people were required to produce the news as highly skilled technical jobs were replaced with simpler digital technologies.

The end of the Cold War meant that the traditional way in which the West viewed the challenge from the Soviet Union was over. So bureaus in Eastern Europe and other parts of the world were closed, while correspondents were reassigned back to the US where the news agenda became increasingly domestic.

All that changed after 9/11 when American journalism suddenly realized that it had neglected foreign reporting. Aside from covering the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan to a lesser extent, that interest in the rest of the world has now cooled again under the economic pressures on journalism. News organizations are once again looking for places to cut budgets and as is so often the case, the first cold winds of cutbacks are usually first felt on the foreign desks.

Glum But Not Hopeless

While the future of foreign reporting may look glum, there may be ways to rethink how news organizations report from overseas.

First, there are local, foreign reporters who are knowledgeable and whose English is excellent. They need to be identified and trained.

Second, the role of the blogger in foreign reporting needs to be rethought. It is just possible that a blogger-correspondent might be the next phase of reporting.

Third, the BBC may be a model where eager and often young journalists are given the basics of news gathering then sent overseas to act as one-person bureaus. These journalists may not have all of the experience that old hands may have, but they are willing and adept.

Finally, local newspapers and broadcasters need to be encouraged (by their journalists and their audiences) to continue their excellent tradition of foreign reporting for a local audience.

The skills are still there and the need even greater now than ever.

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