Forum

Tonight’s panelists are:
- Sunday Dare, chief, Hausana Service, Voice of America
- Karen DeYoung, associate editor, The Washington Post
Unfortunately, Josh Rushing, a military and current affairs correspondent for Al-Jazeera and Matt Frei, a Washington correspondent for BBC were unable to attend because of the tragic events at Virginia Tech.

7.10pm: Start of the Forum.

7.16pm: S.D. thinks that the coverage of today’s tragedy at Virginia Tech has been fair and “commendable.” But he warns that the job isn’t done. “We won’t be able to see until tomorrow, when we get backgrounders, and when more is known, if there is any slanting.”

His assessment accurately points out that it’s difficult to slant breaking news without making you look foolish. How the aftermath will be covered will be interesting as the issue of pro-weapon and pro-gun ban will make balanced reportage more difficult.

7.18pm: K.DeY. says that, “most American newspapers don’t have foreign correspondents anymore.” This means that most papers simply take their stories off the wires or take them from the big newspapers such as the New York Times which diminishes the quality of the reporting.”

This statement is one that’s made often. As the wires gain more power, through this increased readership the amount of different sources diminish. One bad wire story can misinform more people than ever.

DeYoung says that because so many of papers’ funds are spent on reporting from Iraq there’s no more money to cover anything else. “Because a greater amount of space is now given to the Iraq war a lot of other international stories aren’t covered.”

A great deal of important foreign news has slipped under the radar since the breakout of the Iraq war.

7.23pm: S.D. says that the only coverage of Africa in American papers is through ‘parachute journalists’ (journalists that cover the news for a few days and then leave). “The story of elections in Nigeria doesn’t begin when people go to vote, it begins two or three years earlier so if you don’t tell that whole story you’re not informing your audience properly.”

“Journalists aren’t paid very much so there’s only so much you can expect from them.”

This isn’t a fair point in my view. Garbagemen aren’t paid very much either but they’re expected to pick up all the trash nonetheless.

7.26pm: K.DeY. says that she hasn’t encountered cutbacks at the Post. “In my experience I have never seen any interference from the business side in the news reporting.” She is of course, in this respect, at the other end of the spectrum from S.D. who has witnessed countless cutbacks at Voice of America.

7.30pm: K.DeY. “In many papers around the country you simply don’t see much foreign news. At the Post the space given to foreign correspondence hasn’t declined but the diversity of topics has.”

S.D.: “In West Africa, radio is king, because it is cheap. The problem with budgets is even bigger back in Africa. I think about 1.2% of people have access to CNN, FOX etc.”

7.33pm: S.D.: “A large part of Western Africa is Muslim so the interest in America and its foreign policy is very high. Like today, we got a lot of emails saying ‘tell the Americans that we’re sorry about what happened’ or ‘why are there students shooting each other?’ There is a very high level of interest.

Poor Mr. Dare even had to admit receiving a large number of emails enquiring about Anna Nicole Smith and how rich she really is. Is it not a sad state when, with all that is going on, Western Africa’s chief interest in America is Anna Nicole Smith. Personally, I would happily transfer the E channel to them and never have it returned.

7.37: K.DeY. “The great thing about the internet is that I can now get feedback from my readers asking questions or congratulations.”

S.D.: “In Africa we get those too. In fact, we get very worried if we don’t. As journalists we have a lot of power and with that comes a lot of responsibility and if we aren’t scrutinized that’s not a good thing.”

“I took over at VoA just 30 days before 9/11 occurred. The Nigerian Muslims feel a very strong bond with the Middle Eastern Muslims and we got an email saying, ‘America has declared war on Islam.’ That’s the kind of anti-Americanism there is and that has not been reduced since. In fact, it’s increased.” Ironic, isn’t it? There are two common denominators here, not just Islam but oil. Much like Iraq and the rest of the Middle East, Nigeria is a country extremely rich in oil.

7.40: S.D. “When the Haliburton scandal broke, many in Nigeria were surprised that there was corruption even in a country as powerful as America. But they also wondered why the American media only scratched the surface.” Mr. Dare makes a very valid point here. The investigation into big corporations in America has been minimal to say the least. Whether it’s a fear to undermine the economy that pays your rent or simply a lack of resources I know not, but if even the Nigerian media wonders about this we have to ask ourselves what can be done here.

7.47: Questions from the crowd.

In response to a question about why the American cable providers refuse to add Al-Jazeera English to the packages, K.DeY. thinks that the excuse the cable-providers offer that they have no more space is invalid. She believes that it is in fact cheap and that they are scared of instigating and to be labeled as friendly to terrorist.

S.D. believes that it is a different editorial standard. Whereas American outlets are very careful about showing graphic materials, Al-Jazeera is not. Mr. Dare clearly has never watched Al-Jazeera extensively, unlike yours truly. Al-Jazeera English is very careful about showing anything graphic and is many times more fair and accurate than any of its American counterparts. Mr. Dare most likely confused the TV-channel with the completely unrelated website which does enjoy showing these materials.

7.53pm: Another question from the crowd asks what makes a Washington Post reporter sent overseas more valuable than a stringer (a freelancer with a loose commitment to one or several outlets). K.DeY. believes that it’s a matter of time. A journalist that only works for one outlet has the chance to work more carefully and in-depth.

S.D. is an advocate of using stringers as they are cheaper and he believes they do virtually the same work.

K.DeY. rightfully counters that that’s a dangerous road to go down as stringers don’t have much responsibility in terms of representing the outlet and its reputation.

S.D., however, argues that with proper training, this is not an issue. “What they need to be taught is the proper journalistic ethics. If you do this there is no issue with reputation.”

8.02pm: End of forum

This forum badly missed contributions by Frei and Rushing. Without the contributions by reporters of foreign outlets the discussion was incomplete.

“How America Covers Itself: American News from a Foreign Perspective”

Welcome to my American Forum blog.
Live coverage will begin at 7pm tonight.

Here is a an introduction to tonight's forum:
Does the overall effect of American news abroad contribute to anti-American sentiment? Does our media reflect our country in a good light or a bad one? Journalists discuss these questions and issues.

For more information go to: soc.american.edu

Leander