Today I had my first class for Press, Pentagon and the Public, an elective about war coverage by US media that many upper level journalism students take. We began the class with introducing our names and stating how many veterans we had in our families. Aside from me and a couple others, most students had family members or friends in the Israeli Defense Forces. These students proudly declared how many contacts they knew in whatever service. The professor encouraged the class to take a trip to Israel sometime as it will be a good time and a treat if you havent been before. After that he went on to discuss the importance of being an American first, and a journalist second when covering any situation as a foreign correspondent. He displayed multiple videos to the class. One clip showed middle eastern war correspondents describing how Arab women were trapped in their homes and lived in sad situations (the video was ambiguous as to which country this was occurring in and mentioned multiple Arab nations surrounding this comment). After class I asked him, How can one be a correspondent in foreign nation without removing the American lens? Isnt the one job of a foreign correspondent to deliver the reality of the situation, regardless of their nationality? He said, it just isnt that black and white. These are the kinds of ideas being indoctrinated to Medill students, some of the greatest future journalists in America.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Jan 2015 19:33:38 +0000
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