| Back to Home > Bulletin Board > Media Issues > Topic: international journalism -the end? |
Topic: international journalism -the end?
| Author | Message |
| newyorker | Posted – 6/8/2006 2:26:07 PM | show profile I'm going to bitch here for a second because I'm completely frustrated with not being able to find a job. After getting a Comm. degree and many editorial internships, I obtained my Masters in International affairs and interned with a newswire. I left the country for a year and a half and did freelance writing. I wasn't making a living off of it and wanted to work for a company so I came back to the States earlier this year. I just seem to be hitting a wall with trying to break into journalism here. Newspapers say I don't have newspaper experience (even though I have newswire experience). Magazines don't have much reporting or staff writer positions open anymore. Plus, bureaus overseas have closed down. Before getting my masters, I was told that it was better to have a specialized graduate degree rather than a Masters in journalism. It just seems that international journalism is dead. What is more aggravating - I read an article a few days ago about how the Times is placing Metro Editors as correspondents in Baghdad! I'm so frustrated with not getting anywhere with this that I am so ready to give up but I don't want to. |
| mirad | Posted – 6/8/2006 3:57:18 PM | show profile | email poster You may be right that international journalism is dead. I'm frustrated as a reader, and turn to BBC online and other foreign Web sites to get international news. It's tough in the beginning. I didn't have a journalism or communications degree. Just a B.A., started freelancing and had a tough time getting a job. It just takes that one editor w/whom you click and sees your potential. If you are in the Baltimore/D.C. area contact me on this site and I may have a lead for you. |
| chucho | Posted – 6/9/2006 7:59:16 AM | show profile Well, where are you? And what are your goals? If you're in NYC, accept the fact that competition there is fierce. I would guess it probably takes at least 10 years of experience just to get an entry level reporting gig at The New York Daily News. And are you pursuing "international journalism"? What does that mean? It's almost as if you're saying there is US-based journalism and then there's everything else. Part of the problem is that the US media has been scaling back on it's investments in bureaus abroad. (Americans generally don't give a crap about what happens abroad unless there are US soldiers dying in certain places, or there's some other self-interested, nationalistic reason -- usually linked to economic interests -- to pay attention.) I hope what you mean to say is "international coverage by US pubs" instead of "international journalism." As far as the NYT's "volunteer army" -- while I'm sure it was hard to find reporters to go to Iraq, it has a lot to do with the qualifications. (Do you speak Arabic? Can you explain specifically the difference between Shiah and Sunnah tecahings? Do you have military contacts. Quick: do you know the exact date the war started? Can you name the Iraqi Defense minister? The US ambassador to Iraq? Etc. Etc.) I'm sure there are plenty of journos willing to go, but the paper's standards are very high. What they mean when they say it was difficult to find people to go, they mean it was difficult to find people with the right qualifications to go. (Those qualified are ones that have been in the job for a while, and a lot of them are married, have kids, mortgages, etc. and bascially don't want to go to Iraq for the same reason a lot of these young Republican chickenhawks don't want to put their money where their mouths are and enlist to fight for "free-dim" -- they have kids, wives (or husbands), steady jobs, better options, etc. (Better to let "the volunteer army" do the dirty work while all Republican chickenhawks under the age of 36 sit on their fat asses here and play armchair patriots. Oops, but I digress...) Also: you make "New York Times Metro Reporter" sound like some kind of entry-level position when it isn't. One of those guys has been covering recruitment and military affairs related to Iraq for the New York Times for years. I would consider that relevant experience. OK, anyway. Maybe you shoudl go abroad again. Or maybe you should look harder. I know the Jersey Herald (I think it's the Herald, the one in West Patterson) is randy enough to hire "go-get-em" reporters with relatively little experience. (The editor asked me in an interview if I knew who Ernie Pyle is. Interesting question. I was offered the job, but would have required a car that I wasn't willing to buy at the time.) They pay isn't very good, but it's a good career boost for reporters. In short: look harder and be aware if you might be acting a bit like a primma dona about what jobs you might be willing to take. And, as you know, it's possible to move abroad again and freelance your way into a foreign bureau for a major daily. (Albeit you might have to start out as a lowly research assistant, provided you speak the local idiom.) Good luck. |
| flipflap | Posted – 6/9/2006 10:13:23 AM | show profile Read this Poynter column on freelancing overseas: casting off the parachute: http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=100823 Lots of good advice, including "Be Where Others Aren't" Today, with bureaus overseas being shut down and the IHT's new deal to use OH My's int'l citizen journos in their pages, I almost think you'd have to go the indy route to prove yourself. The Poynter columnist's bio is instructive: Vanessa Gezari has been a foreign and national correspondent at the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times since June 2004. She came to the Times after nearly three years freelancing in New Delhi and Kabul, writing about politics, conflict and culture for the Chicago Tribune, The (Baltimore) Sun, Slate and others. In 2004, she trained Afghan journalists with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. Before moving to South Asia, she was a one-year resident at the Chicago Tribune and a general assignment and city hall reporter at the Toledo (Ohio) Blade. |
| belinda | Posted – 6/9/2006 11:52:19 AM | show profile Lots of good insight here so far. It sounds like your newswire experience may have been an internship. What's that, two or three months in a learning position? That's not experience. You were a student. Your degree is not unusual, nor is it unusual to have spent a year freelancing overseas. Adjust your perspective. Talking with newsroom recruiters (the guy at Newsday is good) can help as you map out the next steps in your career path. |
| newyorker | Posted – 6/9/2006 1:12:09 PM | show profile | email poster Thank you all for your comments and suggestions! I know I came across as "whining," and its not that I don't know what it takes to make it in this business - I am just at a low point right now and frustrated. I am willing to start from the bottom and work my way up. It's just a question of getting an opportunity. Mirad, I don't live in DC but I can certainly move there. Would appreciate any leads. Thanks all! |
| clare04 | Posted – 6/13/2006 5:11:08 PM | show profile ?? You need to go to a small regional paper in the US for a while -if you can get hired on there. I'm not sure since you don't really have any claim to a journalism career. A degree in international affairs has nothing to do with being a reporter. Do not go past go: Baghdad is fast becoming about THE last place on earth to go as an experienced journalist, let alone someone such as yourself. Do you wanna get killed or something? |
| Deadline Done | Posted – 6/14/2006 7:38:39 PM | show profile Flipflap: That was a great article you linked. Sums it all up. But as for OhMyNews, don't mistake that for anything worthwhile. I'm suprised IHT is dealing with them. An enormous amount of hype surrounds the operation. Freelancers once weren't paid, but now they get twenty bucks and a "tip jar." It's the old write-for-free scam but on a global level. Twenty bucks goes a long ways for a native writer in a third world country. The Oh Yun Ho, founder of the operation is laughing his way to the bank. He's conning thousands of people to write for him for practically nothing. It's like the Moonies and a cult-like belief system pervades the publication. They just signed a deal for $11 million to hookup a Japanese version. It's the biggest scam in the writing business and it is all under the guise of "every citizen is a reporter" rubbish. OhMyNews became popular in 2002 by publishing a lot of anti-American material which led to an orgy of hate towards the U.S. and anyone that "looks" American. Most of the writers are cranks with some kind of angle, or wannabe journalists too timid to get into the freelancing fray and face rejection. OhMyNews is based in South Korea, yet the Korean coverage (in English) is pitiful. International coverage is simply a hodgepodge mix of articles with no editorial vision since it publishes whatever is sent in and looks readable. Once again, OhMyNews is a a write-for-free scam on a global level. Write for them and you will be making someone else rich. If you want to write for free, save it for a prestigous literary journal that pays in copies or a few bucks. At least then you have a good clip that you're not embarrassed about. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 6/15/2006 12:39:12 AM | show profile The problem may be your expectations. Overseas newspaper jobs are highly coveted, and they usually go to reporters who have been on staff for a number of years and done quite well. The New York Times metro reporter, for example, probably has tons of experience with many papers. --I'm going to bitch here for a second because I'm completely frustrated with not being able to find a job. After getting a Comm. degree and many editorial internships, I obtained my Masters in International affairs and interned with a newswire. I left the country for a year and a half and did freelance writing. I wasn't making a living off of it and wanted to work for a company so I came back to the States earlier this year. I just seem to be hitting a wall with trying to break into journalism here. Newspapers say I don't have newspaper experience (even though I have newswire experience). Magazines don't have much reporting or staff writer positions open anymore. Plus, bureaus overseas have closed down. Before getting my masters, I was told that it was better to have a specialized graduate degree rather than a Masters in journalism. It just seems that international journalism is dead. What is more aggravating - I read an article a few days ago about how the Times is placing Metro Editors as correspondents in Baghdad! I'm so frustrated with not getting anywhere with this that I am so ready to give up but I don't want to. -- |
| flipflap | Posted – 6/15/2006 8:18:30 AM | show profile hi deadline done-re OH MY, just want to clarify I wasn't suggesting the op work as a citizen journo for them It was a reference to the recent news about the IHT deal with OhMY which said the agreement would put some of the citizen journo pieces on IHT's in an attempt to boost IHT's coverage in Asia. World Cup coverage, too. It's put out the tip jar, slash the budget for salaries foreign bureau and stringers, I'd say. It will be interesting to see how this pans out. If it works, I'm sure other papers will incorporate the idea into their business model. OHMY and some other citizen journo sites do hire pro journos to "edit" the material. OHMY was hiring English-speaking editors for the Japan, i.e. "international" operation. I wonder how much they shape a breaking news story? Haven't come across any other coverage of this story: http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1786356,00.html Anyway, I'm getting off topic, my advice to the OP is look at the Poynter columnist's career trajectory: Before she got to cover the international beat at a paper, she went off to India on her own to freelance. Before that, she worked at two dailies in the US. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 6/15/2006 8:36:11 PM | show profile The IHT is doing this as a gimmick to boost circulation in Asia, but I don't see this being relevant to a lot of papers. In the United States at least, papers don't cover many international events and they have plenty of wire-service copy so there's no reason to get amateur journalists. (And also, even the largest papers here don't try to build significant readership outside their core geographic area.) Newspapers emphasis has always been and will continue to be local coverage. --It will be interesting to see how this pans out. If it works, I'm sure other papers will incorporate the idea into their business model. OHMY and some other citizen journo sites do hire pro journos to "edit" the material. OHMY was hiring English-speaking editors for the Japan, i.e. "international" operation. I wonder how much they shape a breaking news story? Haven't come across any other coverage of this story: http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1786356,00.html __ |
| greeneyes27 | Posted – 6/16/2006 3:56:32 AM | show profile metro is good for you if it's a gig as a foreign correspondent that you're aiming for, apply for those metro reporter jobs. it's a way to sharpen your reporting and prove your mettle before they entrust you to cover an entire region. Almost every significant and respected foreign correspondent and foreign editor for major dailies began on a metro or city desk. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 6/19/2006 10:57:59 AM | show profile And if you want to be a foreign correspondent for the NY Times, you will probably want to win a Pulitzer Prize while on the metro beat. --metro is good for you if it's a gig as a foreign correspondent that you're aiming for, apply for those metro reporter jobs. it's a way to sharpen your reporting and prove your mettle before they entrust you to cover an entire region. Almost every significant and respected foreign correspondent and foreign editor for major dailies began on a metro or city desk?? |
| chucho | Posted – 6/19/2006 11:55:36 AM | show profile Or easier still, be part of a larger team of reporters that collectively win a Pultizer as part of a reporting team, rather than one reporter who wins a Pulitzer for a particular story or series. (Yes, I do think the latter is far more prestigious than the former, even if both are "Pulitzer Prize winners".) When the NYT won for its multi-culti "Race in America" series a few years back, everyone that contributed an article to that series can now claim to have won a Pulitzer even if their individual contributions didn't merit the award, and wouldn't have won on their own. (I think Rick Bragg was part of that team, you know, the guy who sent stringers to "touch down" in cities and then claimed by inference to have gone there himself.) |
