Blogs

  • Mar 42008

    Knight Fellowship Orientation

    by Alison Bethel

    Five new journalism fellows from all over the world have arrived in Washington, D.C. for orientation before our April departures to Mexico, Liberia, South Africa, Pakistan and the Balkans. As the fellow who will be leaving for South Africa in mid-April, I am very excited about the possibilities.

    Five new journalism fellows from all over the world have arrived in Washington, D.C. for orientation before our April departures to Mexico, Liberia, South Africa, Pakistan and the Balkans.

  • Mar 22008

    Of Demons and Public Health

    by Christopher Conte

    Editors Note: A group of journalists set out to investigate reports of demons in rural Uganda, but they ended up learning a few things about public health.

    As I sped down a narrow dirt road enveloped in a cloud of dust in Hoima District, Uganda, I must admit I wondered what in the world I was doing. I had begun a stint as a Knight health journalism fellow three weeks earlier, but here I was with a reporter and photographer from New Vision, Uganda’s largest newspaper, bouncing toward the isolated village of Kiziranfumbi about three hours west of Kampala.

  • Feb 222008

    What the media needs to better cover climate change

    by Arul Louis

    Journalists at the Editors' Consultation on Climate Change in New Delhi on Feb. 9. The journalists at a recent round table that brought them face to face with key leaders who shape global climate change policies discussed the problems they face covering the issues and suggested ways to help them better cover the beat.

    At the Editors’ Consultation, organized by ICFJ's Knight International Journalism Fellowships and The Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi on Feb.

  • Feb 222008

    Global leaders on climate change discuss media’s role

    by Arul Louis

    ICFJ's Knight International Journalism Fellowships and The Energy and Resources Institute  recently brought together key leaders who shape climate change policies and the coverage of the topic to discuss the role of the media and the problems in reporting about the subject.

  • Feb 202008

    Russian journalists interview New York Times correspondent

    by Eric Schwartz

    Russian journalists had the opportunity to discuss journalism, politics and the relative merits of subway systems in a wide-ranging discussion with a New York Times correspondent based on Moscow. About a dozen journalists at Moi Rayon-Moscow got a personal introduction to Western-style journalism when Andrew Kramer, correspondent for The New York Times, visited the newsroom for a lunchtime discussion on Feb. 18, 2008. Discussion topics ranged from reporting styles to the comparative merits of the New York City subway and the Moscow Metro.

  • Feb 192008

    New York Times reporter shares experiences with Russian journalists

    by Eric Schwartz

    One of the three Moscow-based New York Times reporters recently visited the news room of Moi Rayon for an informal discussion about reporting, politics, and the relative merits of the New York City and Moscow metro systems. While the US has many positive aspects, the New York Times reporter on the record preferred the Moscow metro.

    Dmitri Surnin, editor-in-chief at Moi Rayon-Moscow, listens as Andrew Kramer, New York Times correspondent, discusses his work with Russian journalists at Moi Rayon.

  • Feb 152008

    Observing training sessions in foreign cultures is valuable experience

    by Eric Schwartz

    Cultural differences come to the fore as participants and trainers work together to solve organization's problems

    Academics argue about what “culture” is – but anyone who has lived in a foreign country knows that clear differences in social behavior and expectations exist. I have been living in a foreign country – Russia - for nearly three months, and at this point cultural differences don’t usually get my attention. Sometimes, however, they do.

  • Feb 32008

    The Changers versus The Warmers

    by Arul Louis

    Move over Hatfields and McCoys. It's the Changers and Warmers – as in Climate Change and Global Warming – who are having the big feud.

    Is Global Warming the right name for the phenomenon now taking place or is Climate Change the more appropriate one? Is Change just a politically motivated, watered down term meant to lull people? Or is Warming an inadequate, too narrowly focused appellation?

    It's a hotly debated subject and it is relevant for me in an unusually cold New Delhi while I prepare for a meeting of editors on – well, whatever is happening to the climate, the globe ...

  • Feb 12008

    Signs of hope in young Russian journalism students

    by Eric Schwartz

    Intensive journalism classes begin in Moscow newsroom.

    Eric Schwartz (left) and Alexei Terehov of Moi Rayon talk with young journalism students.

    Western commentators understandably worry about growing restrictions on press freedom in Russia, but in the eyes of new journalism students in Moscow I see bright signs of hope. At the Moscow newspaper office of Moy Rayon, we are holding journalism classes for about a dozen young students, who exhibit much of the same fire found in journalism students in the United States. They want to find and tell the stories in their neighborhoods.

  • Dec 132007

    Russian bureaucrats choke flow of information for local journalists

    by Eric Schwartz

    On top of the normal challenges faced by journalists everywhere, Russian journalists find that government sources at all levels are restricting even basic information to the press.   The Yeltsin years in Russia were chaotic and sometimes dangerous, but they afforded journalists great opportunities. The relaxation of press restrictions that began with Perestroika continued, and even stolid bureaucrats became more communicative as the power became decentralized.

    But Russia seems to have become more difficult for journalists recently.