Pulitzer Center's News Points

Global Issues/Citizen Voices Round Two Winners

Bethany Whitfield, Pulitzer Center

From finding the truth about military dictatorships like Burma to creating a solution for Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, the questions of our latest Global Issues/Citizen Voices contest pressed for thought and analysis on some of today’s most complex and difficult global issues. Here’s what our four winners had to say on the topics and how their past experiences and research influenced their answers.

Winner Russell Smith worked for NGOs in Lebanon in the 1990s and during that time witnessed the stark contrast between Lebanon’s lush and rich tourist destinations and the destitution of its Palestinian refugee camps. He was so moved by the stories and experiences of the refugees that after returning to Australia, he became active in international politics to try and forge change on the issue.

In his essay Smith contends there is a “win-win” situation for Lebanon and Palestinian refugees, but only with the help of the international community. He calls for a U.N. sponsored international migration program, “not a forced migration but a focused sponsored humanitarian campaign, emphasizing economic prosperity, equal opportunity, education and security.”

Children and war: Liberia and beyond

Bethany Whitfield, the Pulitzer Center

“It’s hard to talk about, but at least when I talk about it, I get some relief,” said Eric Gibson, a Liberian who survived the country’s civil war during his youth by living behind rebel lines.

Gibson earned his keep during the conflict as an entertainer, performing rap songs for the rebel forces. Gibson, alongside journalist Ruthie Ackerman and Rachel Stohl, a senior analyst at the Center for Defense Information, led a recent discussion at Georgetown University on the widespread use of child soldiers in armed combats throughout the world.

Gibson testified to the atrocities he witnessed as a young Liberian growing up in a war-torn country, experiences that include watching the brutal murder of a pregnant mother, getting shot in the leg and having to bury his best friend’s body with his bare hands.

“You can’t cry,” at such times, Gibson said, lest the rebels perceive one as sympathizing with the other side. “You have to cry on the inside.”

In Solidarity: Global Day for Darfur

Bethany Whitfield, the Pulitzer Center

Citizens and human rights activists across the nation and the world are rallying today, April 13, for Global Day for Darfur, a 24-hour campaign designed to draw attention to the violence that continues to plague the region five years after rebels took up arms. Some of the larger events of the day include an Amnesty International human rights exhibition at D.C.’s National Mall, a demonstration in the U.K at the Sudanese embassy and a rally in Vancouver sponsored by Canadian Students for Darfur.

While this conflict has attracted global attention, critics argue key players in the international community continue to perpetuate violence by failing to undertake stronger peacekeeping operations as well as a harsher stance against the Sudanese government. A strong focus of today’s Global Day for Darfur is the call for a fuller implementation of the joint U.N.-African Union Mission in Darfur, a program initiated last July.

Bridging media divides

Jon Sawyer, Pulitzer Center

At the height of China’s crackdown on Tibet a network newscast features one journalist interviewing another, neither on the scene, about a government-sponsored propaganda trip the latter had once taken to Tibet. “Why is this news?” asks Solana Larson of Global Voices. “Why don’t they talk to some local people?”

Larson was among the provocateurs at last week’s Media Re:Public, a forum on the evolving role of participatory media that took place at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication and is part of a continuing initiative of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.

Global Issues/Citizen Voices March 2008 Winners

Ann Peters and Janeen Heath, Pulitzer Center

Global Issues and Citizen Voices — a Canadian mother of two talks about child labor in Congo, a woman in California remembers her Vietnam veteran brother who died from the effects of Agent Orange, a counselor and adjunct professor from Colorado who had never written on international political issues chimes in on Venezuela President Hugo Chavez.

These are but a few of the citizen voices from the Pulitzer Center’s inaugural essay contest in partnership with Helium.com. By the time the Global Issues/Citizen Voices contest ended on March 12, 689 essays had been submitted on 13 different questions. The winning essays — one per question — are featured starting today on the Pulitzer Center website. And we’re kicking off Round Two with four new questions focusing on Peru, Burma, Lebanon and Sudan.

Click here to write on the next round of questions

Georgetown Global Gateway: A Student’s Experience

Katie Suter, Georgetown University Class of 2011

When entering our Justice and Peace Studies class this past January, many of my classmates were excited about the prospect of learning various human rights and social justice theories. However, more than simply teaching us about the academic prospects associated with nonprofit work, Professor Rachel Stohl wanted us to get a hands-on approach to the field of Justice and Peace, starting with participating in the Pulitzer Center’s Global Gateway initiative.

Participating in Global Gateway was most definitely rewarding for me, but presented its share of challenges. Using the Pulitzer Center’s reporting as research, we were to design an awareness campaign and choose a target group, short-term and long-term strategies, and what information we were going to disseminate. This was the first challenge: getting started.

How Nonprofit Journalism Pays Off

Nathalie Applewhite, Pulitzer Center

The past several decades have been marked by two trends in journalism, neither of them conducive to an informed public or the furtherance of democracy. On the one hand there is the growing consolidation of media ownership and a precipitous drop in national and global reporting. On the other there is a fragmentation of the media creating a hyper-competitive landscape that drives the news market to deliver infotainment, soft news, and more ideologically defined, or ‘opinion’ media. Notions of ‘public trust,’ responsibility and the ‘fourth estate’ seem to increasingly fall to the realm of citizen journalists, bloggers and advocacy organizations. And yet, despite a few exceptions, many still depend on traditional news outlets as points of departure for their information. And in a world of algorithm determined headlines, popularity usually beats public interest and the information the public needs to make informed decisions too often gets lost. The bottom line: If commercial incentives are the driving force of information gathering and dissemination — be it traditional or new media — what’s in the public interest (and not just what the public is interested in) will likely be ignored and the American public will pay the price.

Forging a New Path: the Evolving Foreign Correspondent

Janeen Heath, Pulitzer Center

“Just a year after graduating, I wound up in Africa after an internship chasing stories,” Pulitzer Center grant-recipient Jason Motlagh told students at American University this month. “My writing skills weren’t polished at that point, nor had I worked long enough to have established a network of fixers. But I arrived at the border to Mauritania, my Lonely Planet in hand, just as a coup was beginning. I had almost no idea what I was walking in to. But I happened to be the only western reporter covering the conflict, so I got a lot of my stories published, and that success launched me through the continent.”

In today’s era of international journalism, it is important to take initiative and be self-driven to be able to successfully cover and place stories. With more and more overseas news bureaus closing down and front-page international news coverage being cut in half in the last two decades, foreign correspondents often face an uphill battle when trying to pitch their stories. But Jason is proof that the foreign correspondent has not died – just evolved – as long as you are flexible and can adapt to change, as well as work across a wide variety of media platforms.

Is Foreign Correspondence Vanishing?

Authored by Megan Wollerton, American University student

As students of journalism in the United States, we often hear that our world is shrinking. With overseas bureaus closing by the day in favor of a few individuals who bring new meaning to the word "multi-task", staff positions are surely an endangered species. While our professors are charged with the job of painting a realistic picture for those of us stubbornly forging ahead, it is difficult not to feel overwhelmed.

That's where Jason Motlagh comes in. A freelance correspondent who works with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Jason attended our class yesterday afternoon and brought inspiration and an honest, but hopeful assessment of the challenges facing journalists today.

Global Gateway: Liberia Sparks Student Discussion

The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and Civitas Associates recently took the Global Gateway program to St. Louis where they engaged hundreds of students in a discussion about Liberian child soldiers.

Freelance reporter Ruthie Ackerman and Pulitzer Center Executive Director Jon Sawyer presented information on the plight of former child soldiers in Liberia and elsewhere in west Africa at seven high schools and one middle school. This Global Gateway: Liberia initiative has sparked discussion among students from many different countries and perspectives.

Check out this classroom speech recently given by two individuals from Soldan International High School to see the latest in the ongoing dialogue occuring in our Global Gateway classrooms.

To hear more discussion, check out our Global Gateway: Liberia student forum, where over 200 comments have been made. Also check out our Liberia project page to view Ruthie's reporting and learn more about these issues.