News Points: Forging a New Path, the Evolving Foreign Correspondent
Janeen Heath, Pulitzer Center
“Just a year after graduating, I wound up in Africa 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.
“Sometimes I feel like I entered the journalism profession 10 to 15 years too late,” Jason said. ...
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