Text 2. Globalization and Human Rights: Journalist Nicholas Kristof

TOPIC 6: GLOBAL JOURNALISM

Text 1. The Work of a Foreign Correspondent

The life and work of the Foreign Correspondent have a strongappeal for most young men and women in journalism. To cover the world's news from China to Peru, from Moscow to Cape Town; to send back news dispatches from "faraway places with strange-sounding names" is the secret dream of many cub-reporters.

The work of the Foreign Correspondent is something much wider than the simple reporting of events. He must give his readers at home complete background information explaining and interpreting the news, providing eye-witness descriptions of scenes, happenings, and atmosphere in which events are taking or have taken place. He/she will mail informative articles periodically which will make newspaper readers familiar with the current affairs. The journalist who wishes to make a success as an "Ambassador of the Press" must be a first-rate general reporter - he must have the nose for the news and a keenly developed sense of news values, he must be a good listener who can get other people to favour him with their confidences, he must be a good mixer - able to be all things to all men.

The beginner who is determined to become a Foreign Correspondent, must begin by tackling the problem of languages. He should know at least two foreign languages. Which ones will depend, of course, on the part of the world where he is particularly anxious to serve. French and German are known to be the minimum equipment of the European correspondent, but it is possible that Russian may be increasingly valuable in the future.

It must be remembered that to know a language, in the sense that a Foreign Correspondent must know it, means a great deal more than a nodding acquaintance with grammar and the ability to pick one's way through a selected text or two. It means to be able to speak the language fluently and write without errors, to be able to write down speeches, to follow conversations through the telephone, and the like.

The would-be foreign representative must study world geography and get a thorough knowledge of modern history and world current affairs. Besides he must make a special study of the history, manners, customs, political system etc., of those countries where he hopes to work. If he is anxious to write authoritatively on foreign affairs he must himself be an authority. But first and foremost he is, and must remain, a reporter, seeking and reporting news.

Vocabulary

appeal-привлекательность, очарование; to appeal-привлекать, нравиться

to cover the news-освещать новости;

news dispatch-корреспонденция

a cub-reporter-начинающий репортер (жаргон)

to give a complete background information-дать исчерпывающее разъяснение подоплеки событий

to provide eye-witness descriptions-описывать события как очевидец

an informative article-содержательная статья

a first-rate general reporter-первоклассный репортер, выполняющий общие задания

a nose for the news-«нюх» на новости

a keenly developed sense of news values-остро развитое чувство значимости новостей

to favour somebody with one's confidence-оказать кому-л. доверие

a good mixer/a bad mixer–общительный/необщительный человек;

anxious to do sth-стремящийся к чему-л., желающий чего-л.; to be anxious for success (for peace)

a nodding acquaintance with grammar-«шапочное» знакомство с грамматикой

authority- авторитет, специалист, знаток; authoritatively-авторитетно

first and foremost-прежде всего

Exercises

1. Read the text consulting the notes.

a) Answer the following questions:

Why does the work of the foreign correspondent appeal to young men and women in journalism?

Why should the foreign correspondent know foreign languages?

What other subjects should he know well?

b) Sum up what the text has to say on each of the following points:

The job of the foreign correspondent.

The qualities and qualifications of the foreign correspondent.

Knowledge of foreign languages.

Text 2. Globalization and Human Rights: Journalist Nicholas Kristof

Nicholas D. Kristof is an American journalist, author, op-ed columnist, and a winner of two Pulitzer Prizes. He has written an op-ed column for The New York Times since November 2001 and is known as an extraordinary thinker and a human rights advocate. As a journalist, N. Kristof has traveled the major roads and minor byways of China, Africa, India, and South Asia. His columns have often focused on global health, poverty, and gender issues in the developing world.

op-ed -abbreviated from ‘opposite the editorial page’ is a newspaper or magazine article that gives the opinion of a named writer and that is written by someone who is not employed by the newspaper or magazine

Mr. Kristof grew up on a sheep and cherry farm near Yamhill, Oregon. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College. At Harvard, he studied government and worked on The Harvard Crimson newspaper. Harvard classmates recall Kristof as one of the brightest undergraduates on campus. Then he studied law at Oxford University, graduating with first class honors. He later studied Arabic in Cairo and Chinese in Taipei.

After joining The New York Times in 1984, initially covering economics, Nicholas Kristof served as a Times correspondent in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo. He also covered presidential politics and is the author of the chapter on President George W. Bush in the reference book "The Presidents."

Mr. Kristof has lived on four continents, reported on six, and traveled to more than 150 countries, plus all 50 states, every Chinese province and every main Japanese island. He jokes that he's one of the very few Americans to visit every member of the so-called Axis of Evil (Ось Зла). According to his blog, during his travels he has had "unpleasant experiences with malaria, wars, an Indonesian mob (=a large group or crowd of people who are angry or violent) carrying heads on pikes, and an African airplane crash".

In 1990 Mr. Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, then also a Times journalist, won a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of China's Tiananmen Square democracy movement. They were the first married couple to win a Pulitzer for journalism. Mr. Kristof won a second Pulitzer in 2006, for commentary for what the judges called "his deeply reported columns that, at personal risk, focused attention on genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and that gave voice to the voiceless in other parts of the world."

Crossing over into activism and hoping his dispatches will have particular meaning and importance for people, Kristof really gives a voice to the voiceless. He believes, "you can tell the story of a place by writing about a tiny village as a sort of prism into the bigger issues the culture is facing."

Mr. Kristof has also won other prizes including the George Polk Award, the Overseas Press Club award, the Michael Kelly award, the Online News Association award and the American Society of Newspaper Editors award. Mr. Kristof has taken a special interest in Web journalism and was the first blogger on The New York Times Web site; he also twitters and has a Facebook fan page and a channel on YouTube. A documentary about him, "Reporter," aired on HBO in 2010.

In his column, Mr. Kristof was an early opponent of the Iraq war. He has visited the Darfur region more than 10 times. He has also written often about human trafficking. (Human trafficking is the illegal trade of human beings for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, or a modern-day form of slavery).

Mr. Kristof and Ms. WuDunn are authors of "China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power" and "Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia" and "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide". Addressing worldwide brutality towards women, Half the Sky draws an exiting picture of the triumphs of women struggling for opportunity and equality. Called "electrifying" by The Washington Post, the book has already hit The New York Times Bestseller List.

In 2011, Kristof was named one of seven "Top American Leaders" by the Harvard Kennedy School and The Washington Post. "His writing has reshaped the field of opinion journalism," The Washington Post explained in granting the award. Earlier, in 2007, U.S. News & World Report named Kristof one of "America's Best Leaders."

Mr. Kristof and Ms. WuDunn are the parents of Gregory, Geoffrey and Caroline. Mr. Kristof enjoys running, backpacking, and having his Chinese and Japanese corrected by his children.

Nicholas D. Kristof quotes:

“More girls were killed in the last 50 years, precisely because they were girls, than men killed in all the wars in the 20th century. More girls are killed in this routine gendercide in any one decade than people were killed in all the genocides of the 20th century.

The equivalent of 5 jumbo jets worth of women die in labor each day... life time risk of maternal death is 1,000x higher in a poor country than in the west. That should be an international scandal.”
― Nicholas D. Kristof, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

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“In the nineteenth century, the central moral challenge was slavery. In the twentieth century, it was the battle against totalitarianism. We believe that in this century the significant moral challenge will be the struggle for gender equality around the world.”
― Nicholas D. Kristof, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

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