Disappearing Foreign Correspondents

James Rainey makes a great point in his article about the cyclone that devastated Myanmar. He wrote:

“Nearly a week after a cyclone ravaged Myanmar, food, medicine and fresh drinking water are not the only necessities in short supply. So are independent news accounts from the isolated and politically repressive nation.”

Most news sources have been left to rely on secondhand accounts and reports from correspondents who are only based in neighboring nations for information about the tragedy. The cyclone is said the have killed more than 20,000 now, yet there are so few journalists there to actually witness these accounts. The Los Angeles Times and New York Times are two of the few who have successfully dispatched correspondents and are producing firsthand accounts “from a nation whose military leaders disdain scrutiny.”

A former Washington Post foreign editor who is now a book publisher smartly stated, “There is no substitute for the correspondent on the ground.” <--I thought this was a great quote from the article and couldn't be truer.

The article was very interesting and reminded me of the discussions we had in many of our classes about how foreign correspondents are disappearing. Since media outlets feel it is too expensive and have booted foreign correspondents from their jobs, we are only getting second hand accounts from a small amount of journalists. This limits the diversity of the writing and a whole lot of “copy and pasting” journalism. There will be very little original reporting in our future because the number of correspondents actually traveling to the countries they report on only seems to be getting worse. I’m sure the dangers of the area and the threats from the government are other factors many journalists want to steer clear.

You can read the full article at: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-cyclone9-2008may09,0,2214617.story

By Rachel Poloski