“Your body is your most powerful AV tool!”

Indira Etwaroo (right) giving Wendy Suzuki some performance advice.

The OpEd Studio on Thursday, June 9 welcomed Indira Etwaroo, executive producer of WNYC’s “The Greene Space.” As a dancer, musician and scholar, Indira brought her performance expertise to the women at the OpEd Studio. Students bravely gave professional and genuinely fascinating presentations in their areas of expertise (everything from neuroscience to corporate responsibility!) Indira and the class gave helpful critiques and cheerful encouragement. An expert on performance techniques, Indira offered her insights and advice over the course of the evening. Some highlights included:

• Powerpoint presentations are rarely the best or most effective way to get your point across to an audience, especially if you want them to stay awake.

• Your body is your most powerful AV tool.

• We all have our “security blankets”, even when it comes to public speaking. They may be reading glasses or a coffee mug. As long as they work with your message, feel free to keep them.

• Get comfortable with your body. This may sound easy, but it becomes a bit more complicated when you’re addressing an audience.

• Practice your presentation at home as often as possible. The more you repeat it to your bathroom mirror, the easier speaking to a live audience will be.

• Have command of yourself, the material and the space. Really own the space you’re in. If that means arriving a few minutes earlier to get acquainted with the stage or lecture hall, try to arrange that.

• Be funny! Don’t be afraid to have a personality. Avoid professional or academic jargon, especially when addressing a general audience.

-Katherine Milsop

Pitching to Magazines

Katie Orenstein talks with Ilena Silverman.

The OpEd Studio welcomed Ilena Silverman, an editor at the New York Times Magazine, on Thursday, June 2. She offered her advice and experience about pitching and writing for magazines, in addition to individual critiques of pitches written by women in the class. Here are some of the highlights and key points from Thursday evening’s studio:

• Be aware of the magazine you’re pitching to and writing for. Be wary of anything too “message-y.” Depending on the publication, you may want to get your point across without over messaging, and in some cases, without coming off as an advocate for a cause.

• Figure out who’s writing in your area of expertise and interest. Review their work and email those writers directly before sending your pitches to editors.

• Spend a lot of time talking through your pitch. “The best pitches read like stories in terms of voice and presentation,” Silverman said.

• Get to the fundamental tension of the story. Memoirs, for example, are effective when they show a larger picture, as well as the insider’s view.

• The tension is the most interesting part of the piece. If the problem is too easily resolved, people won’t want to read about it.

• If you’re new to magazine writing, it may be better to pitch to other areas of the magazine (the New York Times Magazine’s “You Are Here” section, for example), instead of a full-length feature story.

• If you’re pitching to a literary journal, channel your writing style into the query. Be specific and demonstrate how well versed you are.

• It’s often better to narrow the focus of your story. Don’t write a pitch as if it were a school report. Be conversat

Studio leaders Julie Burnstein and Jolie Solomon with the class.

ional.

• Pitch to magazines your genuinely enjoy reading!

Ilena Silverman speaks to the class.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-Katherine Milsop

 

Expert Tips for a Successful Book Proposal

Barbara Jones

The OpEd studio welcomed Barbara Jones on May 26, a former executive at Hyperion Publishing who has extensive experience in editing fiction for magazines and book publishers. Jones offered insights into the book industry, as well as her editorial expertise when she reviewed the diverse array of book proposals submitted by the class. Additionally, she outlined several key points to aim for in a book proposal:

• Proposals must be well written. They should have their own voice and “embody what the book is going to be.”

• You need a good story. “Is this a story you can tell better than anyone?”

• Strong narratives are key. “A sweeping narrative still sells.” The arc of your story should be authentic. In the case of a memoir, it should be passionate, acknowledge the problem and embrace the struggle.

• The more you can write before you go out, the better off you are. While it’s important to be ready for input and changes from your editor, it’s helpful to have as much of your book written as possible beforehand. Most publishers will give you a year to complete the book.

• Do your own PR though social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook. Make videos and post them online.

• Beware of modern scenarios and topics that have become cliché subjects for books, i.e. women in Afghanistan (Although, women in Afghanistan have recently been an invaluable part of one OpEd Project staff member’s work. See our previous post!).

• Be able to “tag” your book with terms that someone can Google, such as “psychology”, “celebrity”, “drugs”, etc…

• Know specifically what group of people the book is intended for. Include details such as the kind of cover, placement in stores, length and even price.

Jones also explained that publishers look for books that can easily get television publicity and can potentially be turned into movies. The “platform” of the author, or her popularity, career and notoriety, will often be the key to a successful book deal.

-Katherine Milsop

“Harnessing Twitter” – OpEd Studio, May 19

Sarah Milstein at the OpEd studio.

How do you get your point across in 140 character or less? Thursday night’s studio on Twitter began with Jolie Solomon challenging one woman’s use of “nothing words” in class. (What does “laying the groundwork” mean, anyway?) The goals of each woman at the seminar ranged from getting more followers on their personal Twitter accounts, to using Twitter as a tool for “Ted Talks” (Technology, Entertainment and Design conferences) and media exposure.

In her discussion, guest speaker Sarah Milstein successfully demystified Twitter the seminar attendees. Milstein, co-author of “The Twitter Book”, gave a presentation on harnessing the power of Twitter. She became the 21st Twitter user after the site was created in 2006. Milstein is also the co-founder of Two Tomatoes Records.

According to Milstein, women tend to be more active in social media. But about 70 to 90 percent of individuals who use social media are “lurking” – meaning that they are not actively posting, networking or tweeting through the sites. She described Twitter as a “low risk” way to network and build relationships with people in your field. The standard for use is simply to read. Read the posts of other people, organizations or news outlets that you are following.

If you’re interested in becoming a Twitter “thought-leader”, it’s important to create a Twitter persona. It could be your own, but feel free to experiment with multiple personalities in the same account.

Milstein emphasized the importance of sharing “valuable stuff.” This could be as simple as linking to a fascinating news article or opinion column you read recently. You can also link to photos and videos on other sites. When sharing links, it’s often a plus to include your own opinion before the link. If the author or host you are citing is a Twitter user, it’s all right to “call them out” and include their user name with the “@” symbol in your tweet. (For example: “The seminar tonight was great! @oped_studio.”) Sites like bit.ly offer a free url shortening service to help keep you under the 140 character limit.

Sharing tips via Twitter is another way of mixing the practical with the personal. Point to credible sources and give people information they can use. Milstein discussed Twitter’s ability to provide a vivid personal connection and make a window into your own life. You can share funny anecdotes about your dog, or mention helpful tips about finding a hotel in Barcelona. Milstein suggested following the “80/20 rule”: Keep 20 percent of your posts about you, and 80 percent about everything else.

The value of Twitter doesn’t necessarily rely on how many friends you have. According to Milstein, following is extremely overblown. It’s not necessary to have thousands of followers. If someone follows you, no Twitter etiquette compels you to follow her in return.

The class also discussed Twitter’s ability to spread news and big events faster than most news media outlets. The site’s ability to cultivate organic trends and memes via hashtags (searchable phrases or words with the “#” preceding them) makes it an indispensable tool for thought leadership.

But sometimes the most compelling tweets are the simplest ones. Don’t feel you have to be clever each time. While the tweet is essentially out there forever, it has a shelf life of about five minutes, so don’t stress each tweet.

One attendee noted that it’s very easy to get lost in the “vortex” of tweets. Milstein said that it’s important to play around on Twitter but, “While you’re playing, be interesting.”

Check out the OEP on twitter @theopedproject. Follow our studios @oped_studio.

-Katherine Milsop

The OpEd Project Speaks With The Takeway’s Femi Oke

Femi Oke is a British television reporter and journalist. She works as a daily newscaster and contributor with the Public Radio International/WNYC’s morning radio new program The Takeway. Femi was kind enough to sit down with Chris Fanikos, the social media intern here at The OpEd Project, for a quick yet informative interview.

Femi Oke

So, tell us a bit about yourself. What inspired you to follow this path?

Since as long as I can remember, I always knew I wanted to be a journalist. When I was seven years old I would gather “news” from my family and report it all in a weekly news bulletin.  I did my first professional radio broadcast in London at 14 years old.  By the time I left home to go to University I’d already been working as a cub radio reporter for five years.  I free-lanced at the BBC radio station close to my University when I wasn’t studying my English course.  The day after I graduated I joined the BBC as a researcher.    I was very focused.  I knew exactly where I wanted to be and what I wanted to do from a very young age.

What does your average day entail? What does it look like?

My day begins at 2AM when my alarm goes off.  The shock of getting up at “crazy 0’clock” never quite wears off, but I’ve been waking up this early for the last three years.  As I run around my apartment getting ready for work I catch up on all the latest news.  I have BBC World on my tv, BBC World Service Radio on my laptop and I download NPR and CNN pod newscasts and listen to them on my way to work.  I have to be up to date with all the latest news so when listeners wake up, they don’t miss anything that happened overnight.  The Takeaway news team starts preparing newscasts at 3.30am and by 6am the first of sixteen original newscasts are ready to go live.  By 10am the show’s over and then I have a little more flexibility to research potential guests, plan meetings and prepare for the next day.  I’m always sleep deprived, but I love knowing the news before most people are awake.

How many people tune in daily to The Takeaway?

We have about a million listeners a week.

What are the major differences between broadcast radio and broadcast television reporting? Which do you prefer?

The major difference is complexity and how many people are involved. . With television even the smallest shoot requires a team of people; the reporter, shooter, maybe a producer, editor and a control room full of crew to get the story on the air.  With radio you can create a beautiful piece with very few people.  I can go out on location and record a story without dragging a crew around with me.  Getting back to the studio I can even edit my own story and this makes the entire process much more intimate and personal.  Television of course has an instant impact.  I remember being on my first primetime television show back in the UK.  The next morning after it aired, I walked down the street and I was shocked that people recognized me.  The impact of radio is much more subtle, a great radio story gets into peoples heads and their hearts.  I do love both mediums, so trying to pick a favorite is like asking a mother which child she prefers.  She may well have an answer but will never tell you.

How has the rise of internet journalism both professional and private (blogging) impacted radio news?

Journalism on the internet and private blogging has expanded the possibilities for covering news. Just think how less informed we would have been without people in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria posting their stories, images and video online for the international news community to see.  In a much less dramatic way domestic stories are also given more depth and breadth thanks to the internet as it’s so easy for the radio and television audience to comment and share their experiences online.

Internet journalism has lifted the barrier between the audience and program makers.  On The Takeaway  for instance listeners post comments about a segment and within a few minutes they too are part of the program.  It’s not unusual for us to book a particularly insightful listener from a comment that has been left online.   Our reporting becomes more interesting and diverse because the Internet allows the listeners to get their stories to us so easily.

The one reservation I have is that it’s smart never to trust anything your read on the Internet until you’ve checked the source multiple times.  Just because a story comes up when you search for it, doesn’t make it true.

Do you have any advice for those interested in pursuing radio journalism?

Decide what style of radio journalism you’d like to produce.  Once you know what you want to do, find a local radio station that makes that kind or radio.  If you turn up willing and eager to learn most stations will be happy to help you. Radio people on the whole are very warm and welcoming.  Walking into a radio station is exactly how I got started.  It may take you a while to convince the boss to pay you, but the experience you gain along the way is worth it.

If you can, who was your favorite interview and why?

People always expect me to name somebody famous.  I have interviewed iconic leaders, movie stars and tons of celebrities. I’ve had a laughing fit with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, sat on actor’s Kurt Russell’s lap ( don’t ask) and seen Cher behave like a bad tempered school girl.  I have hundreds of fun celebrity interview stories.  Honesty though, my favorite interviews are with people who aren’t celebrities, but still allow me into their lives so I can share their deeply personal experiences with the world.  While living in Johannesburg and reporting for CNN I interviewed a family who lived in a shack made out of corrugated iron.  They lived in two tiny rooms with no real heating or cooling and three children piled onto one tiny mattress at night.  They had no wash facilities and the toilet was a crude hole in the ground.  The family was so frank, funny and kind to me that I will never forget them and it’s been years since I broadcast that report.  It’s easily one of my favorite interviews.

The Christian Science Monitor Opinion Editor Josh Burek talks to the OpEd Project about the changing world of journalism, his career, and how to get your op-ed piece published

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of talking with Josh Burek, editor of the Opinion column of the Christian Science Monitor. Josh was kind enough to give a detailed look into the current world of journalism, supplied some entertaining stories from his career, and provided some tips for aspiring writers and journalists. Josh is clearly an expert in his field, and I am thrilled to share our conversation with the OpEd Project’s readers.

You’ve been at the Christian Science Monitor for more than 10 years now. Why is the Monitor so special? What drew you to the publication initially?

I read the publication a bit growing up, but my interest was first sparked when I had a chance to meet some of the Monitor’s foreign correspondents at a media panel in college. I was utterly absorbed in the stories of their reporting work. I thought to myself, “Wow, that sounds like a fantastic way to get paid.” (laughs) I really respected the quality of thought among the journalists here. I think the Monitor is one of the last public-service media outlets: It has always put a premium on independent thought, and it focuses on global, human stories more than just Washington or American interests. I was very drawn to that.

Why did you decide to focus specifically on opinion journalism?

I don’t know that I did so much as I fell into it. When I read a paper at home, the first pages I look for are the sports and opinion pages, so I guess I am a bit of an opinion junkie. But I don’t think I expected or set a personal goal of aiming for opinion journalism specifically. I guess through my editing work and my policy interests it was a natural path. People in journalism today are usually utterly determined to be the London correspondent or reach some other specific post, but my interests have always been broader, so it just made sense to be in a section that covers the waterfront of ideas, and the news. It is a good fit for my intellectual interests.

What are you looking for in a column submission?

I look for breathtaking insight about a timely topic. We work hard to comb through the many submissions we get each week, looking for people who know the topic and can say something interesting. If it’s not utterly unique, it should be framed in a special way that draws readers in. So we aim for something fresh, provocative, or insightful. Furthermore, as a family newspaper, we are receptive to and publish frequently essays that deal with “real life” issues. For example, we often run really interesting commentary from a mother in Illinois who writes with delicious wit about middle class values and parenting styles. It’s coffee klatch meets cultural anthropology and her pieces provide great fodder for conversation among our readers.

What percent of women submit to you? What percent are you running?

We don’t have hard statistics on this currently, but of the pieces that come to us unsolicited I would say there exists a 5:1 male to female ratio, and we publish women’s pieces in the range of 20-30 percent. Some weeks that percentage is higher but it depends upon the news. Sometimes it feels like you’re only hearing from all the think tank guys in DC.

How many op-eds do you run per week?

Per week, we run 12-to-25 op-eds. We receive 100-to -50 unsolicited submissions a week. Between 10 and 30% of what we run is commissioned,

How about op-eds online versus in print?

Just 3 pieces a week in print, and as many as we can online.

What’s your overall circulation at CSM?

Our print circulation is slightly above 75,000 and our website attracts monthly at least 25 million page views, making us one of the top 200 websites in the world.

The Christian Science Monitor stopped print issues other than a once-weekly release. In a way the publication has become a pioneer in the field of paperless publishing. What has it been like watching the field evolve over the last decade?

It’s been a roller coaster ride: it’s equal part thrilling and depressing. The lay-offs have been brutal. But at the same time, the threats to the industry have forced it to innovate in a way that it never has before. We ask ourselves, “What do readers want and need? How can we supply that value to them as quickly and effectively as possible? It’s a fast and exciting time, even though it’s a little unnerving because major news organizations are trying new things and some of them end up failing. We’re all waiting to see how it turns out.

Did anything about the transition from print to online publishing surprise you in particular?

It never really felt like a huge transition because the CSM has had a website since 1996, but one thing that did surprise me is that our print circulation grew substantially after moving from daily to weekly. I think that’s because our old distribution method (via postal service) gave us terrible deadlines that forced our reporters to file 12 hours before their competitors at the Times or elsewhere – but now we don’t have those constraints. Being on a weekly schedule gives us extra time to emphasize our correspondents’ analytical talent, and I think our product looks stronger as a result.

What is your favorite story regarding your time at CSM and why?

Wow, there are lots of them! My favorite actually has little to do with journalism, but it show how reporting sometimes interacts with personal interests. When I was an intern, the realization hit me one day that as a journalist I could call anyone in the world. So I decided to ring a childhood hero of mine, someone named Ashrita Furman, who’s in the Guinness Book of World Records for holding the greatest number of world records. He is something of a guru who uses his athletic pursuits as a sort of spiritual practice. After talking for two hours on the phone, he invited me to New York to attempt to break the record for longest grape toss caught in someone’s mouth. We came up a bit short, but it was a really extraordinary day to meet a figure who is endlessly fascinating and we did a really fun story on his philosophy and on how and why he breaks these records. Just a few months ago, The Wall Street Journal ran a front-page profile of Ashrita Furman, so it was gratifying to see the Journal run the same story I wrote when I was 22 – and to see that Ashrita’s still going at it, even in his 50s.

As an aspiring writer and journalist, I must ask: can you give me a tip for what you are looking for in a publication/opinion piece?

I look for clarity of thought, first and foremost. An opinion piece must know what it is about. One clear idea and that’s it. One idea expressed urgently, clearly, and provocatively. Sounds easy, but it’s actually quite difficult, and it’s why many people with impressive credentials don’t get published. Honestly, you should master the structure of a standard op-ed. Once you’ve become proficient in the form you are free to be focus on the substance of your argument.

If your career as a journalist began today, what would you tell yourself regarding the field and its constantly evolving state?

I would tell myself to focus just as much on knowledge as on skills. Once journalists could get by just on skills, but now, because of the commodification of the industry, knowledge is just as important. A reporter who can quickly sum up events across a variety of fields is, though still valuable, an increasingly endangered species. Now journalists need talents across multiple platforms, such as coding and video experience, but they also need a well of knowledge and expertise or it will be a lot harder to get a job. I tell interns here, though journalism school can be valuable, perhaps a law or history degree would be more productive in supplying a body of knowledge to their reporting work.

Interview with Elisa Gonzalez of the Yale Daily News

As we edge closer to the final release of the of the three-month byline report, I wanted to share some insight from one of the writers whose work was surveyed: Elisa Gonzalez of the Yale Daily News. Gonzalez began writing for the YDN op-ed page last spring, when she started a sex, dating and relationship column (not an advice column) called “Post-modern Love” with co-writer Alice Baumgartner. PoMoLove ended last spring, when Baumgartner graduated, but Gonzalez still writes for the op-ed page.

I talked to Gonzalez a bit about her experience writing for the YDN in order to get a sense of the next generation of female opinion writers, and the challenges they face.

Gonzalez said she first considered writing opinion pieces for the YDN because the former editor in chief, who was looking to diversify the op-ed page by including more females, asked her to. But Gonzalez says she was intimidated by the idea of writing for the op-ed page because it required expert status. The decision to write about sex, dating, and relationships came because those were topics Gonzalez had personal experience with, and felt comfortable claiming authority. Despite that confidence measure, the column turned out to be very controversial, becoming the subject of a lot of vitriolic comments and emails- about the authors being “too open.”  Gonzalez says she felt that because both writers were women, “people felt more comfortable victimizing us and saying things about our personal lives, especially sex and religion.” Gonzalez and Baumgartner almost quit the column as a result of the reaction, but they persevered to great success. Gonzalez said having a partner was key, because it helped her to realize that “it wasn’t just me being a terrible person and a bad writer.”

When asked why she thinks women contribute less often to the op-ed pages, Gonzalez targeted the feminine reluctance to put personal opinions on the public table, “you have to committed to handling a certain level of criticism, and that can be incredibly scary.” Criticism is scary, but truth be told, women are often in positions of expertise that could be incredibly helpful to others. If you have an opinion, and everyone does, don’t be afraid to voice it.

To read columns by Gonzalez, check out the YDN op-ed page.

Joy DiBenedetto speaks to the OpEd Project about starting her own news organization, building a global news perspective, and how to get booked on CNN

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to chat with Joy DiBenedetto, the CEO and founder of HUMNews,  an organization dedicated to closing the geographic gap in media. A 20-year news veteran, award winning journalist with CNN and Turner Broadcasting, and former Global VP of domestic and international booking, production, and journalism assignments, Joy DiBenedetto is a clear expert in her field, and I am delighted to share our conversation with the OpEd Project’s readers:

AHD: What are the foundational goals of HUMNews?

JD: The current global perspective in mainstream media is incomplete. The world’s fastest growing, youngest economies and populations are not included in the flow of major news gatherers and distributors. Currently, most major news organizations have bureaus in only 37 countries – how do you cover the world when that is that case?  Generally, as a news distributor you buy material from at least one of the four largest news agencies in the world to supplement reach.  The problem is that these agencies cover only approximately 125 of the 237 countries and territories in the world.  What’s missing is approximately 116 nations from the global information supply.  In those 116 countries not covered by mainstream media almost 2/3 of the world lives and about 80% of the population is under the age of 20. These nations are the future of the world’s storyline for the next thirty or forty years; we’ve got to know what’s going on there. The goal of HUMNews is to extend coverage and to generate coverage from those places and populations not being addressed in mainstream media. We are the first news agency ever to develop media to inform a global populace with a complete geographic picture.

AHD: Many of the countries and regions that you are trying to cover lack the basic infrastructure needed to gather information and get stories. How have you dealt with those logistical challenges in extending coverage to all of those places?

JD: Even if we don’t hear much about what is going on in other places, the truth is that media already exists in every country of the world. Media is a growth industry, so in countries that are just opening up, technology is growing and media is rapidly developing alongside it.

HUMNews is partnering with media organizations and other non-traditional partners that already have presence on the ground around the world. We are seeking affiliations and partnerships such as NGO’s, academic institutions, and social media partners. In working with these groups we are getting unique content to our website, and are able to connect to other media outlets for distribution.  Today, we have contributors from many global locations and we have staff that travels to many global locations, spending a month on ground gathering stories. As our funding grows we will be able to have more reporters on the ground, cultivating contacts on issues and generating sources that people haven’t yet considered.

AHD: How do you get booked on CNN?

JD: It’s not a simple process. One of the first things that really matters is your credibility. You need to know and understand everything about the issue you are there to talk about. An organization such as CNN won’t want anyone who has to go “read up” on the topic. They want people who are real experts in their field.

In terms of getting attention of bookers- today is very different because people have the opportunity to make their own media.  If you have the credentials and some connection to the media community, through an organization or institution, you have a much better chance than if you are an individual trying to break through. It is enormously helpful to be part of the currency of news because if you’re an unknown it’s really hard for a CNN booker or anyone else for that matter to pay attention to you. Guest producers wake up and read four newspapers, and then scan everything on the web. The fact of the matter is that most media feeds off of other media.  If your voice is out there it is more likely to be heard.  It is about those who make their voices louder, and newspapers provide those people. Your name needs to have credibility – and voice – somewhere else; making it much more likely you’ll be booked.

Generally it is really helpful if an opinion writer is really honed in on their message. You have a much better chance of getting booked if you have a specific expertise rather than being a generalist.

Alternatively, if something completely unexpected happens and you are a relevant expert, and your name is already out there you have a very good chance of getting booked. But again, it is incredibly important for your name and expertise to already exist. It’s really hard to be on someone’s radar in the middle of breaking news. Bookers search social media for experts, so post to a facebook page during a crisis, or create a twitter feed that’s devoted to your line of expertise. You have to be in the currency and flow of media to really be noticed.

Finally, having relevancy to the current news is essential. TV journalism is a daily or weekly process, and it’s very difficult to plan in advance.  Having relevance to the immediate news subject will help you to get booked.  It is really important for people to be sensitive to what is happening in the news. Do not reach out if the time is not appropriate.

AHD: In your time at CNN and now at HUMNews, do you see a significant discrepancy in the number of women and men in opinion journalism?

JD: As unbalanced as some people might say it is, at CNN there is a constant conversation about balance – did we get as many sides as possible, is the debate balanced?  Was diversity considered?  If there is an imbalance, it is a result of the time crunch because everything is so minute-to-minute. A CNN guest producer often needs guests for an hour or two later. That’s why accuracy and credibility are so essential. A guest producer will do pre-interviews with every single guest. They will call people and run questions by them to feel them out for their knowledge and opinions. Then, the next step is to draft a path for the interview that is discussed with anchors and producers so that they understand what the guest is there to talk about.

AHD: As a the Social Media Intern at the OpEd Project I am conducting a byline survey of major news publications to find out how many women are writing and what kind of issues they are focusing on. Interestingly I have found that a large percentage of female-authored op-eds are about women related topics, either in the realm of health, entertainment, or politics. Women rarely write about the hard sciences or military issues.  As a booker at CNN, did you actively look for women in traditionally male-dominated fields?

JD: We absolutely look for women who are experts in unusual disciplines and issues. For example, during the invasion of Iraq we looked for female generals. The fact of the matter is, those subjects that make mainstream media are usually not women oriented subjects, but subjects of the general population. It is very important for women to focus on broader issues, rather than solely women oriented topics, because those issues often don’t make the front pages. Those issues that do are of a general kind, be it on politics, health, education, or the environment. Certainly you will get some attention around women in political discussion or around an event such as the midterm congressional elections. But if you report on politics in general, and you happen to be a woman, you open up your possibilities even wider. Women’s issues deserve attention, but the truth is you gain more opportunities if you write about general topics overall.

CNN is a general news organization- it is not focused on women or any one group in particular.  Writers need to address the demographic that the publication addresses.

AHD: As someone who has been working in the realm of media for over twenty years, you have undoubtedly seen tremendous technological changes. How have developments in technology influenced how news is reported and the kind of news that makes headlines? Looking forward, do you have a sense of where media coverage is going?

JD: Technology has changed media completely, especially in booking. When I first entered media, we didn’t have regular access to the Internet. We would call the library to have them run a few searches and then wait a few hours. It took a long time. There were no cell phones, we had beepers and used pay phones. Now we rely on the Internet as an instant research tool, and cell phones and smartphones mean you are reachable anywhere and can have access to your databases instantly. This has really changed things out in field because you can be in touch with home base from almost any location, and often times have access to information and the ability to research on the fly wherever you are. Developments in technology has also meant that you can take access to thousands of contacts have, and carry them with you at all times- which places an enormous resource at your fingertips.

Technological developments have also altered methods of newsgathering. Previously we had huge cameras, which were always difficult to carry, and often slowed you down from country to country. Today, you can enter a country with a pocket camera, or a smart phone, and send photos via email half way across the world. In the past year, technology has taken the public places we have never seen before – 3,000 feet below the Earth’s surface during the Chilean mine crisis and this summer onto the ocean floor during the oil spill.

In terms of where these changes are taking media, wireless technology is about to change everything in terms of transmission. Places that we thought were inaccessible for a long time, that were just too hard to reach because it was hard to transmit from, will soon be reachable. Wireless technology will establish a new level of connectivity everywhere.

For HUMNews, technology plays a huge role. It is a marriage between technology and journalism. We need both of those components. We are trying to find ways to overcome logistical obstacles by working on developing technology with companies like INTEL.

AHD: What are the most valuable lessons you gained in your time working at CNN?

JD: Out of all the organizations it has been compared to, CNN is unique because it is a consortium of elements that come together to feed a huge and diverse audience on many channels and platforms.  CNN has affiliates and partnerships around the world and so many different sections, networks, and audiences and it all feeds the business.

This model for the industry has helped me to think about HUM and what we can do. Those 116 countries are under-covered in so many ways. From politics and education to entertainment- I want to know who the hot pop star in Senegal is, and what they’re eating in Malawi. We are trying to collect all the information that we can generate from these countries and put it into one big bucket, and specify from there.

HUM is the parent company; then we have HUMNews, HUMMedia, HUMMusic, HUMMovies and several other businesses we’re working on. We have one central gathering and distribution platform and then each sector can pull out what they need. The main lesson from CNN is that efficient business comes when you merge all of your ideas into one and see where they overlap.

AHD: What led you to leave CNN? What were your primary goals in founding of HUMNews?

JD: I want to see the world through a different lens. The future of the world’s story line is not going to be led by a country like ours. In those places HUM aims to cover, 80% of the population is under the age of 20. Here and in Western Europe, 80% of the population is over the age of 30. The most exciting things are happening in the places where we don’t have a camera yet. In developing countries they are trying new things because they have to- in South Africa they are using windmills to charge cell phones- so they have phones but not electricity. We have got to pay attention to these places because they have many of the resources of the world. Silicate for solar panels comes from hillsides of Africa. Lithium often comes from Mongolia, and electric card batteries are manufactured in the Congo. If we don’t pay attention to these places we are quickly going to lose sight of the future and lose out competitively.

Mainstream media does not cover those countries and is not going to- not because they don’t want to, but because the media landscape is brutal and competitive. You can’t take your eye of the ball long enough to try and do something else when you’re an organization like CNN or Fox or the New York Times- it’s very difficult to devote resources away from anything they cover.

HUM covers every country of the world. We quickly saw that we couldn’t cover Sierra Leone or the Maldives or Peru without Iran- because everyone is doing business with everyone else. We have to pay attention to how the rest of the world is developing, not just the world that we already know a lot about.

I once read about Donna Karen’s reasons for founding DKNY. She couldn’t find clothes that she liked, so she decided to make her own. I had a similar experience in media- you can find some things but you have to look very hard. I wanted an easier source. After working at CNN where everything is at your fingertips, I got bored with what I knew, and wanted to know more. Curiosity about the world is the drive behind HUMNews.

AHD: What are you an expert in?

JD: I am a media expert- I have spent the last 20 years working in it from Corporate Finance to the streets and fields, to the executive offices. I can tell you what the TV networks are in Malawi, and what the demographic of TV viewers is in Argentina. I have spent a lot of time analyzing on a social, as well on a market and business level what is out there. People are curious about how media is developing around the world and how people are responding and accessing that media, and I humbly work at knowing the answers to those questions. It’s what excites me.

Ask an Insider: Katharine Herrup, Reuters.com Opinion Pages Editor gives us the inside perspective on what to write to get published!

RK: Tell me about the series of interviews you’re conducting with women entrepreneurs for Reuters. Why that group?

KH: This is a Q & A with women entrepreneurs and business leaders. When I joined Reuters, I discovered that a majority of our readers and writers are male. In fact, as you know, 85% of op-ed submissions come from men. To expand our audience and add a female dynamic, I thought this could be a fascinating place to start.

And it has been!  We found a remarkable number of women starting their own businesses, both for- and non-profit.  One reason seems to be that it’s become a lot easier to work from home, thanks to the Internet.  It allows women to stay involved in their careers and also spend time with their family.

RK: So is the series about how women can succeed as entrepreneurs?

KH: Partly, but we also hear how these women are dealing with the challenges out there.  That includes the work/home balance that we all face, but also some of the pure business challenges.  We just ran a piece by Tereza Nemessanyi 
http://blogs.reuters.com/small-business/2010/08/17/if-women-are-good-at-running-businesses-why-does-it-take-them-longer-to-start-one/
for example, who came from the OpEd Project and wrote that while there are many more women tech entrepreneurs right now, venture capitalists tend to be less willing to invest in them than in men because they are less known in that market.

RK: You’re also interviewing women – and men – on social entrepreneurship.  Tell me about that.

KH: Right, we’re talking with thought leaders, regardless of their sex or age — they range from 24 to 73.  This series capture what innovators are doing now to improve the quality of life — not just their own, but other people’s too. With less of everything — jobs, money  — we are confronted with what to do in this recession, how to prioritize and how we want to spend our time. Is it with family? Is it changing careers? Is it contributing to a greater good?   And we found that questions like these take you to interesting places. People are rethinking their goals and values. So we have pieces and videos on the difference between GenX and GenY entrepreneurs, how to launch a socially conscious second career that has personal meaning and impact – written by an OpEd mentor, and how to start a successful non-profit, and that’s complemented by a video of a Summer Search grad, Jabali Sawicki, now a leader in his own field.

RK: I’ve done byline counts for The OpEd Project, and noticed that many of the columns and opinion pieces written by women weren’t on political, international, or economic issues. They were often on what are controversially called “women’s issues” or human interest topics. Do you see that in women’s submissions to Reuters.com?

KH: Interestingly I haven’t. The most recent submissions by women included one on health care policy, one on the egg food poisoning 
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2010/08/27/sunny-side-up-why-eggs-are-safer-in-europe/
another was on the political climate in China

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2010/08/18/what-china-needs-to-do-in-order-to-become-a-global-leader/
and one on the economic progress New Orleans has made after Hurricane Katrina
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2010/08/27/new-orleans-after-katrina-the-most-successful-urban-transformation/
. We also have our very own Chrystia Freeland, Reuters’ Editor At Large, who writes about economic policy and issues. Our target audience is business professionals so I tend to receive less “soft” submission pieces.

RK: What attracted you to editing opinion pieces?

KH: These pieces cover such a wide range of subjects. You get to edit pieces on the economy, politics, small business, green business, the environment, international affairs, health care, legal issues, literally everything.  And opinion pieces let you delve more deeply into all these different subjects.

RK: What mistakes do you see opinion writers making most frequently in their submissions?

KH: When I can’t immediately tell what the writer is writing about or why. Or they offer a long-winded explanation. If it takes them too long to summarize their piece, how long will it take them to make their point in the piece? Top things to look for are timing, the quality of the analysis, and a topic or viewpoint that speaks to our audience.  And of course one that’s well written, has a cohesive argument, and has interesting angles.

RK: What are upcoming projects we can expect from you and from Reuters?

KH: Definitely check out the social entrepreneurship series 
http://blogs.reuters.com/small-business/2010/08/05/social-entrepreneurship-series
/ – I just launched it.  We also have really smart blogs from Felix Salmon, Gregg Easterbrook and others, and live blogs on breaking news and analysis.  I have to admit a guilty pleasure right now is checking out our own coverage of the US Open. And coming up, we’ll have debates on issues in the mid-term elections page. And we just launched a brand new photo blog to better display Reuters’ amazing news photos from around the world. We’re also doing a bunch of new and fun and interactive videos.

RK: How do you report on trends – social, tech or business trends.

KH: We constantly look at trends.  For example, we’ll be covering the October conference of a social innovation group called PopTech, a group of provocative, interesting thought leaders of our time. I think that will be pretty inspiring.

Also, there’s a group of seven men in their mid-twenties who are all about connecting thought leaders and social entrepreneurs trying to attack the world’s devastating problems.

They bring together Bill Clinton and Ted Turner with the founder of TOMS Shoes and organizations like Invisible Children, a movement seeking to end the conflict in Uganda and abduction of children there as child soldiers.

RK: Who are some strong female writers a hopeful op-ed writer could look to as examples?

KH: Chrystia Freeland is definitely one because she takes on some of the world’s most complicated topics in a way that is clear and engaging to anyone. And one of my favorite writers is Lenore Skenazy who is extremely smart and funny. Her career launched into the stratosphere with a piece she wrote about leaving her nine-year-old in the metro to get home by himself on the subway. And out of that came her own blog called “Freerange Kids.” Her focus was never anti-helicopter parenting, but it turned out that this one piece was really popular and she went with it. She can make any topic a pleasure to read. And that’s what it’s all about.

Ask an Insider: Michael Bociurkiw, “The Savvy Traveler,” talks about the changing face of international reporting, HUM news, and going for the story no one else is getting

Michael Bociurkiw has worked as a reporter at the Winnipeg Free Press; the Toronto Globe and Mail, the South China Sunday Morning Post (Hong Kong) and as Malaysia Bureau Chief for Asia Times Bangkok) and was part of the start-up team of Eastern Express newspaper in Hong Kong. He has covered numerous events, from: the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine to the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China and has reported on several major global summits, including the Sixth Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 and the 2002 G-8 summit in Calgary. Michael has also interviewed world leaders including: Lee Kuan Yew (Singapore), Fidel Ramos and Corazon Aquino (Philippines), Kim Campbell (Canada), Mahathir Mohamad (Malaysia), Chatichai Choonhaven (Thailand), B.J. Habibie (Indonesia) and Yulia Tymoshenko (Ukraine). He has appeared frequently on CNN, al-Jazeera and other broadcast outlets to speak about emergency operations. He is also part of the management team of HUM (Human Unlimited Media) an initiative to launch concentrated, sustainable coverage of 116 of the poorest countries of the world. You can read his travel blog at www.mysavvytraveller.com

Michael joined me, Ravenna, the OpEd Project Social Media Intern, for a phone chat in early July from his home in Vancouver, a place he had recently returned to after spending more than three weeks in South Africa covering the FIFA World Cup games and establishing future contacts for HUM news:

RK: You have been reporting internationally since the 1990’s— a time frame that has witnessed huge international political and economic changes, but perhaps more importantly for reporters, technological changes. How has the Western reporting presence abroad changed in that time?

MB: What we’re seeing now is a very rapid deterioration in foreign news reporting, and that’s happening for a number of reasons. Foreign reporting by nature is very, very expensive and very labor intensive and fewer and fewer news organizations are able to afford it. The business model is now unsustainable. Foreign bureaus are often cut, which cuts down on the ability of many news organizations to cover distant stories. Gone are the days when you’re going to dispatch a six-man crew with generators and satellite dishes to a distant country.

HUM has looked at the world and catalogued those who don’t have a permanent western news presence— there are at least 116 such countries like that. These are mostly countries that are developing… if you take the number of developing countries and you overlay it with the countries that aren’t getting covered, it’s almost a direct match. We asked ourselves [at HUM] how we could cover these countries in a way that is economically sustainable. We realized that instead of sending people to distant places, we can look at what resources are available there already. For example, there are already local, regional, national news organizations that do a pretty good job of reporting… but there are a lot that need help, and we’re prepared to help them raise their standards of reporting.

You have a lot of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or UN agencies on the ground in many of these countries. Take UNICEF for example… they have field offices in over 100 countries; they have logistical access, political access, and a lot of video footage and photographs. It’s very important for us to partner with these NGOs because they really are capable of giving us reach and access. The stigma of news agencies and NGOs working together has really almost disappeared. A few years ago CNN would be very wary of teaming up with a UN agency to get coverage from a disaster area, but now I think a closeness has developed where both sides are much more comfortable working together.

Then, of course, there’s the phenomenon of citizen journalism that’s happening too. If you go, for example, to Northern Nigeria everyone has quite advanced cell phones with cameras, and there’s pretty good connectivity, so that’s another layer of essential contact generation. But having said that we’re all about validation. You have a lot of ordinary people with the ability to send photos, information and whatnot but you have to validate it.

And then, another thing that’s dumped the old form of reporting on its head is technology. We’ve developed a field kit that is very miniaturized, a camera, solar panels, GPS, Bluetooth microphones that all fit into a backpack and are very inexpensive. In a lot of the countries we have visited they have wifi—and even wimax in some— and if you have a pretty good connection you can transmit back to the news bureau. So all these factors have come together at the right time and have allowed HUM to be born.

RK: Tell me about your work with Human Unlimited Media (HUM).

MB: The idea for HUM News came from Joy Dibenedetto, someone who has worked in the bowels of a global news organization (CNN) for a long, long time. She’s also worked for CARE and that exposed her to the humanitarian aid business and to a lot of global issues. She’s a true humanitarian and a true journalist— she’s absolutely ideal for this type of initiative. She was the head of global bookings for CNN and has the rolodex from heaven. But even having said all that, she’s also someone who simply attracts good people and trust. I’ve been involved with a few startups before, but one of the incredible things about HUM is that people who are involved are very giving—they give their time, their contacts, their technology, equipment, and even resources. Right now we’re going through an economic crisis and no one knows how long it’s going to last; anyone in his right mind probably wouldn’t launch a news organization in this situation but we’re in it for the long run. It’s going to take a village, but we do have that village and it’s growing every day. We’re all people who are prepared to work in a guerilla style. I think also what keeps us all together is a real sense of camaraderie and a real passion… many of us have been to these countries and realize that there are a lot of unreported issues. In my case I was a UNICEF communications officer for many years and my number one frustration was that I knew we had great stories, but I often couldn’t convince foreign correspondents that we had good stories to tell. Many of us [at HUM] came from a background where we had to jump through hoops to get a story out. We feel that funding is imminent. We’ve poured our hearts and souls into this. Over a two year period we’ve been able to bring this company to a stage where it is investable—we’ve already taken care of a lot of the growing pains, we’ve done our research, we’ve made many contacts, created a really impressive board, a beyond state-of-the-art technology platform, we’re getting new opinion writers coming on by the week. and tons of new hits to our site every day.

RK: What made you want to depart from mainstream media? What’s wrong with mainstream media?

MB: There’s a lot to be desired when you watch the network news. I think a lot of it has been dumbed down, and I think, to be very blunt, people [in the news] have become very lazy. I see, time after time, big named-network or cable news organizations with bureaus in Beijing or Moscow or somewhere… and when an event happens – say— 1,000 km away in the same country, people often just sit at their desks and report from there.

Many people I talk to tell me they don’t watch the news because it makes them depressed. You can’t really blame them; a lot of the news that comes across is quite depressing: disasters, conflicts, etc. But there’s a lot of positive news out there! I’m not saying that HUM is going to become a “happy” news service—HUM is a very meaningful and contextual news service. But some things are misrepresented… for example, people in many of the countries that we cover feel that the African continent is misrepresented, that most people in the world still think of it as a dark continent where everyone is corrupt. You don’t have to be there for very long to realize that this isn’t true—there are so many incredible people there; a lot of interesting entrepreneurialism going on in small villages, but it’s not really getting written about. I think that’s a big reason why foreign investment, especially from North America hasn’t been at the level we’d like to see it at. HUM’s mission when it comes to Africa is really to enlighten people about what’s going on … but we’re not going to just go in and do it ourselves. We’re going to guide the process but we’re going to have Africans reporting on their own continent. I’m not just saying that as tokenism. Much of what I did over the past three weeks [in the field in South Africa], was watch people at conferences or in day-to-day life and then identify those who could write or tell a story or give an opinion on what they see happening and then make contact with them. I think that this sort of commentary will be very interesting to everybody because they’ll be getting a pure perspective from an African reporting on the African continent. We want to take that and replicate it in other regions of the world as well. It’s a lot of work: you have to go there yourself, talk to people, give them guidance. It’s a constant hand-holding process.

RK: You were recently in South Africa at the FIFA World Cup for HUM — how do the articles that you wrote differ from other articles written on the event? How are those articles emblematic of HUM’s approach to reporting?

MB: Our mission is to really cover the back-story of an event. We don’t want to replicate what others are doing—there’s an army of reporters there reporting on the same thing. These big stories can be covered without being in the media center, because I think, when you’re in a room with a bunch of journalists it kind of generates a pack-journalism mentality where everyone is feeding off of the same stories and the same pictures and the same pitches and press releases. I always say ‘a hungry dog is a successful dog’—when you don’t have the information easily at your fingertips you really work for it and that’s when you really find the good stories. We [at HUM] managed to cover the 2010 Winter Olympics and the World Cup without official media accreditation.

For example, the Lesotho story I did from South Africa. We were led to that story because some people on our board have been pushing for a long time for us to go there and do some reporting. If you talk to most people they won’t know where it is on a map but it’s right in the middle of South Africa and the world cup frenzy and yet there’s very little written about it. They really have huge issues there— skyrocketing HIV/AIDS rates, low life expectancy rates, high poverty. Believe it or not: when a boy or girl reaches 18 years of age in Lesotho, they are already at middle age given current life expectancy rates. It amazed me to go there and see what’s going on—as soon as you cross the border you realize you’re in another country. I wanted to write about how Lesotho was being sidelined by the world cup and I knew that not many people had done that story. We’re always mindful of the marginalized, of the ignored people. Even within South Africa you don’t have to travel far to find that many people feel marginalized by the world cup—people either can’t afford to buy world cup tickets or they don’t have time because they work long shifts. Early on we did a story about how the technology that FIFA chose prevented many South Africans from getting tickets. From the start they were calling this Africa’s game, but FIFA was incredibly insensitive in terms of the realities on the ground on the African continent—they wanted to sell almost all of the tickets by the internet. Even if people have internet access, most don’t have credit cards and even if people do have credit cards many have never done online shopping before. It amazed us how little covered that story was. We come to every story with the mindset: what are the stories that aren’t being covered? What is really happening on the ground? How do we position ourselves to write about what no one else is writing?

RK: Over the course of your career you’ve found yourself in many countries that may have been less than civil to journalists. How have you dealt with the pressure to provide “more positive coverage” when you’re reporting internationally? What’s the most serious consequence, if any, that’s come of resisting that pressure?

MB: When I was in my formative years of becoming a journalist in Asia, I had the good fortune of working for Asian editors and Asian media proprietors… One paper, which happened to be in Thailand, took all our western white boys and girls and taught us how to push the envelope in Asia and not get kicked out of a country. Most Western journalists think it’s sort of a badge of honor to get kicked out of a country but the moment you hop on a plane and leave a country, you’re of no use to your news organization or to that country. What I tell myself and others is that you have to know where the boundaries are.

There was an incident in the Philippines, when Mt. Pinatubo exploded, and there was a lot of criticism of the government’s response to this natural disaster. I’d become, by that time, the type of reporter that called a spade a spade and I reported that the government was doing a very shoddy job of handling the disaster response. I got a call from the Minister of Tourism, who happened to be kind of a friend of mine, and his exact words were ‘Mike, you have to cool it.’ I reported it back to my newspaper in Hong Kong and they were kind of concerned and even thought of pulling me off, but I did stay and didn’t tone down my reporting but tried to explain to these government people that we have to be as honest as we can. The classical communications theory of truth and untruth is that eventually the truth will emerge. There’s nothing wrong with a clash of negative and positive stories because the truth will always come out.

RK: Just for fun – you’ve earned the title “The Savvy Traveler” from your many years as an international correspondent, but savviness is always the result of mistakes made and learned from. What’s one of the most exciting or outlandish experiences abroad that contributed to your current international know-how?

MB: I don’t see myself as a tourist, I see myself as a traveler, as someone who loves the journey, who always has his eyes open and is very curious. I have made a lot of mistakes on the road. Sometimes I’ve missed flights for really silly reasons. Even if you over prepare for things, mistakes will happen. As a journalist I was conditioned to deal with the worst. One time a colleague and I were flown into a flood area in the central Philippians where many people were drowned… we were flown there by the Philippine military in helicopters to this horrible disaster area. We did our reporting, and then it started to get dark and we realized we hadn’t made arrangements to be flown out by helicopter. So the only option to get out was to rent a whole bus, like a Greyhound bus! We were so lucky we had the resources to get out of there.

RK: How do you think we can become better news consumers?

MB: I’m always asking people where they get their news from. I think the best way to consume is to rely on a multiplicity of sources. Don’t trust one source. Media is becoming very fragmented—you have blogs, you have twitter, even MSNBC is divided into different branches and sections so it can be very confusing. I think the best way is to pick a few news sources that you trust and stick with them. If you listen to NPR don’t forget to donate—that model needs support. For someone coming of age it must be a very confusing time to know what to read. I think it was Walter Cronkite who said: if you just have time to read one thing, read the front page because if it appears on the front page it has to be important.

RK: Do you have any publications you’re devoted to?

MB: I switch from day to day, I have an iPhone and all my news apps on there so no matter where I am I can read. The Financial Times of London, I love, The Economist, The New York Times, NPR, The Wall Street Journal does a good job of being diverse, and being punchy, CBC news is still very good in Canada—they spend a lot more time on foreign news than your typical US network. I’m a CBC junkie. HUM (www.Humnews.com) has started to work with parts of CBC, the radio side, to help them ensure that their foreign reporting is diversified. They’ve come to us and said “we need stories from Africa,” and now we’re trying to help them get those stories.