International Reporting

Country/corresponding immigrant community in NYC:

Chinese diaspora/immigrants.

Has the country been in the news lately? If so, for what?

Yes. Xi Pinjing, President of the PRC, will be taking a third term of power. Recently, there has been news about how Chengdu (an area in Sichuan) has been hit with a lockdown. China was also recently hit by an earthquake with a continuously rising death toll. There were also stories about Hong Kong speech therapists being jailed for usage of books deemed “seditious” by the government.

How many live in the US? In the tristate area? How many are in the international diaspora? How many in the home country?

As of 2016, there are approximately 5 million people of Chinese ancestry in the US.

As of 2017, there are approximately 900,00 Chinese-Americans in the tristate area.

As of 2017, there are approximately 10 million international Chinese diaspora.

As of 2020, there are approximately 1.4 billion people in China.

In the tristate area, where do they live?

Most Chinese people in New York reside in Queens, approximately 40%. There are Chinatowns in Manhattan, Flushing in Queens, and Bensonhurst in Brooklyn.

What types of jobs do a significant percentage of them have?

As of 2018, most Chinese workers are employed in: Management, Business, Science, and Arts occupations. Most of these numbers come from immigrants, rather than native-born diaspora.

Why did they come to New York/the US? When?

Chinese immigrants first came to New York in the early 19th century, before the Chinese Exclusion act. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 allowed for a resurgence of Chinese immigrants. After the quota for the act was lifted, the number of Chinese-Americans increased exponentially.

What are some major organizations/advocacy groups/resources in this community?

The Chinese-American Planning Council, Chinese Progressive Association New York, Garden of Hope, United Chinese Association of Brookyln.

Do they have local media house/s? If so, list them.

Some are more trustworthy than others. For a list: Chinese Daily News/World Journal, The China Press, Epoch Times (not trustworthy).

List/link the major media houses in the home country. Are they reliable? What is the press landscape like there?

The major media houses in China are not reliable. China is known to have one of the worst press freedom landscapes for journalists worldwide. Even media sources based internationally must pass inspection in Beijing to be published digitally. Some are: People’s Daily (print), Beijing Daily/Guangming Daily (print), Xinwen (China News Service, broadcasting).

How strong are relationships with the home country? How significant are remittances to the home country’s economy?

Tensions between the United States and China have been gradually increasing. There are questions as to how China’s allyship with Russia impacts the latter’s invasion of Ukraine. Nancy Pelosi also visited Taiwan, causing climate talks between the US and China to cease. Right now, the two countries are in a stalemate that’s reminiscent of the Cold War. The US has also been critical of China’s human rights abuses, with the former denying all allegations of such. Still, the economic ties between the two are seen as one of the most international relationships globally.

In the homeland what is the GDP per capita? Where does that rank in the world? What are the major industries?

As of 2020, the GDP per capita was 10,500.40 USD. This ranks China at 79 globally. Major industries include: services, manufacturing, and agriculture.

What is the system of government? When did this system come into place? Was there a colonial power? (Or was it the colonial power?)

Authoritarian under the political leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which emerged under the leadership of Mao Zedong in 1949.

Name of the NY consul general. How long has he/she been in the role?

Huang Ping, who has been in the role since November 2018.

Link to three news stories that have been published about the immigrant community in New York.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/nyc-teach-asian-american-pacific-islander-history-1800-schools-rcna31247?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_aa

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/11/nyregion/nyc-chinatown-signs.html

https://www.wthr.com/article/sports/olympics/spirit-of-china/new-york-citys-chinatown-fighting-back-declining-population-and-pandemic-pressure-covid-19/531-f7de99c1-4acd-45c6-a80f-d8c877f2d56e

Are there any restaurants, bars, small businesses etc. that are owned/frequented by members of the immigrant community? Are there any other informal community spaces you can identify in the city?

There are several restaurants and small businesses that are owned by Chinese-Americans, both immigrant and native-born. One whose staff I plan to interview with permission of the owner is “A Taste of Shanghai,” (known by frequent goers as shanghai xiaochi) a restaurant in Flushing.

Give three potential story ideas. (Doesn’t need to be a fully fleshed-out pitch yet, but should be well thought-out.)

1. The use of Chinese social media/news consumption via social media by Chinese diaspora, by both immigrants and native-born. Why do these diasporas continue to use Chinese sources for news when it’s an open secret that everything is censored/moderated by the Chinese government? What turns them off from using other media sources, what keeps them connected?
2. Second-generation immigrants taking over businesses that were started by their parents. Many immigrants come to America with hopes that their children will have better opportunities than they did. So why are second-generation immigrants choosing the same jobs as their parents? For this story, I think it’d be better to pick one Chinese-American owned small business specifically for a profile– getting to know the family and the struggles they’ve experienced.
3. The gentrification of Chinatowns in New York City, specifically Flushing. As a Queens resident, everytime I go to Flushing there seems to be a new restaurant opening that’s high scale. The older restaurants that made Flushing known for its “cheap eats” reputation are closing down. The increase of high scale restaurants are no doubt causing issues for mom and pop stores. Now people are avoiding Flushing, describing it as “not what it used to be.” I’ve witnessed this in real time and think it would make an interesting story. What’s even more interesting, residents are being displaced by their own people. The high scale restaurants are owned by fellow Chinese diaspora– it’s co-ethnics replacing other co-ethnics.

I think I’m leaning towards story idea #3 since I have a small restaurant owner/her employees that I can interview. However, that’s in regards to whether my interview will happen. It’s been pushed back twice, due to the recent observance of the Mid-Autumn festival. Today’s interview was delayed again, so if it’s canceled I will go with one of the other ideas.

Discussion: Press Freedom

There are a lot of ways by which governments around the world restrict press freedom. The threat of arrest or deportation; making it unrealistically expensive or complicated to get a press visa; violence.

Before you go anywhere, make sure you’re well-versed in the press freedom landscape of the country you’re visiting. Find out what kind of accreditation you need to operate there legally/safely. The Vulture Club group on Facebook can be a great resource for finding out this sort of thing. We’ll talk more about risk assessments when planning a reporting trip in a future class—just remember that press freedom should always be one of your considerations when weighing the risks of any international reporting.

We’re going to divide up into groups and do in-class discussions and presentations that look at some recent and ongoing high-profile cases of journalists being harassed, physically threatened or detained, or their work otherwise suppressed.

Maria Ressa, The Philippines

Dmitry Muratov, Russia

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, Myanmar

Mohamed Fahmy, Baher Mohamed, and Peter Greste: Egypt

Anna Day, Bahrain

Final thoughts on our discussion about ethics last week:

I brought up those examples to get you all thinking critically about the role journalism plays in the world, and how to balance that with the immediate impact an individual reporter has on the world around them over the course of reporting the story. If you believe in the power images have to hold people in power accountable, or call attention to some grave injustice, then the “greater good” may sometimes seem to be in direct conflict with the more immediate, small-scale good—which can sometimes lead to journalists treating the people they’re reporting on a bit carelessly. I have found that old-school journalists tend to lean more in the direction of getting the story above all.

But many in the younger generation of journalists especially are questioning some long-held standards through the lens of decolonizing journalism. This is controversial; some call it an over-correction.

I believe that if you’re committed enough and good enough at your job, there’s usually a way to achieve both goals at once—though not always! Sometimes you have to choose. And then it’s up to your best judgment.

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Reminder: Your beat memos are due one week from today, on Tuesday, Sept. 13 by class time.

Pitches for your first story of the semester will be due Thursday, Sept. 15 by class time. We’ll workshop them as a class.

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Story Guidelines

If you choose to do a print story, it should be around 800 words and there should be at least one photo. You don’t have to check out a DSLR camera for this (though you’re welcome to); your phone is perfectly fine. You just need some sort of visual to run with it. It can be a photo obtained by a source if necessary, as long as you credit them.

You may also choose to do a video. It should be a two- to three-minute video; whether narrated or non-narrated is up to you. You may also opt for a text “narration.” If you prefer to do something a little more broadcast (with a standup, for instance) and a little less web video, that’s fine.

If you choose to do a photography project, there should be 12-20 photos. This can be in slideshow form with strong, informative captions, or you can lay them out in a blog post where the photos are interspersed with text as you scroll down. Captions should be written in complete sentences, 1-4 sentences per image.

If you choose to do a radio story, it should be a three-to four-minute narrated package with sound bites from at least two separate interviews and one natural sound (plus ambi). Give yourself a sign-off: “For Baruch College, this is ____ _____ in ______.” Your scripted host intro can serve as your intro paragraph for the blog, and you should also include at least one photo.

Pitch Guidelines

You will send this pitch to me, but you will write it with a specific publication in mind. Find an editor contact at that publication and address it to them. Many outlets will list a public email address for pitches, but it’s usually better to identify the specific editor who handles the desk responsible for your beat/region and send it to them directly. It can help to name-drop mutual friends/contacts, especially if that’s how you got their contact info.

You can choose whichever medium you prefer for the story; make sure you address this in your pitch.

A good pitch accomplishes several things:

• It tells the editor why the story is newsworthy and identifies your angle.
• It shows that you have done your due diligence and recognize that this story is a good fit for their publication.
• It tells them who you are and why you are the right person to deliver this story. Link to your website if you have one. (And if you don’t have one yet, you should consider creating one if you plan to work in journalism.)
• It is medium-specific. If you plan to do video, describe the treatment you have in mind. If it’s a radio piece, describe the scenes and the tape you have or anticipate getting, and write it in more of an ear-friendly style. Here’s an example of a treatment for a documentary:  Treatment Result

A pitch should essentially look like the top of a story. By that I mean you should have a clear lede and nut graph. (Quick review: what is a lede and a nut graph?)

• A lede hooks the reader. It can take many forms: anecdotal, straight news, teasing the reader by inverting expectations, etc.
• A nut graph puts the story in context and tells readers why the story matters
  • “So what?” — it tells readers why they should care about the story
  • It provides a transition from the lede to the rest of the story
  • It often tells readers why the story is timely
  • It contains the story’s angle

The length of the pitch should also roughly be proportional to the length of the finished piece you have in mind. For instance, if you’re planning on writing a 6,000-word magazine piece, the pitch will be a lot longer than a pitch you’d write for an 800-word story you’re proposing (which realistically might be 250-300 words, not counting the small talk.)

Once you have a relationship with an editor, the pitch process doesn’t always need to be quite so formal. Here is an exchange I had with my editor at Mashable while following up with him and Accounts Receivable about a payment on my previous story:

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Emily H. Johnson <[email protected]>

to Dustin

Thanks, I really appreciate it! I know it’s not your fault!

Quick update about what I’m working on these days: Later on today I’m going to check out a story I’m pretty excited about—a Kenyan ice hockey league at the only ice rink in East Africa. From what I understand, it was started by expats about ten years ago but a good number of Kenyans have joined and are getting pretty good. Long-term, they hope to put together a national team.

Hoping my vision for an “African Cool Runnings” kind of story will prove to be apt, because I have a feeling hockey fans around the world will go nuts over it. They meet every Wednesday night and have told me I’m welcome to come tonight, so I’ll get some initial images and let you know what I find!

—

Dustin D <[email protected]>
2/17/16
to me

Still super sorry, it’s shitty it took them this damn long to get back to you. Also news to me that we pay net 30 now. Used to be 15 days.

I really really dig the ice hockey story! Let me know how it’s shaping up and send some images through when you check it out and I’ll see if I can find room in the budget.

d

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Emily H. Johnson <[email protected]>
Attachments
2/18/16

to Dustin

Hockey night was awesome. There were five Kenyan guys there last night and they were really pretty good; I spoke with most of them and they’re totally fine with being interviewed/photographed.

The team was recently invited to Morocco for an African ice hockey tournament but they couldn’t raise the funds to go, so they’re trying to organize a similar event later this year and host it here in Nairobi. The hotel where the rink is located currently sponsors skating lessons for some Nairobi school kids, so I definitely plan to go one Sunday morning and get some images of that, because c’mon, little kids learning to ice skate!

I’m attaching a handful of images: Some of the players wear awesome hockey jerseys with the Kenyan flag and the letters “KH” for “Kenyan Hockey.” There’s also a room full of rental skates and other gear that had to be imported from Canada. It’s pretty dark in there so I’ll need to go back with a different lens and a flash to get some decent action shots.

But there’s potential for visuals beyond the rink as well. A couple of the guys I spoke with said they initially got their start playing roller hockey and invited me to come check it out—they play every Sunday in a parking lot. Street hockey out in the bright sun of Nairobi would help drive home that we’re on the equator and be a nice visual counterpoint to the darker, colder rink, which has alpine murals all over the walls.

Let me know what you think! And I’ll actually be in New York next week for a short visit. Would love to come by the office and say hello if you’ll be around!

Kenya’s first ice hockey team has Olympic dreams

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Here’s a more formal pitch I sent to an editor I had worked with before but not recently.

Emily H. Johnson <[email protected]>
Attachments
Feb 8, 2017, 12:54 PM
to Jennifer

Hi Jennifer,

It’s been awhile! I hope you’re doing well. I recently returned from a reporting trip to Uganda with a story that I think is really important, and would be great for The World.

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When most people think of the world’s biggest refugee crisis, they think of the people risking everything to reach Italy and Greece by sea—a crisis that is staggering in size. In all of 2016, there were over 360,000 boat arrivals in Europe. They may be surprised to learn, however, that 445,000 refugees have crossed into northern Uganda just since July as they flee the conflict in South Sudan.

“It has been unrelenting,” said Nasir Fernandes, UNHCR’s senior emergency coordinator overseeing the Uganda crisis. “It has been a massive scale emergency.”

Six months ago, the world’s second-largest refugee hosting site, Bidibidi settlement, was a sparsely populated expanse of scrubland. After topping a quarter of a million people in December, a second camp opened and is already well on its way to being filled. About 2,000 are crossing the border on average per day, most of them on foot.

There has been very little coverage of this situation, which is hard to believe having just witnessed the scale of it. I just returned from a week spent reporting there, and while the situation is desperate, there’s also cause for optimism. This is because of Uganda’s surprisingly humane refugee policy that relief workers are touting as a model for the rest of the world.

Refugees are given freedom of movement, the right to work, and plots of land to live on and to farm. And in this age of fear and suspicion toward migrants, Ugandans in the surrounding communities have been refreshingly welcoming toward the refugees. Many are former refugees themselves, and the influx of people has created business opportunities.

This feature will be sound-rich. I visited the border and recorded refugees crossing into Uganda on a squeaky, rickety wooden bridge as rebel soldiers watched from the other side. I went to Palorinya settlement area and recorded the sound of more than 3,000 people boarding buses and trucks and driven to an inhospitable patch of desert where they will make their new homes. I also have tape of women singing and drumming at a women’s center, and of dozens of children playing at a playground—a full 68 percent of the refugees in this crisis are under the age of 18.

I have interviews with quite a few recently-arrived refugees: Some had terrifying accounts of watching their families and neighbors killed by government soldiers, while others had happier tales of being reunited with loved ones once they arrived in Uganda. UNHCR’s Fernandes spoke to me at length about the scope of the situation and how Uganda’s progressive policy has helped the relief effort run immeasurably more smoothly. Finally, I interviewed Ugandans from the surrounding community about why they’ve been so welcoming to the South Sudanese. “You never know when this might happen to you,” said one.

I have images to accompany the story online; I’m attaching a handful to give you a sense of the visuals. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Best,

Emily

Jennifer G <[email protected]>
Feb 10, 2017, 3:39 PM
to me

Hi Emily,

Nice to hear from you. We did do a digital story on this this week on PRI.org, but I would still be interested in a radio piece.

I’m especially interested in the part of your pitch about how the community in Uganda responds to the influx of refugees, and that Uganda has an unusually humane refugee policy. Perhaps we could choose one refugee, and one Ugandan to focus on.

What do you think?

Jennifer

Emily H. Johnson <[email protected]>
Mon, Feb 13, 2017, 9:51 AM
to Jennifer

Hi Jennifer,

Glad you want the story! Yes, I think that would work well structurally. There are a couple of pairings I’m thinking of that would work. I’ll go through my recordings and get started on a script today. When would you like to see that by?

Emily

Uganda has been a welcoming place for South Sudan’s refugees

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Discussion: What makes a good story?

What is news?

There are a number of different, oft-overlapping factors that can make a story newsworthy. Most good stories have at least two or three of these.

1. Novelty: Is there an element of the unexpected? A twist of the usual narrative?

• Timeliness: In breaking news, you’re quick or you’re dead. But it’s important to be first AND to be right. Timeliness is also relevant when it comes to something called a news peg. Have a story about climate change that you think is great but which has been rejected by multiple editors? Try pitching it ahead of the global climate change summit.
• Impact/Consequence: Is it about something that will have a direct effect on someone, especially the outlet’s readership/viewership? Contaminated water, public school funding, etc.
• Proximity: Contaminated water isn’t particularly big news to a small-town newspaper in Connecticut if it’s happening in Ukraine, but if it’s happening right in their town, that’s huge news.
• Conflict: This is why people often criticize “the media” for being so negative, but it’s unavoidable to some extent. The millions of people who don’t get murdered each day aren’t news. The few who do are. Conflict doesn’t have to be violent or super dramatic; it just means that tension has arisen between people who want different things. Lawsuits, NIMBYs getting mad about vendors in their local parks, etc.
• Human interest: This is a little tricky to define, but generally speaking, people are interested in other people. Looking into someone else’s life as part of a well-told narrative appeals to human nature. Ideally, a human interest story will have some other news element to help it get some traction (a news peg of some sort). Some stories, like this one, are pegged to something that happened awhile ago but it was such a huge, news-cycle-dominating story when it happened that people remember it well and tend to prick up their ears when they see some sort of follow-up.
• Prominence: Imagine this headline: “Area Woman Announces She’s Expecting Twins.” No one cares. Now try this: “Cardi B Announces She’s Expecting Twins.” Prominence is obviously a subjective thing, and it can sometimes be tricky when it comes to ethics because it plays into who is fair game as a public figure. That’s why this Gawker story was so controversial.

The beat that I chose has decided to be reporting on the LGBTQ+ community in Russia.

Nonetheless the LGBTQ+ community has been supported by countries like Armenia and Belarus. Other countries have expressed their homophobia through different legislative laws. Organizations in New York have created support groups for those in the LGTBQ community in NYC that are asylum and refugees who are in need of mental health support, peer support groups, health and wellness programs and emergency cash. 

One of the main goals for this coverage is to shed a more larger issue on the LGBTQ+ community now that Ukraine and Russia are at war while also many Russian’s not wanting to be apart of the war but also having to flee due to their rights in the LGBTQ+ community. The languages that are spoken in Russia are a variety of them while they also share a Russian Orthodox Christian religion. 

Discussion: Ethics in International Reporting

How can we tell the story without being exploitative?

“Anyone Here Been Raped and Speaks English?”

Yazidi women and unethical journalism:
http://www.womensmediacenter.com/women-under-siege/study-85-percent-of-yazidi-women-interviewed-describe-unethical-journalism-practices

Mac Maclelland’s infamous live tweeting of a rape victim’s story: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/07/the-reporter-and-the-rape-victim/242445/

Is it ever okay to name rape victims, especially children?http://www.jinamoore.com/2010/02/05/rape-victims-nick-kristof-replies/

How Photography Exploits the Vulnerable
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/31/opinion/photography-exploitation-opioid.html

Jina Moore’s sensitive reporting on the families who lost loved ones in Garissa: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jinamoore/these-are-the-families-left-to-reclaim-garissas-dead#.mnb707mN5b

The NYT’s controversial decision to publish a graphic photo of bodies after a terror attack in Nairobi:

https://qz.com/africa/1527511/new-york-times-daily-mail-slammed-for-kenya-dead-bodies-photo/

Avoiding troublesome tropes and cliches:

How to write about Africa:
https://granta.com/how-to-write-about-africa/

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I would like to talk about the Rohingya Muslims who fled to flood-prone camps in Bangladesh. They’ve been under siege by the government because the Tatmadaw (armed forces of Myanmar) do not consider them citizens and are denied all rights, including the right to return home. More than one million Rohingya’s have fled in boats to Bangladesh. The refugees live in poor conditions and face severe restrictions on their mobility. I am aware that I won’t be able to find a Rohingya population in NYC, so I was thinking to collaborate with May to get more insight on how to go about this angle. Or maybe I could find another angle on the people of Myanmar that will allow me to conduct interviews.

In 2021, Myanmar’s hopes for democratic reforms were shattered. A military coup led by a junta leader became increasingly violent, leading to thousands of arrests and mass killings, which have continued since then. I want to incorporate the enormous toll the crisis has took on the children of Myanmar.

Myanmar has a long and complex history and the history behind these conflicts, as well as coups and military rule are central to understanding why Myanmar remains in such turmoil today.

These are just some ideas of what I can report on, but if it is too difficult for me to connect with the immigrant population here, I might just stick to Climate change in Bangladesh. It’s estimated that by 2050, 18 million people in Bangladesh may have to migrate due to sea-level rise alone as it’s extreme weather on an unprecedented scale. For this I can think of a few people to conduct interviews with, including the Bangladeshi Development project as they helped thousands of flood victims.

I think I would like to focus my reporting this semester around Panama. Personally, I don’t have much of a connection to the country nor to its culture; but, I admire it greatly, and don’t see the country represented too much in our news cycles. I also was given a rare opportunity at the end of September to go on a short 4-day trip to Panama, in company with my best friend who is a photographer. I haven’t been able to travel as much as I used to because of what our world has lived through the last few years; so, I figured with this trip planned in the middle of our semester it could be a perfect opportunity to get direct Panamanian sources for cultural pieces and possibly create photo-stories in alignment with my friend.

There is a lot going on in Panama right now despite its little coverage in American news cycles (at least what I have been witness to). Just this past July, a 3 week long protest (involving road blockages) against high fuel and food costs has caused shortages for food, fuel and medicine. These have been the biggest protests Panamanians have ever contributed to.

Over the weekend I read a New York Times article titled” Over Caves and Over Budget, Mexico’s Train Project Barrels Towards Disaster” by Maria Abi-Habib. This article is about the Maya train, a train project in Mexico that was pitched by President Andres Manuel Lopez as a way to “reinvigorate” Mexico’s poorest regions. Reading about Mexico’s President investing money to help out poor regions in the country was something that I was happy to see but as I read more I saw that government officials and project contractors were worried about the future of this project because it was being rushed and poorly planned, which could lead to the railway collapsing. The project was also “wildly out of budget” and not being able to boost the economy in poorer regions. Poverty in Mexico is something that I’m familiar with, I grew up hearing about it when my parents and other family members would tell me about why they crossed the border. They couldn’t afford to live in the country they grew up in and the Mexican government didn’t help them. Their situation wasn’t much better in the U.S, they faced discrimination and still lived in proverty but atleast they were able to afford food, shelter and were able to send money back to those they left behind. I want to report on Mexico because of the people who migrate here because their home country failed them yet they still miss it. Mexican undocumented immigrants are often seen as “illegal” and trespassers when they’re more like refugees.