By Abby Yimer
During the last day of EIJ, “The Decline of International News Reporting in the U.S.” began with Michael Gargiulo, an anchor at NBC 4 New York, speaking about his experience working as a reporter in Iraq and Kuwait. He spoke on the importance of making sure that we are focused on other parts of the globe, not just the United States.
“Cover the world. Cover it completely,” he said.
The session continued with a panel of four other journalists who spoke about their experiences working across the globe.
Erik Kirschbaum, the executive director of RIAS Berlin Commission, discussed his time working as a correspondent for the Reuters international news agency.
The panel moved on to focus on the main topic: Why is that Americans are so uninterested in foreign news?
Ralph Begleiter, who traveled while working for CNN, mentioned how this problem wasn’t something new. He has seen this trend his entire career. Begleiter described his work on CNN’s “International Hour.” He remembers their broadcast being cut short because of the OJ Simpson trial and the same cycle continuing when other U.S. news came through. International news is always on the back burner.
Teri Schultz, who covers the European Union, echoed the same idea but added that in America today, citizens are no longer just ignoring international news but being told to despise other countries and what they think.
The final panelist, Stacey Samuel, who is a supervising editor at NPR, touched on the importance of radio when approaching international coverage.
The session concluded with the panelists discussing the importance of educating our nation’s future on the rest of the world and its history.
“There’s a world, there’s history, we’re only one part. Americans don’t care because we’re not doing the job of educating.”
DePaul University Society of Professional Journalists 