Having read Anne Garrels’ Naked in Baghdad, I was very interested in hearing her keynote speech at the AEJMC conference.

Garrels, NPR foreign correspondent, talked about her reporting of both cold wars (ie Soviet Union) and hot wars (ie Baghdad) and how technology and media budget cuts are affecting news coverage.

A few highlights:
– The work of foreign correspondents is important to provide ‘on the ground’ coverage, as seeing the situation and talking in person with sources enable reporters to be more accurate in their reporting.
– Foreign coverage is expensive — for translators, drivers, equipment and security. Many news organizations are cutting their foreign coverage at a time with so many important international stories to be covered.
– In reporting stories from Baghdad, the names of many of the sources were changed to protect the sources from potential retaliation.
– Lots of opportunities for reporting but few are paid jobs — with benefits.

from my iPhone