Why Journalists Don’t Drink Like They Used To
“Journalism only became respectable a few decades ago. Thirty years back, Ivy Leaguers would never dream of entering the field.”
Watch the full video interview with Calvin Trillin here.
You can say the same thing about smoking, I guess. Societal norms (and employers) are quite disapproving of vices…
How Shanghai’s students stunned the world
Students in this booming Chinese city shocked the world last year when they beat every other country on international exams, but Chinese educators say their success is no fluke.
“If you are a hard-working, diligent student you will succeed,” said Qiu Ying Li, who has been teaching English for 20 years. “This is the secret for all Chinese students.”
At Shanghai’s Yucai High School, students put in 12-hour days – nine hours before dinner plus three after they eat. Homework is assigned every evening, even for weekends, as an essential part of students’ learning activities. And kids study during summer and winter breaks to get ready for high-stakes college entrance tests.
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Photo credit: Susan Kroll, NBC News
Click to read my latest feature for msnbc.com. I interviewed Thomas Franklin of NorthJersey.com and wrote about his 9/11 documentary that looks at the photojournalists who covered the horrible events that day.
Check out the full documentary here.
A warning
The safety advisories sent out by the International News Safety Institute on Tuesday to journalists covering the UK riots said it all: “Bring a mobile phone with emergency numbers pre-set for speed dialing; bring eye protection such as swimming goggles; carry first-aid kits and know how to use them; wear loose, natural-fabric clothing as it will not burn as readily as synthetics; and remember there is always the possibility of gasoline bombs being detonated.”
Journalism is for the young. Young people who go into journalism as a calling are entering, I think, the most worthwhile profession that is possible, and the reason I say that is that there is no profession or industry or calling that tries very hard to tell the truth and to sell the truth and to make the truth make money. The truth is hard, first of all, to get. And harder still to communicate. And more hard to make money on!
This is a story I worked on with two of my classmates. I profiled exiled Sri Lankan journalist Poddala Jayantha, who was abducted and severely beaten in 2009 for exposing corruption and promoting press freedom. Jayantha now lives under political asylum on Staten Island with his wife and daughter. He has been unable to find work as a journalist and he struggles every day with English and making ends meet.
UPDATE: The Committee to Protect Journalists picked up our story. Check it out.
I am currently working on a story about the influx of African migrants into Europe, looking at what happens to these Tunisian, Libyan or sub-Saharan refugees once they reach the shores of Italy or Malta.
Just in the past week there have been several reports of boats carrying hundreds of people - women and children, too - capsizing in the Mediterranean, some just 30 or so miles away from the Italian island of Lampedusa.
