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In Q&A, a new regular feature, UDaily will spotlight campus expertise and insights.
UDaily posed this question to Ralph Begleiter, Rosenberg Professor of Communication and a former foreign correspondent for CNN.
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| Ralph Begleiter introduces foreign correspondent Peter Bergen during a presentation Feb. 20 |
Q. Why would someone want to be a foreign correspondent?
A. Covering international affairs is an exciting and challenging job. Sure, it incurs risks, and naturally journalists who do this work take that into account -–themselves and with their families–when they enter the field. But the rewards are enormous. Understanding international politics involves intellectually and culturally challenging research, reading and writing. It also involves traveling to exotic places and meeting some of the world's most interesting people.
I have visited some 88 countries and have found myself at some of the most beautiful-–and politically sensitive–places on Earth over the past two decades.
Furthermore, there is definitely a sense of “mission” among international journalists. I think we see ourselves as genuinely attempting to help people the world over understand and make sense out of distant problems, helping them to see beyond the boundaries of their own lives. And the reward of explaining complex international issues to the general public (not just to an elite audience of scholars, for instance) is highly gratifying.
Of course, covering wars is the most obviously exciting international journalism, but covering international politics can be equally tense and intriguing. That’s what the Cold War was all about, from the Cuban Missile Crisis and the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall to nuclear disarmament and tensions between U.S. and Soviet military alliances.
That, too, is what Daniel Pearl was really doing in Pakistan. He wasn’t covering “the war,” but trying to uncover and understand the politics of a region that has been wracked by conflict for decades.
There is much to read on this subject, but allow me to refer you to the senior thesis written last year by one of my UD students, Melissa Sinclair. Her highly readable work on “The Challenges and Rewards of a Career in International Journalism” can be found at: [http://www.udel.edu/communication/COMM418/begleite/sinclair/sinclairhome.htm].
Photo by Duane Perry
Feb. 25, 2002
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