.U.S. Students Produce "War News Radio"
Wren Elhai, a junior at Swarthmore College, recently found himself learning about something he never thought he would -- Iraq’s Stock Exchange. He never imagined he would speak to the head of the Baghdad exchange -- especially via Skype from his computer.
The plain old telephone and Skype, the largely-free internet phone service, have made it possible for students from Swarthmore to look up Iraqis who are listed as living in the country. Internet phone books also do the job. Such tools have enabled the birth of War News Radio – a half-hour weekly radio show produced by students at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. The program would not be possible without today’s internet technology.
The goals of War News Radio are to expose listeners to the views of those in the midst of the conflict, to give listeners a chance to learn how ordinary Iraqis live, and how Iraqis attempt to persevere with some level of normalcy. WNR also covers Afghanistan.
Marty Goldensohn, the veteran journalist adviser who oversees the WNR operation as editor-in-chief, used to run WNYC's newsroom. He observed what makes the program great: "We cover different stories. When the war began there was no news on how war was affecting ordinary Iraqis. We Skype our way into Iraq -- outside the Green Zone. We have 25 reporters on Iraq. We are at it all the time. The New York Times can't deploy that many people. When you let the admissions department of Swarthmore college vet your reporters, you get a great bunch of reporters. They are smart and single-minded."
The stories are compelling and provide a picture of things that might not make it into the mainstream media – stories not just about casualty counts, political posturing, or bombs blasting, but about daily the life of Iraqis and others.
A few pickings: interviews with an aspiring filmmaker, a doctor trying to make it past checkpoints and the scared soldiers who man their posts, mothers trying to get their children to school. Specific stories have included ones about the real estate market, the Iraqi gay community, conflict-zone art, two teens who got nose jobs -- one because her brother thought she was ugly and the other because of a bomb. Life in the war zone does go on. The small details of daily life in Iraq not seen in mainstream news reports are what make the show fascinating.
What is most interesting, said Elhai, is “the degree of normalcy that people have in the midst of extraordinary circumstances.”
The students say that often times their reporting is just as good as the major networks and newspaper correspondents based in Baghdad – in fact, because “it is so dangerous to report from Iraq, journalists don’t leave their hotel, and instead ask sources to drop by their hotel to be interviewed. They call from their telephone, and so are we. They are a mile away and we are 6,000 away,” said Elhai.
Iraqslogger
The plain old telephone and Skype, the largely-free internet phone service, have made it possible for students from Swarthmore to look up Iraqis who are listed as living in the country. Internet phone books also do the job. Such tools have enabled the birth of War News Radio – a half-hour weekly radio show produced by students at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. The program would not be possible without today’s internet technology.
The goals of War News Radio are to expose listeners to the views of those in the midst of the conflict, to give listeners a chance to learn how ordinary Iraqis live, and how Iraqis attempt to persevere with some level of normalcy. WNR also covers Afghanistan.
Marty Goldensohn, the veteran journalist adviser who oversees the WNR operation as editor-in-chief, used to run WNYC's newsroom. He observed what makes the program great: "We cover different stories. When the war began there was no news on how war was affecting ordinary Iraqis. We Skype our way into Iraq -- outside the Green Zone. We have 25 reporters on Iraq. We are at it all the time. The New York Times can't deploy that many people. When you let the admissions department of Swarthmore college vet your reporters, you get a great bunch of reporters. They are smart and single-minded."
The stories are compelling and provide a picture of things that might not make it into the mainstream media – stories not just about casualty counts, political posturing, or bombs blasting, but about daily the life of Iraqis and others.
A few pickings: interviews with an aspiring filmmaker, a doctor trying to make it past checkpoints and the scared soldiers who man their posts, mothers trying to get their children to school. Specific stories have included ones about the real estate market, the Iraqi gay community, conflict-zone art, two teens who got nose jobs -- one because her brother thought she was ugly and the other because of a bomb. Life in the war zone does go on. The small details of daily life in Iraq not seen in mainstream news reports are what make the show fascinating.
What is most interesting, said Elhai, is “the degree of normalcy that people have in the midst of extraordinary circumstances.”
The students say that often times their reporting is just as good as the major networks and newspaper correspondents based in Baghdad – in fact, because “it is so dangerous to report from Iraq, journalists don’t leave their hotel, and instead ask sources to drop by their hotel to be interviewed. They call from their telephone, and so are we. They are a mile away and we are 6,000 away,” said Elhai.
Iraqslogger
posted by madtom at 3:50 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home