Corey Flintoff speaks to media law class

Corey Flintoff, one of NPR's foreign correspondents spoke to my media law class last week. He spoke mostly of the war in Iraq and how he feels about the coverage that we're receiving from there. He said that it is very difficult for American reporters to get good interviews and articles because of the danger involved in being out in the streets. He said that if you choose to go out alone and try to interview someone in the street you wouldn't last five minutes. He also said that if you go out with armed soldiers and a news crew you would draw a lot of attention and that would also be a large risk to take. He said that many journalists leave out of frustration and so we end up getting most of our coverage from Iraqi reporters. What interested me about his presentation was a question someone asked about what story or stories he thought went largely uncovered. He said that he felt the conflicts across Africa were under covered. He talked about a "fatigue factor" involved with Africa. Many reporters feel like nothing is really changing and that they're covering virtually the same stories year after year. I remember I first became involved with the Aggies for Africa club because of a media class I took when and we covered a section on Africa and the reasons why American media sheds a hopeless light on anything having to do with that continent. We talked about the fact that there is actually a lot of good things happening there but for some reason our mainstream media chooses to only report the bad that is happening which makes the average American feel like there is nothing to be done and Africa isn't worth helping. I wish I had a solution to that problem. I feel like it's important to report the good and the bad to be able to reach a fair conclusion but I realize that would only happen in a perfect world. I do feel, however, that reporters in general could do a better job of looking for the positive stories occurring in Africa and urging their publishers to give them more coverage. Until that happens the general public will not feel a need to become involved. Let's make it happen.