“Don’t produce a story you wouldn’t want to read yourself.”

这是普利策奖得主分享的建议 纽约时报 记者 马特·罗森博格, 会议上的特邀演讲者 多边形 和 other interested students 和 faculty on November 30 in the library.

在亚洲工作了15年的资深驻外记者, 非洲, 以及中东地区, 罗森博格最近一直是 时报》 现场报道 以色列和哈马斯的战争之后已有所削弱. 罗森博格参与了 次 team that won a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for reporting on Donald Trump.

布里安娜·西尔万，27岁 和 Lucas Basham, 24岁 moderated the discussion, serving up great questions that stimulated a lively conversation 和 Q&A. Sylvain是 多边形. 巴沙姆是bbc的突发新闻编辑 多边形 而在 蕾切尔•艾伦高级新闻学课程. 

After an introduction by Basham, Sylvain asked Rosenberg why he does what he does. He explained that as a young writer, he “wanted to talk to people 和 find out about things.” He said that is still a big part of what he does, sitting down 和 listening to people’s stories.

作为驻外记者的审查

2014年，当一名外国记者为 次，罗森博格是 被驱逐出阿富汗 因为他的报道. 一个学生问过这个问题, Rosenberg explained he had “been on the list” of Afghan President Hamid Karzai 和 the final straw was a story that actually appeared back on page A12 in the 次. Rosenberg was called to the Afghan Attorney General’s office 和 asked to name his sources. 他被指控为间谍. 通过同事和翻译, Rosenberg realized the Afghans were talking about whether to  “arrest him now or wait.但是他被要求在24小时内离开这个国家.

He discussed the particular difficulty of a 记者 covering the current 以色列和哈马斯的战争之后已有所削弱, noting “the level of scrutiny that you rarely see… Everything you do is going to be examined 和 criticized.”

He said that the students may cover “controversial subjects” 和 so it would be wise to “develop a thick skin.” But he advised, “Listen to critics,” 和 “learn how to be sensitive to people you disagree with.” He said that he has learned a “great lesson” to be “open-minded.”

“你如何避免个人偏见?一个学生问. “我们的目标是公平，”罗森博格说. He advised sitting down with an interviewee 和 asking, “‘What’s your version?让每个人都有自己的发言权.”

编辑和技能培养

罗森博格说 small newspapers were a great place for reporters to get a start, 但是“他们已经不存在了.” He recalled the newsroom when he was a young reporter. 鲍勃·麦克费登, who won a Pulitzer for his distinguished writing skills, taught Rosenberg the finer points of journalism by yelling at him about a story he had submitted: “I can’t see the fire!” Rosenberg continued, “I’m an easy edit,” 和 advised the students, “Enjoy being edited. 这对你有好处.” He added, “It’s amazing how a deadline focuses the mind.”

之后 Dov Weinstein Elul ' 24 said, “I enjoyed learning about how to deal with editors editing your articles. He said that edits always help even if you don’t think they do 和 that you should be open to receiving them.”

罗森博格对学生的建议是什么? “阅读——它会使你成为一个更好的作家,他回答，又加了一句, “在大学里, 以微观经济学, 宏观经济学, 和 statistics” to better underst和 “how statistics work.”

阿富汗轶事

A student asked Rosenberg to share the “craziest story from your travels.“在2010年阿富汗增兵期间, 他说, he was embedded with troops at an outpost that was half American 和 half Afghan. Taliban attacks were common 和 he would have to take cover often. 一度, he hadn’t had a cup of coffee in four days 和 finally acquired one when there was another Taliban attack. But Rosenberg was determined not to give up his coffee 和 so ran with the cup. He had to hit the deck, spilling the hot coffee on his leg. 有人喊,“医生, 人下来,” but it turned out that his only injury was to his pride 和 coffee-related. Colleagues did not let him forget this incident for a long time.

错误信息，建立信任和前景

Rosenberg addressed the problem of disinformation 和 the challenges of AI in journalism. He advised, “When you see something, look who is providing the information. 有大量的错误信息. 检查来源.” In the digital news business, “As things are happening, we are writing about them.” Get as many sources as you can 和 learn “what you can trust 和 what you can’t.”

罗森博格说 that if you give people a heads up about a upcoming tough story about them, 他们很欣赏. “People prefer to be stabbed in the face rather than the back.” He added, “People will still talk to you if you are honest.”

“你什么时候决定一个故事结束?一个学生问. “当我没有时间的时候，它就结束了!” On a feature, he may go back 和 forth with his editor. He keeps tweaking until the editor locks him out of the story.

Asked about what he sees as the future of the profession, 罗森博格说, “这将是不同的.” He added that AI will “provide a set of tools that will be incredible.”

“为什么要这样做?”?一个学生问 Rosenberg about his chosen profession. 他回答说，希望是“带来真正的改变”.” But he added he didn’t expect “just how polarizing people see us.”

“你如何保持对人性的信心?有人问.

 “You do also see happy things,” Rosenberg assured them.

外卖

将如何 多边形 员工会运用他们所学到的知识? 

听到他的经历,巴沙姆说, “has furthered my interest in becoming a 记者 和 foreign correspondent because, 为一个, 这使他成为了现在这样的人, but also because it does contribute to real social change. Most of his stories aren’t making some sort of crazy difference in the world, 但那些为数不多的确实意义重大. He has also had some crazy, fun, 和 memorable experiences.” 

月增加, “He talked about learning from people who are totally different from you 和 underst和ing their perspectives, which seemed super interesting to me 和 a fascinating job. 但对我来说危险大于回报. Except what he was saying is exactly what I like about journalism—being professionally curious 和 learning about 和 telling cool stories.”