Former Head of CBC analyzes issues in global journalism
By Meaghan Carey
A renowned international journalist emphasized to an Elon University audience Tuesday that people must educate themselves about global journalism if they want to be educated citizens of the world.
John Owen, a former head of television news for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and past Freedom Forum European director presented, expressed a need for journalists and the public alike to demand better international news coverage in his speech, “Global Journalism: Ignoring the World at Your Peril” at the LaRose Digital Theatre.
Owen said journalists need to get in the field and go places to provide the public with sourced and informative news content, but they have to be careful.
“If you are not trained properly, you can’t report on stories correctly,” Owen said.
Covering national disasters, riots, the Columbine shooting and the Virginia Tech shootings all require a great deal of training that most reporters are not prepared for.
Interviewing victims of crimes is important, he said, and reporters must respect the victims’ space when they cover breaking, traumatic news stories.
But when journalists get into the field to report, they must remember to remain objective and unbiased.
“Where I live, it violates the impartiality rules of the broadcasting world,” Owen said.
Owen, who lives in England, said the British media is known for its “robust, hard-hitting interviews.” He said this is a “different nature of discourse” and politicians are “put on the fence all the time.” An example of an uncensored program, he said, is the rugged media outlet “The Today Program” on the BBC.
Owen showed the audience other international media outlets, such as Press TV out of Iran, France 24 out of France, Al Jazeera and A24 Media Agency, a news corporation based out of Africa in which African reporters tell the stories in their countries.
Owen lauded these international media outlets because they help people acquire “a different take on things.”
He also noted that in order to understand the world, you have to learn about stories and news worldwide.
