Editor-in-chief of Reuters News David Schlesinger told a Hong Kong audience Oct 15 that journalism today is less about delivering straight facts than providing actionable information.

“That’s why this is the age of the publisher,” he said. “Journalists who understand this will survive. Those who don’t will be irrelevant.”

Schlesinger was speaking as part of a regular series sponsored by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at Hong Kong University.

When readers/viewers/listeners can easily snag online the basic facts to any even, it is important for professional journalists to provide insight and interpretation. Or, to use a term I hammered into my J students, context.

This kind of journalism has three pillars, Schlesinger said: journalistic excellence, presentation and utility to the client.

Schlesinger’s remarks to the JMSC crowd reinforces the idea that readers/viewers/listeners are now seen as “clients” and “users.” Professional journalism is no longer about sending information to a passive audience.

Journalists must continue to report breaking news, Schlesinger said, but that alone will not make it. Journalists, he added, need to produce stories that have an impact and address an audience’s interests and habits. Obviously, he said, this will be more difficult for a wire service such as Reuters.

For individual journalists, however, it offers an opportunity. Schlesinger said modern journalists need to think of themselves as individual brands.

“You’re nothing without your own brand. You have to establish yourself, what you stand for, your expertise.”

Besides knowing how to use social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook, modern journalists need to be serious about knowing a subject inside out.

Knowing a second language doesn’t hurt either.

“Take some risks as well. It’s the new angles and the new stories that will help distinguish you.”

Again, this is something I have been arguing for some time. Except the risk in U.S. journalism is often making a connection between local and global events.

The local reporter who can see the global links in a local event or a local connection to an international story will provide more than just information to his/her local audience. Context and connections — or as Schlesinger said, “utility to the client” — will help the reader/listener/viewer better understand why a story is important.

Publishers and station owners who chant “Local! Local! Local!” as if that alone will save cash-strapped media organizations fail to see that while news consumers want news about their local areas, they also want context. And maybe more Americans will start paying attention to international news — other than wars, riots and disasters — if they see there is a link to their local community.

And the links exist. It just takes a journalist willing to “take risks” and an editor with some smarts.

Here is the full Schlesinger presentation:

Communications Internship

Council on Foreign Relations

Location: United States (Washington, DC)

Contact Information: Human Resources

Phone: 202-509-8400

Email: humanresources@cfr.org

Council on Foreign Relations Human Resources Office

1777 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006

FAX (202) 509-8490

humanresources@cfr.org

INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITY

Department: Office of Communications

Length of internship: Spring 2011

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher dedicated to being a resource for its members, government officials, business executives, journalists, educators and students, civic and religious leaders, and other interested citizens in order to help them better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries. Founded in 1921, CFR carries out its mission by maintaining a diverse membership, with special programs to promote interest and develop expertise in the next generation of foreign policy leaders; convening meetings at its headquarters in New York and in Washington, DC, and other cities where senior government officials, members of Congress, global leaders, and prominent thinkers come together with CFR members to discuss and debate major international issues; supporting a Studies Program that fosters independent research, enabling CFR scholars to produce articles, reports, and books and hold roundtables that analyze foreign policy issues and make concrete policy recommendations; publishing Foreign Affairs, the preeminent journal on international affairs and U.S. foreign policy; sponsoring Independent Task Forces that produce reports with both findings and policy prescriptions on the most important foreign policy topics; and providing up-to-date information and analysis about world events and American foreign policy on its website,CFR.org.

The Communications and Marketing department focuses on maximizing the presence of CFR in print, broadcast, and online media outlets and on promoting CFR’s roster of products, which includes on-the-record events, CFR books, Council Special Reports, Task Force reports, working papers, online publications and interactive features, and Foreign Affairs articles. The department also works to ensure that CFR experts are visible in the news media.

The responsibilities of the intern will include (but are not limited to): • Maintaining the media contact database • Fielding public inquiries about CFR and media requests for experts • Tracking and recording media mentions of CFR publications • Assisting staff at on-the-record events • Providing general administrative support • Assist with CFR’s social media presence and strategy.

Qualification:

Preferred Qualifications: • Academic major in Communications, Journalism, or International Relations • Proficiency in MS Word and Excel • Ability to multitask and work well collectively in a fast-paced environment • Good organizational skills and attention to detail

A modest stipend is offered upon completion of the internship.

Qualified candidates may email, fax, or mail their resume and cover letter INCLUDING POSITION NAME, DAYS AND TIMES AVAILABLE TO WORK to the above address. The Council on Foreign Relations is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Quality, diversity and balance are the key objectives sought by the Council on Foreign Relations in the composition of its workforce.

Update: I made an error in using the term “of Brazilian descent” when discussing the Census Bureau data. The number cited below are those born in Brazil. To be clear, the Census Bureau does not ask a persons residency status.

First posted at Journalism, Journalists and the World

Part 1

Here’s to Boston.Com for understanding that an important election 5,000 miles away has an important local angle.

Today (10/3) Brazilians went to the polls to elect a successor to the highly popular Lula. In Brazil about 95% of the 132 eligible voters went to the polls. (Voting is mandatory.)

And Brazilians overseas also got into the act. Local polling stations were set up in Paris and Tokyo. (I know this because Brazilian media reported it.)

And in Framingham, Mass.

Megan McKee filed a story about how the voting was going in Framingham:

Brazilians flock to the polls in Framingham for presidential election

Was it really that difficult for her to do that story?

I doubt it. All it took was paying attention to what was going on in her LOCAL area.

And suddenly she has a LOCAL story with a significant INTERNATIONAL angle. Or an international story with a local angle. (Take your pick.)

Bottom line is that Ms. McKee should be congratulated for seeing something in her area that other reporters in their areas have not seen.

Hers is the only — yes, ONLY — story I have seen so far about Brazilians voting in the United States.

Now, she did base her estimate on how many Brazilians in New England on the word of one of the Brazilian parties. She could have gone to the Census Bureau for a more unbiased account.

The 2009 American Survey shows that in Massachusetts, there are 69, 122 people born in Brazil. of Brazilian origin. Of that number. 78% are 18 or older, and therefore eligible to vote. (If they are Brazilian citizens.)

Nationwide there are 359,149 people who were born in Brazil of Brazilian descent and 75.7% are 18 or older.

BTW, statistically the number of those of Brazilian descent in Virginia is so low that the Census Bureau does not count them.

Part 2

The really sad part about this story, however, are the hateful and ignorant comments made to the article. These two are a good sampling of many of the comments made against people exercising their right to vote.

Besides being bigoted, these folks show a complete lack of understanding what is going on.

It is because of the ignorance of people like this that it is so much more important that LOCAL reporters find the GLOBAL story in LOCAL events.

truthnaturally wrote:

This should NOT be allowed. Americans (the real tru ones) have fought life and limb for the rights to vote and along comes this bunch of bubble butts and they get to vote in two….its not right, if you are here in America, whats the point of making changes in your own country (dont say family) I dont get to vote in your country! If want to change your countries politics, stop raping mine and go back.

10/3/2010 5:48 PM EDT

DisinterestedObserver wrote:

Hopefully, the Town of Framingham is making sure the Brazilian government is paying the utilities, double time rate overtime costs of the custodial staff and police details, and any other miscellaneous costs plus a hefty markup to allow a foreign election to be held at an American high school. There should be absolutely no costs associated with this election that aren’t billed to and paid for the Brazilian government. Also, is INS there to check if the Brazilian voter are legal US residents? Finally, why should American citizens be inconvenienced by a 1 mile traffic backup?

First posted at Journalism, Journalists and the World.

NPR had a fun piece today about how the United States is now a spicier nation.

U.S. Is A Spicier Nation (Literally) Since 1970s

I am glad to see that seasoning other than salt is making its way into the US kitchen. (Much healthier.) And I am glad to see the internationalization of cooking. (I still remember 25+ years ago when pita was introduced into Air Force One and the uproar it caused.)

But let’s look at why different spices are now selling so well in the States.

When I taught a feature writing class at George Mason University I gave my students an assignment to find connections in everyday student life and the world. (Use of the Internet and interviewing foreign/exchange students did not count.) In a brainstorming session about what those possible links might be I suggested the food court.

The impact of foreign students on the school meant the restaurants had to adjust. So there was Arabic food and Hispanic food. There were places that offered food under the rules of halal and kashrut.

And now NPR tells us

The consumption of spices in the United States has grown almost three times as fast as the population over the past several decades. Much of that growth is attributed to the changing demographics of America.

So here is the entry to a whole series of LOCAL LOCAL LOCAL articles that include an international perspective.

A local reporter could look at the sales of spices in his/her area. Then figure out what ethnic group is most closely tied to those spices. Then he/she could look at the local growth of that ethnic group in the area.

Finding out the how and why these immigrants came to the United States and to that local area could provide the fodder for a whole series of local profile stories.

Getting the basic information is easy. Just go to the Census Bureau.

For example, in just 30 seconds I found that 10.4 percent of the Southern United States is foreign-born.

Digging a little deeper — another 30 seconds — I found that 10 percent of Virginia’s population is foreign-born.

And just a little deeper I learn that 27.7 percent of the Fairfax County population is foreign-born, with 50.7 percent of that group from Asia and 30 percent from Latin America. (Could that be why there are so many Asian grocery stores in Fairfax County?)

And the foreign-born population in Arlington County comes to 24 percent, with 30 percent from Asia and 44 percent from Latin America. (Could that be why there are more Latin American restaurants and stores in Arlington than in Fairfax?)

And let’s not forget how those differences also play out in issues other than spices and restaurants. Think about taxes, education and other social and political issues.

The mantra of LOCAL LOCAL LOCAL these days should include more stories that involve international aspects. It just takes an enterprising reporter to dig out the stories.

Maybe we could get a few student journalists and j-profs to submit material to this project to see if we can get what we do and why included.

Life In A Day: July 24