SAJAforum

CONV: Q&A with Martin Bashir of "Nightline"

SAJA Convention attendees packed Columbia's Roone Arledge Cinema on a Saturday morning to hear famed documentary maker and current co-host of ABC's Nightline, Martin Bashir speak about the challenges and advantages of being an outsider looking into the lives of very public personas.

photos by Preston Merchant

Bashir spoke at length about his "outsider" upbringing in an uneducated, lower class immigrant family. Bashir's parents, both from Pakistan, came to Great Britain in 1951. While describing his professional life, he urged listeners to embrace their "otherness" and use it to enhance truth-telling.   

"Cultural identity is significant in the way we practice our impartiality," he said. "Insiders come with assumptions and business as usual while outsiders have a clarity of vision and innovation."   

Bashir made a name for himself when he was the only reporter to ever interview the late Princess Diana of Wales. He stirred up more controversy when Victor Conte to admit to doping up athletes. He may be best known, however, for his documentary on Michael Jackson, in which Jackson's bizarre behavior and affection for children opened a slew of investigations.    

He did acknowledge, however, that his prestige may not have yet crossed the English Channel yet, referring to himself as "low on the pecking order" at ABC, where he still doesn't have access to the biggest and best assignments yet.

"I can't do the fake American thing," he laughed. "I can't do the smiles."

SAJAforum's Sadia Latifi got to sit down with Bashir before his keynote address.

You've been able to get the most intimate details out of the most public of personas. What's your process in getting people to trust you?

I have a psychiatrist friend who has a theory about me. He said that he thinks that I have two things: first of all, he thinks that I'm not judgmental so that when I am talking to somebody I tend not to approach them with the preconception of baggage. And, I have an unquenchable curiosity. If you are genuinely interested and not prejudgmental, for many people it comes as an enormous relief because they're so used to being perceived and being understood in a particular way. One of the things that I think probably impressed [Michael] Jackson was the fact that I taught myself to play bass from his Thriller album - I learned the bass line of "Billie Jean" in order to learn how to play the bass. I knew almost all the lyrics of all his songs because I love them, and I think it was probably unusual for him to meet someone who is both a so-called journalist and also a huge fan of his.

I didn’t have the cultural background that many people from educated families come with and I think that does have an effect.

You spend a lot of time with the personalities you document. What are your ethical boundaries as an investigative reporter? Are you friends with the people you interview?

You Can't Be. This is why there’s a problem. What happens is you engage and your sole concern is to tell the truth, and the truth isn’t liked when it comes out. In terms of the way we handle some of these people, I think it would be harsher in Britain. There are a number of interviews that I have seen here which would be slammed in Britain as being inadequate or lacking discipline or a level of interrogation. 

PHOTOGRAPHY: Praise for Preston Merchant's Diaspora Pix

Writer and SAJAer Amitava Kumar blogs about someone whose photos you have been seeing on SAJAforum and elsewhere for some time now: Preston Merchant.

With a name like Preston Merchant, and with the sort of work he does, documenting the farflung Indian diaspora, you’d have expected him to be a good Parsi boy. No, he says, he isn’t. (He’s good, but he isn’t Parsi.) In which case, his interest and diligence is all the more remarkable.
<snip>
What is it that unites these photographs? For the most part, you’d think it is the color of the skin of the folks portrayed in them. But that’s not all. It is more the colors that Preston finds to put into his frames that tell a unique story of the movement of peoples.

Preston's working on a book about the diaspora and you can see highlights of his photos from several countries - he calls it "India World" - here. His full archive is at archive.prestonmerchant.com and his 200+ photos from the 2007 SAJA Convention are here.

Take a look at his work and post your comments below. [Photo below of Preston at work by Manish Vij]

CONV: Q&A with PBS's Fred de Sam Lazaro

Fred de Sam Lazaro makes it a point to report from regions far removed from any top 10 tourist hotspots lists. Earning frequent flier miles for destinations including Rwanda, Sudan, Sierra Leone and Pakistan, the award-winning documentary filmmaker and 22-year correspondent for PBS’s “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” recently started the Under-Told Story project at St. John's University in Minnesota, to hone a future generation of journalists in that direction.

SAJAforum’s Sonu Munshi chatted with Lazaro as he devoured a dosa after his salon on Day 3 of the SAJA convention. They discussed how to make foreign reporting relevant to Americans, the supposed leftist bias of PBS, and Ken Burns' controversial decision to change his upcoming documentary after pressure from Latinos.

photo by Preston Merchant

What drives you to cover these regions? Why Sudan, not London?

The prevailing sense in the media is that Americans don’t care about what’s happening in these regions. I try to go to places I consider inhospitable to journalists, very beaten down and probably considered irrelevant and I try to make these stories seem relevant. You also need to have an organization to support you, which PBS does.

CONV: Speaker Manish Vij of Ultrabrown.com Takes Some Pix

ARUN VENUGOPAL HOLDS COURT OUTSIDE THE TRINI-PAK HALAL CART. Photo: Manish Vij

Manish Vij of ultrabrown was a speaker at the bloggers panel at the SAJA Convention this year. He took some fun photos of some of the bloggers and others (including Arun Venugopal, this blog's editor, seen on the left here) at the convention. Take a look here. And see Preston Merchant's 200+ photos here.

EARLIER ON SAJAforum.org: BLOGS: Favorite Desi Blogs

CONV: Breaking into Journalism

There's no one path to make it big in journalism, but one can learn from others' experiences. And stick to some basic rules while scooping your way to becoming the next network anchor or award-winning journalist. That was the message a number of students and entry-level aspirants got from three professional reporters at the SAJA convention: Juliet Chung at Newsday, Shazia Khan of NY1 and Anusha Shrivastava, who works for Dow Jones Newswires. Here are some "pearls of wisdom," as one attendee sought, that will get you ahead in the newsroom and away from any reject pile.

Getting and staying inside a Newsroom

• If you're from outside the United States and want to break into the industry here, start building a portfolio of clips (even if it's a free paper) or tapes from within the U.S. Or think about going back to school and working for the college newspaper or TV station.
• Try a variety of internships to figure out what newsrooms you like. Then focus on landing a job in the one you liked best.
• Be specific when pitching a story to an editor. Do some background research, look up potential sources, check for stories already done on the subject and find the holes that need to be filled.
• Anticipate an editor's questions so you're not stumped. Some prefer e-mail, some like the spiel in person. Figure out what yours is like and act accordingly. Before heading to his or her office, bounce the idea off some of your newsroom colleagues. If you get glazed looks and "uhmmms," it's probably a wise idea to rethink the pitch.

CONV: Q&A with the Wall Street Journal's Geeta Anand

From being criticized in a Wall Street Journal editorial as a student activist in the 1980s’ divestment movement for South Africa to, years later, sharing a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism for the Journal in 2003, Geeta Anand has had a long and rich history with the daily (photo by Preston Merchant).

In 2006, the New York-based health and science reporter turned author with her book, “The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million--And Bucked the Medical Establishment--In a Quest to Save His Children.” Now, with Rupert Murdoch’s $5 billion buyout bid looming large within the newsroom, SAJAforum’s Sonu Munshi caught up with Anand at the convention about the mood among staffers, what direction the paper might take and, on a lighter note, her connection to Harrison Ford.      

What's the general mood in the newsroom?

I think people have various points of view. But most wish we weren’t being sold and that we didn’t have to operate under (Rupert) Murdoch. We have all expressed our opinion to the Bancroft family for the sale not to happen, but we realize it’s out of our hands. So people are trying to focus on their work and see where the chips fall.

What’s the biggest fear?

That the independence of the newsroom will be compromised in subtle ways. It’s not like someone will say something directly. It’s editors perceiving that the boss wants a certain kind of coverage.

TV NEWS: Three SAJAers in TV Land

THREE SAJAers IN TV LAND: (July 14 at the 2007 SAJA Convention) From left, Fred de Sam Lazaro, correspondent, PBS Lehrer NewsHour; Aditi Roy, anchor/reporter, WCAU, Philadelphia's NBC station; Hari Sreenivasan, correspondent, CBS News Dallas bureau. Three journalists continuing to make their mark in different parts of the American TV news business. Twenty-five years ago, there were no South Asians in equivalent positions. Nowadays, these three just happen to be among some of the more successful desi journalists in front of - and behind - the camera. The last time these three happened to be together was also a moment captured by a camera (except back then it was on film), in Seattle in July 8, 1999. To see how they have changed in these eight years, see below.

CONV: Nick Lemann and Steve Shepard talk news biz

Stephen B. Shepard, Dean of the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism (and former editor of Business Week) and Nicholas Lemann, Dean of Columbia University's School of Journalism (and New Yorker writer) were the opening-night convention act. They spoke to SAJAers and convention attendees about shaping a new generation of versatile journalists (photo by Preston Merchant). Some highlights follow...

On Job Stability and Adopting New Media:

Lemann: "Be prepared to be very nimble on your feet as your career changes, and learn to master journalism skills. In addition to traditional journalism skills, there's been a push for web skills. New organizations are always looking for creative ways and people, and we are trying to fill that void. "

Shepard: "Learn all the tools of reporting, writing, critical thinking as well as new forms of story-telling. If people have these skills they have a leg up."

On Objective & Advocacy Journalism:

Shepard: "There are journalists that are not free of bias and then there's journalism that's not free of bias. What I don't like is the mix mashing of these two things."

Lemann: "People want information. A journalist's role is to provide that information, and there's always a market for informational journalism than for opinions."

CONV: In the newsroom, does it pay to be desi?

How do newspapers and other media outlets take advantage of their South Asian reporters' ethnicity? Between super workshops and grabbing a bite to eat, we put the question to SAJA members at the convention. For some, it's a matter of acting as the resident Wikipedia.

“At the daily I worked for earlier, I would often get asked about the significance of Diwali. And the most common word they’d check the pronunciation for is Punjab,” said Prabha Natarajan, of the Washington Business Journal. (It's pun-JAAB, not POON-jaab)

Sometimes it's simply a matter of making the most of a slow news day, according to Kevin Negandhi, who's the first South Asian sports anchor on a national sports show in America.

“I aired a piece on cricket once, describing what the sport is all about. But I didn’t want to shove it down the viewers’ throat, so I broke cricket down and explained it in baseball terms,” said Negandhi, who works at ESPN.

But not everyone’s successful at pitching desi stories.

CONV: SAJAers gauge the shifting winds of their industry

With the print media finding it hard to attract readers to ink on paper and YouTubers nudging out the old tube, we asked SAJAers at this year’s convention their thoughts on industry trends and what lies ahead.

The biggest concerns journalists voiced were falling circulation figures and advertising revenues.

As Peter Bhatia (left), executive editor of the Oregonian, said, “We’re all fighting the same issues, in Portland, New York or anywhere else. A lot of readership is migrating to the web and ad revenues are going down.”

Washington Post reporter Shankar Vedantam says the biggest overall concern is the loss of jobs and reconfiguration of newsrooms. But he also believes it’s a time of great opportunity.

“A new medium is being invented. That brings a lot of potential for creative journalism,” he said.

That, says Bhatia, is what newspaper editors are trying to figure out - how to turn the flow of readership to the web to their advantage.

CONV: Q&A with Bobby Ghosh, Baghdad bureau chief for Time

[Sept. 3, 2007, UPDATE: Bobby Ghosh becomes world editor at Time.]

Following is a Q&A with Aparisim “Bobby” Ghosh, Baghdad bureau chief for Time Magazine and one of the most talked-about speakers at this year's SAJA Convention. Ghosh has reported from Iraq for more than four years; his essay "Life in Hell: A Baghdad Diary," was Time's August 2006 cover story, and provides an incredible window into just what Ghosh does and where he does it. SAJAforum's Rumee Singh spoke to Ghosh during the convention. He spoke about his "webcam marriage” to his wife, as well as his work on the front lines, his ethnic advantage and his encounters with Al Qaeda. (Photo by Preston Merchant)

What drives you to cover one of the most vulnerable places in the world? Why do you even remain in the city? 
Working in Baghdad has been terrifying in many ways for me. The atmosphere in Baghdad is very dangerous; you are exposed if you go out with a camera in a hand and any one working for a media organization is targeted for kidnap or assassination. But on the same hand, it has been intellectually satisfying for me - there's the opportunity to tell the most important story of our times - one that will have a lasting impact on the rest of the world. There is no single country that’s not been affected by Iraq. Iraq has changed the way the world views America, the way America views itself, the way the world views Islam, and the way Islam views itself; it has changed the war in terror, it has changed the way terrorists fight. Iraq is changing everything. 

Nobody forces you to go to Baghdad. There have been people who go and come back in 3 days and they've never been held against that. Every time I fly from New York to Baghdad the last thing my editor asks me is “Are you sure you want to go?  Do you know the repercussions?”  And my answer is always a yes. I know I will always want to go to Baghdad whether it’s a long trip or a short one for the rest of my life.

CONV: Sree Sreenivasan, Man in Perpetual Motion

 

Illustration courtesy of Arindam Mukherjee.

CONV: A Slideshow of Convention Photos

Photos by Preston Merchant, photojournalist (also working on a book of photos of South Asians around the world).

CONV: TV People Do Get Off the Air Sometimes

Yes, TV anchors do, on occasion, get off the air. Here Kevin Negandhi, the first South Asian anchor on ESPN, stops by the SAJA opening reception CUNY. See his answers to Five Questions for Kevin Negandhi (photo by Preston Merchant).

CONV: Old Cyber Friends Meet For the First Time

In addition to all the terrific panels and workshops, one of the best parts of the SAJA Convention is meeting people from all over the world. In this photo, Salil Tripathi (left), a prolific freelance journalist based in London - SalilTripathi.com - and Dr. Ramesh N. Rao, a prolific writer and professor and department chair at Longwood University in Virginia - RameshNRao.com - meet for the first time.

They have known each other for more than eight years on the SAJA Discussion List - a mailing list where 550 members in more than 25 countries discuss South Asia and the diaspora (if you'd like to learn more about the list - one of the best ways to learn about those two topics - see #2 here).

CONV: 2007 Convention Pictures, The Preston Merchant Collection

Here are some pictures from SAJA's 2007 Convention and Job Fair.  Click here for more, which will updated regularly. Photos by Preston Merchant.

Renuka Rayasam of US News & World Report participates in the Broadcast Bootcamp.

Prof. Sandeep Junnarkar of the CUNY journalism grad school teaches a multimedia workshop.

Two deans, Nicholas Lemann of Columbia and Steve Shepherd of CUNY, discuss journalism and education issues

Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, picks up his SAJA Journalism Leader Award--and his SAJA cap (see here with Sree Sreenivasan, SAJA co-founder).

Some of the best-known bloggers participate in a panel about the blogging scene.

See more photos here.

SOUTH ASIA: John Laxmi on the Region - Part 2: India

[ A series of guest posts about South Asia by freelance writer and SAJA treasurer, John Laxmi. Please post your comments below. Please remember, we are ALWAYS LOOKING for guest posts. If you'd like to send us one for consideration, please do: arunvenu[at]gmail.com ]

SAJA Spotlights South Asia
By John Laxmi - send an e-mail to the author here.

[ See Part 1, on Pakistan ]

South Asia Focus: Why & How - Part 2: India - Cutting through Cacophony

The 2007 SAJA annual convention got under way today in New York, bringing together hundreds of journalists and others interested in South Asia and South Asians. 

Why all this interest in South Asia?  To many of us, the answer is: "Duh … a billion plus people, big markets, exotic cultures, ancient civilization" and all that.  But, most Americans also have to follow news about terrorism, elections, stock markets, baseball, Paris Hilton, health care costs, immigration and a hundred other topics.

Where and how do we fit South Asia in?  In Part 1, I mentioned why Pakistan is vital to Americans: because that country is at the fulcrum of the clash of civilizations between moderate Muslims and fanatic nihilists. In this Part 2, let us examine the issues confronting news coverage of India.

The big problem in covering India is its sheer size, complexity and diversity, almost rivaling America. Americans' understanding of India is as murky as Indians' understanding of America.

Making sense of India is essential if we are to exploit our growing relationship with India to maximum mutual advantage.  Media coverage of India has been steadily increasing in quantity and quality.  In spite of this, it is difficult to get an in depth perspective of trends and themes about India from reading The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal each of which I read every day.  This is not the fault of these fine newspapers and their reporters.  Even if these newspapers send a dozen reporters to India, covering India will remain a major challenge.

The media does give us regular doses of the whole gamut of India, from A to Z: Ambanis and Bollywood, castes and dowry deaths, elephant gods and famines, Godhra and HIV, Infosys, Jammu and Kashmir, Laloo and Maoists, nuclear weapons and outsourcing, poverty and gay princes, Ravi Shankar and Shiv Sena, tigers and untouchables, villages and women, yoga and Preity Zinta. Each news report, of itself, is mostly accurate but the coverage, as a whole, is repetitive and lacks context and relevance. What Americans need are explanation and analysis of why and how these topics matter to us and how we can use the information.

What do I mean by "lack of context and relevance?"  Let me give you a live example, from today's New York Times.  In the business section of today's NYT, Heather Timmons has written a report on Kamal Nath, India's minister for commerce and industry.  This is not a substantive business article; it is more like a profile of a personality.  But, it is incomplete as either.  If it is a profile of Kamal Nath, without a lot more on Nath's background, education, politics and personal life and tastes, a reader cannot get a grasp of what sort of person he is and whether he is driven by political or personal ambition and whether he believes in free trade or fair trade (which are two different things).  A huge photograph of Nath gives the reader no additional clues; the space could have been used for more information about the man. 

If, on the other hand, this was meant to be a serious article on trade, it is woefully incomplete. The only statistics in the article are macro statistics on the gross amount of farm subsidies and the tired old tale of "300 million Indians living on $1 a day."  Ms. Timmons should have taken a few more hours or even days (after all, this is not a "breaking news" story) to translate the macroeconomic statistics into facts and figures from which a reader can understand how serious the G-4 talks are to her / his personal life and what one can do about it.  How about translating the US farm subsidies into cents per gallon of milk or a box of cereals and providing estimates of how much our trade imbalance could shrink if India opens its markets and translating that into number of new American jobs? 

This is not rocket science.  Good journalists do this all the time.  Ms. Timmons herself writes lots of good articles but this is not one of them.  It does not add any meaningful new information about the growing clout of BRICs or about Mr. Nath.  It doesn't tell us whether we should fear India or ignore the country which, according to Nath, is "100 years behind the US."

India is a mystery to most Americans.  India has the capacity to be a strategic American ally or a fierce competitor.  The task of educating Americans about India's culture, history, geography, economics and politics is as crucial as it is daunting.  It will be necessary for dozens of American journalists to spend decades in India before they get the context and relevance right, before news provides knowledge and understanding.  Only deep immersion into Indian life can give foreign journalists the perspectives required to report on India.

We've got to step up.  We have to get it right.  Given the tumultuous tensions in the media industry today, it cannot be expected to spend the research and development effort needed to train a cadre of journalists to cover India.  As a small step in this direction, SAJA launched a reporting fellowship program to help journalists visit South Asia and report "in depth" on complex issues which get only cursory coverage by the mainstream media.  More intensive programs, involving three to six months in India, could be even more valuable.

What do you think?  For more on these types of ideas and initiatives, please join us: http://www.sajaconvention.org/

End of Part 2. See Part 1, on Pakistan. Post your comments below.

CONV: Making the Most of the SAJA Convention

The most honorable SAJA board spent 45 minutes explaining the ins and outs of the convention to early arrivals Thursday afternoon. If you missed out, don't despair! Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Don't be desi. Be on time! Sessions are starting at 10 a.m. this year to better accommodate late-night partying and subsequent, early-morning hangovers.  Thank the board for the extra two hours of sleep by showing up for breakfast at 9:30 before Bill Keller (Friday, 10 a.m.) and Martin Bashir (Saturday, 10 a.m.).
• Your convention passes don't get you free lunch, but it will grant you special access to two critically acclaimed - and allegedly mouth-watering -  street carts. Chicken and Rice, the only halal cart that boasts its own fan site, will be parked Friday starting around 12:30 on the lawn between Lerner Hall and the Journalism building. On Saturday, watch out for the Vendy Award-winning, vegetarian-friendly Dosa cart straight from Washington Square Park.
• The job fair takes place over two days (2:30-6 Friday and 12-6 Saturday), so skip long waits and gain quality time with recruiters by avoiding the first hour of the fair each day.
• Attention, job seekers: Columbia's entire campus offers free wireless, so bring a laptop and edit your resume immediately after you receive critiques. The Village Copier is located on Broadway at 114th St.
• The dress code for Saturday's gala is formal, but ethnic clothing (both traditional and latest ishtyle) is encouraged - and will get you a free raffle ticket. All others will need to pay $5 for a ticket.

CONV: SAJA Kicks the Convention Off (drumroll)

The SAJA convention officially kicked off Thursday evening with the opening reception featuring a conversation with Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, and Steve Shepard, dean of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism - more on that chat later. The annual convention and gala dinner have come a long way since its humble beginnings 13 years ago. Here are a few key details:

• The convention has only existed in its present form for seven years; previously there was only the annual gala, which even included a few ferry dinner cruises. The convention gradually built up from a day-long event to four days.
• 500+ people are expected to attend the four-day convention, though Saturday's gala itself will be open to the public (for a $100 fee - a pittance, really)
• Nearly 70 speakers from Pulitzer Prize winners to the creme de la blogosphere will be offering their expertise in three days of workshops, salons, keynotes, and plenaries
• CUNY's new Graduate School of Journalism is co-hosting the convention for the first time
• The event costs SAJA upwards of $50,000 a year, according to SAJA's public financial documents. Treasurer John Laxmi emphasizes that the goal of the convention is to "break even by collecting enough in registration fees to cover the costs." This philosophy is what continues to make the SAJA convention the most affordable in the country - while keeping prices consistent.
• Though the board works on a completely volunteer basis, SAJA hired a part-time staffer for the first time in its history (!) a few weeks ago - Laura Griffith, whom you'll meet later on.

CONV: From the Photo Superworkshop

From the SAJA photography superworkshop, taught by Seshu Badrinath of ESPN. A shot of attendee Eddie Vega, out on Times Square. PHOTO: Arindam Mukherjee. Asked to comment on the workshop, Seshu told SAJAforum: "We couldn't have asked for a better day in NYC to walk around and explore. The enthusiasm of the participants helped them capture some great moments." Watch for a slideshow coming here soon.

CONV: And So It Begins...

The 2007 SAJA Convention has begun with more than 60 people doing day-long "superworkshops." The sessions today are the beautiful new CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in Times Square. See the rest of the program at SAJAconvention.org.

SOUTH ASIA: John Laxmi on the Region - Part 1: Pakistan

[ A series of guest posts about South Asia by freelance writer and SAJA treasurer, John Laxmi. Please post your comments below. Please remember, we are ALWAYS LOOKING for guest posts. If you'd like to send us one for consideration, please do: arunvenu[at]gmail.com ]

SAJA Spotlights South Asia
By John Laxmi - send an e-mail to the author here.

South Asia Focus: Why & How - Part 1: Pakistan - Where Civilization is on Trial

On the eve of the 2007 SAJA annual convention, as hundreds of journalists and others interested in South Asia gather in New York to network-debate-dine-and-toast, the most important news coming out of South Asia is about the bloody clash of civilization under way in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Somini Sengupta, the South Asia bureau chief of New York Times, and Salman Masood are reporting in today's Times the bloody battle between militants in a mosque and Pakistan's security forces.  The former want imposition of medieval "sharia" laws while the latter are accused of enacting "an engineered plan to appease  the American and Western countries."

The 21st century is claimed, by many experts, to be the Asian century.  In many ways, Asia and, particularly, South Asia will determine the course of the coming decades as young Asian nations catapult to join maturing developed countries. And yet, the prospects are mixed, because South Asia is the source of both the most destructive impulses and the most creative possibilities in the world. Pakistan, the failing state propped up by external supports, is the most important part of South Asia.  Reforms there are possible which could lead to peace and prosperity. On the other hand, a disastrous implosion and explosion seem equally likely.

Americans must understand Pakistan, understand why that part of the world is so vitally important for our survival and understand the difficult choices we face in dealing with Pakistan.  Who reads the news about Pakistan? How well do we know Pakistan? Which publications have reporters covering Pakistan from Pakistan?  Why is the report of the Battle of Lal Masjid on page 6 (although, to NYT's credit, a big photograph of an anguished man waiting outside the mosque draws readers' attention to this important story on a later page.) The NYT story: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/world/asia/11pakistan.html

Most of the mainstream press is focused on Iraq, on the thesis that Iraq is where idealistic Americans ventured without a full-fledged plan or in-depth understanding.  That is a part-truth-part-false story.  Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran are all parts of the world about which we Americans have a hazy idea good enough to invite our engagement but not deep enough to assure success.  We need - but lack - the nuanced knowledge to match our missionary zeal.

This is why SAJA is important to Americans.  The civilizational clash, raging in the heart of South Asia, is one of the major reasons SAJA's efforts to shine the spotlight on South Asia must be supported and taken seriously. 

See you at the SAJA Convention: http://www.sajaconvention.org/

End of Part 1.

Post your comments below.

FIVE QUESTIONS: Kevin Negandhi, Newest ESPN Anchor

[For those of you attending the convention Kevin will be at the SAJA opening reception at CUNY on Thursday, July 12.]

Watching ESPNews this morning, the big news was the baseball All-Star game. What really excited me was not the highlights, but the fact that the anchor delivering those highlights was a South Asian. Kevin Negandhi is the first national South Asian sports anchor in the U.S. and has been doing it for a few months now.

You can read a profile in this alumni publication: An ESPN  anchor achieves childhood dream and your can read below the answers to some of the questions we asked him.

Q: Congrats on becoming an anchor at ESPN! Would your parents rather have you be a doctor?
A: My mom is a nurse but my parents knew from the beginning I had no
interest in the medical field. I could barely stand the stories at the dinner table while my brother was fascinated by it so he was the medical
genius in my family. My mother always pushed for me to become a lawyer.
She still has dreams that I will go to law school one day, while I flirted with the idea, I'm glad I stuck with Communications.

Q: What's your favorite sport and why?
A: Football. Growing up in Philadelphia, football was the top priority on the weekends, playing it outside or watching it inside. Rooting for the Eagles provided a connection with my father each Sunday and that
connection continues with him and my brother. I love the other major sports as well but the NFL and college football have a special place in my heart.

Q: Every sports anchor has to have a special, cutesy thing he or she says at crucial moments in a game or when narrating the highlights. Give us your signature home run or touchdown call.
A: I am not sure if I have any signature calls. It's really about having fun and expressing that. Sports is supposed to be an outlet and entertainment for the fan so my goal is to provide that and some facts
while they watch the highlight. I know you will always hear me having a good time while delivering the highlights.

Q: What's your schedule like?
A: We don't really have set schedules and I like that. It keeps things fresh and allows us to work on different things. For example if I work during the day on the weekends, most of the time, we're doing interviews on the set and with athletes. If we work the late shows, its filled with highlights. And when you get into this business, you have to accept that you will work weekends because there are a lot of sporting events on the weekends, i.e. the entire football season.

Q: Any tips for young South Asians looking to cover sports?
A: Go to a college that gives you an opportunity to gain experience. I attended Temple and being in the 4th biggest market in the country, I made sure I did internships in print, radio and TV. They eventually
allowed me to land jobs down the road in all three mediums. I worked at the college newspaper, radio station and TV Station. Be outgoing and make sure when you cover events if you see other professionals in the business, ask  them about their college experiences and remain in contact with them. People will be more receptive to giving you an opportunity if they know you or someone they know recommends  you. Trust me, it opened doors for me and then it was up to my dedication and hard work after that. Develop relationships because this industry is very small. And it may sound a little hokey but dream and dream big. When I first got into this, I was the only one who really thought I could do this. Everyone
else around me thought it would be a fad and by the time I would graduate college, I would be a business major or something else. But I believed in me and made sure I did the best I could. I knew I had to
break stereotypes of being an Indian-American doing sports on TV because there are not many of us out there. It made me work that much harder because nothing was handed to me. That's what makes it all the more rewarding.

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SAJA CONVENTION: Vikas Bajaj's Nonstop NYT Hits

The SAJA Convention and Job Fair is coming up fast: July 12-15 in NYC; buy your tix today at SAJAconvention.org. We're different from most other journalism conventions in two ways:

1. We deliberately price it at the lowest price of any major convention - prices start at a mere $100.
2. We have no paid staff working on the convention. It's all run by volunteers, led by convention chair Vikas Bajaj of The New York Times.

And Vikas is doing this without cutting back from his NYT work in any way. To give you an idea about how incredible that is, please take a look at this note by SAJAer John Laxmi...

Even as he has been busy orchestrating preparations for the Convention, almost everyday this past week, Vikas has had a major piece in The New York Times.  Some of these pieces appeared on the frontpage of the main section (above the fold) and the others on the frontpage of the Business Section.  The topic Vikas has been covering (along with NYT's Julie Creswell) is a very complex one even for those who are familiar with economics and Wall Street.  Vikas and Julie have been writing about how delinquencies in the subprime loans and CDOs (Collateralized Debt Obligations) are unfolding and the potential for these problems to spill over into other parts of the financial markets and the economy.   Considering the extraordinary complexity of these topics, the articles by Vikas and Julie have all been generally very well written.  This topic is so complex that The Wall Street Journal chose to publish a primer yesterday titled, "Center of a Storm: How CDOs Work." Congratulations, Vikas.

Recent articles, with links, are listed below.

Photography Workshop in Richmond Hill

SAJA blogger Archana Ram chronicled the adventures of the convention's photojournalism workshop in Richmond Hill, Queens.

Photojournalist Scott Lewis leads the workshop at a roti shop in Richmond Hill

The worskhop participants produced some excellent images on the streets and in the shops of the Indo-Caribbean neighborhood.  Click on the names below to see galleries of their work:

Simran Thadani
Carolyn Nardiello
Saad Tabani
Kimiko Asakura
Anjali Bhargava
Anthony de Young
Archana Ram

Peter Bhatia, Local Hero

Oregonian executive editor Peter Bhatia and I grew up in the same small town in Eastern Washington. Pullman, WA is a tiny oasis - an intellectual college town, with golden rolling wheatfields as a backdrop. Pullman has three elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. Every year about 120 graduates come out of its high school.

Years ago, Bhatia was one of the those graduates, and years later, I went to Pullman High School. To the newspaper industry and the South Asian community he's an icon; to me, he's also a local hero. I've been wanting to meet him for a long time, and it was a pleasure to finally do so at his Saturday Salon session at the convention.

He chatted with a gathering of print journalists and writers, speaking frankly and honestly about his views on the changing face of the newspaper industry.

Visa Issues

What happens in a room full of people with immigration issues stays within the room. Or maybe not.
The panel Wading Through Visa Issues discussed some prominent immigration situations with Tammy Lee (Law Offices of Richard Goldstein), Vineet Agrawal (Immigration Voice), and Juhi Chakravorty (Reuters).

MAKING THE MOST OF CENSUS DATA

Most reporters will have to consult Census figures at some point in their careers, but they probably don't know that the Census is more than just hard numbers, according to Wendell Cochran, division director of journalism at American University.

Cochran, who taught a workshop on Friday called "The Census Story and How it Impacts Immigration," said journalists should seek some instruction before tackling the wealth of Census data.

Video of Brian Williams keynote

Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams was the Friday morning keynote at the SAJA Convention on Friday, July 14, 2006.

• See a video of his appearance, courtesy of ScribeStudio.com (or click on photo below)
• Listen to an audio recording, courtesy of DesiYou.com
• Read a report by Archana Ram and see photos by Preston Merchant here (below, he shows off his new SAJA hat, given to him by SAJA President Deepti Hajela)

How to Pitch Yourself: The Art of the Resume and Cover Letter

SAJA students and other members got the lowdown on what it takes to get noticed by recruiters at Saturday's workshop, "Resumes, cover letters and making the right connections." Mariecar Frias of ABC News, Jane Light of Reuters and Pat Thompson of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel gave attendees tips for working their way up the media ladder:

Walking the Line: Muslim American Journalists

Earlier we announced a SAJA Convention luncheon hosted by MAJA, the Muslim American Journalists Association. MAJA founder (and DDR authority) Shabina Khatri gives us the low-down on the event...

Walking the Line

Community fealty. Journalistic integrity. Getting the scoop, giving the scoop. At what point do minority journalists draw the line?

That debate dominated the conversation of Muslim American journalists who congregated this past weekend at the annual SAJA convention in New York.