A Profile of 'Born Into Brothels' Director Zana Briski
I'm a huge fan of documentaries. The best documentaries, to my mind, fall somewhere in the spectrum between straightforward journalism and something more personal and subjective. But my favorite doc, by far, is "Born Into Brothels," Zana Briski's poignant account of teaching photography to the children of prostitutes in Calcutta's red-light district.
"Brothels" won the 2004 Oscar for best documentary but I hadn't heard much about Briski in recent years, so I put on my reporter's hat and contacted her. She e-mailed me from Brazil, where, she told me, she was chasing jaguars for her latest photo project. The result of the interview is this profile:
'Born Into Brothels' Director Zana Briski Returns to her First Love: Photography
Hope you enjoy it.
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Zana Briski photo courtesy Getty Images
Young People Who See the Downside of the Digital Age
The young people I know are fully-fledged citizens of the digital world, with their smartphones and 5,000 Facebook friends. But unlike some of their elders they're not quite so ready to throw out everything from the past.
Perhaps more importantly, they see the dangers and problems of the new digital age more clearly than their elders.
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Middle-aged Pontificators Aside, the Digital Future Belongs to the Young
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Want to do Well in Journalism? Show Up for Work
Journalism students need to master the skills of reporting and writing, but just as important is an oft-overlooked trait: reliability.
In other words, a talented reporter isn't much use if he doesn't show up for work on anything like a regular basis.
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A Lesson for Wannabe Reporters: Big Dreams Are Fine, but Don't Forget to Show Up
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Photo by Tony Rogers
Why Should Journalism Students Follow the News? Read This.
If many journalism students don't follow the news, as I wrote recently, it must be because they don't see how doing so will benefit them.
So I decided to put together a list of ways staying up-to-date on the news will help aspiring journalists. If you have reasons to add to the list, e-mail me.
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Syria: The Most Dangerous Place on the Planet for Journalists
Not surprisingly, the brutal regime of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, which has already killed thousands of its own people, is also cracking down on the news media. Dozens of journalists have been arbitrarily jailed, foreign journalists have been banned and at least nine journalists have been killed while covering the country since November.
That makes it the most dangerous place for reporters on the planet right now, according to The Committee to Protect Journalists.
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The Syrian Regime Extends its Brutal Crackdown to the News Media
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Journalism Students Who Don't Read the News? Believe It
It's bad enough that so many young people are ignorant of current events. It's another thing entirely for journalism students to not know what's going on in the world.
But all-too often that's the case.
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You Want to Get a Job in Journalism? Read the News
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People Want Local News
Is the local newspaper destined to go the way of the dinosaur?
Not if fans of local news have anything to say about it. A new study finds that a whopping 72 percent of adults follow local news quite closely, and that local papers "are by far the source they rely on for much of the local information they need."
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Study Finds That People Want Local News, and are Willing to Pay for it
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Photo of J. Seward Johnson's sculpture "Newspaper Reader" by John Rogers
Study Says Campaign Coverage Still Focuses on the Horse Race
For years, voters have complained that campaign coverage focuses too much on the horse race - the tactics of the various campaigns and the polls showing who's up and who's down - as opposed to the substantive issues the candidates are running on.
A new study seems to bear this out. It found that that 64 percent of the Republican primary campaign coverage was horse-race based.
But can the news media do better? And is all horse race coverage necessarily bad?
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Why Does Campaign News Coverage Still Focus on the Horse Race?
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Battle-Scarred Metros and Smaller Local Papers Win Key Honors in 2012 PulitzersPulitzers
For a paper that had survived some tough times, winning a 2012 Pulitzer Prize was a huge morale boost.
I'm talking about The Philadelphia Inquirer, which won the Public Service award for a series of stories on violence in the city's public schools. Dozens of Inky staffers had been laid off over the last few years, and the paper had been sold and sold again as a slew of owners tried and failed to make money from the once-venerable Broad Street broadsheet.
Unlike years past, when the nation's biggest papers often dominated the awards, in 2012 many of the top honors went to smaller papers or struggling metro dailies that were thought to be past their prime.
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2012 Pulitzer Prizes Are a Triumph For Papers That Have Survived Tough Times
Is Newspaper Reporter Really One of the Worst Jobs?
So are my journalism students fretting about the recent survey that ranked journalism as one of the worst jobs ever?
Not on your life. What I see is this: Students who are more excited than ever about the news business.
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Journalism One of the Worst Jobs? Try Telling That to My Students
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