Borders & Bylines

  1. January 31, 2012 11:21 AM

    Why Aren’t More Arab Americans Working in Mainstream Journalism?

    Group remains underrepresented in US newsrooms

    By Justin D. Martin

    There are anywhere between 3.5 and 5.1 million Americans of Arab descent, according to figures from the Arab American Institute, yet relatively few work in journalism full time. While meaningful estimates aren’t known, as journalism scholars that conduct demographic research in American newsrooms do not typically tally newsmakers of Arab descent, the National Arab American Journalists Association counts around 250...

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  2. January 6, 2012 02:02 PM

    Twifficult

    Tweeting the change you wish to see is easy. Global attention is as elusive as ever

    By Justin D. Martin

    I was alone on a drive from Maine to Massachusetts in early December when a crazy idea hit me. Listening to Christmas music along a snow-lined I-95, my epiphany was to write a letter to rockstar Pink and ask her to sing a Christmas duet with me, the proceeds from which would be given to Doctors Without Borders to help...

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  3. December 20, 2011 12:18 PM

    A Presidential Debate Abroad?

    An argument for holding a foreign policy debate in a foreign country

    By Justin D. Martin

    Every fourth fall, more Americans watch presidential debates than just about any other live event in the US but the Super Bowl. The contests are by far the most-watched political events in this country. More than 50 million Americans watched the first debate between Barack Obama and John McCain in September 2008, while 63 million paused for the second live...

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  4. December 7, 2011 11:48 AM

    Hell Yes to Hell No

    New book flags ways US targets dissent

    By Justin D. Martin

    Hell No: Your Right to Dissent in 21st-Century America | By Michael Ratner & Margaret Ratner Kunstler | The New Press | 176 pages, $17.95

    A number of twentieth-century legal decisions helped establish the US as having one of the freest press systems on earth. In 1925, the US Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protects citizens not only...

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  5. November 4, 2011 02:17 PM

    Speech in Israel Is Not Free

    There's more to democracy than just holding regular elections

    By Justin D. Martin

    Both Israeli and US policymakers are fond of calling Israel and the United States likeminded democracies. “America has no better friend than Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said to applause from a joint session of Congress in a 2011 address. “We stand together to defend democracy.” Vice President Joe Biden has basically called Israel his second America. “No matter how...

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  6. October 21, 2011 04:52 PM

    A Grand Year for Free Speech

    Gaddafi’s death just one indicator of the global surge in free expression

    By Justin D. Martin

    Not since the disintegration of the Soviet Union have so many opponents of free expression quickly fallen from executive power.

    Countries like Tunisia and Libya weren’t just unwelcoming to journalists; these countries were routinely listed as among the worst places on earth for those looking to report the truth. Merely alluding to Gaddafi’s brutality could leave a journalist with...

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  7. September 23, 2011 10:58 AM

    Dear News Organizations: Stop Being Deadbeats

    If you’ve promised to pay your freelancers, do it

    By Justin D. Martin

    If I paid my bills as slowly as many news organizations pay their freelancers, I’d be homeless, have a deactivated cell phone, and carry a credit score of about three. Many news organizations are quick to snatch up good freelance news items but often negligently slow to pay the promised fee.

    A newspaper in Abu Dhabi recently took over...

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  8. September 6, 2011 02:40 PM

    What Might an ‘American World Service’ Look Like?

    Building on Lee Bollinger’s call for a BBC-like service from the United States

    By Justin D. Martin

    It is time for the US to follow the example of other modern democracies and provide citizens with a government-supported, twenty-four-hour news channel devoted to global news.

    After living in Cairo for two years, my wife and I recently returned to the US, and among the first things we did was address our information needs by getting US cell...

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  9. August 16, 2011 03:14 PM

    How to Get Young People Interested in Global News

    Why we should emphasize journalism's role in sparking innovation

    By Justin D. Martin

    For some time newsmakers and educators have stressed things like “civic duty” and being a “global citizen” in trying to convince young people to consume world news. The problem here is these entreaties couldn’t sound crustier to a nineteen-year-old—take it from someone who regularly teaches nineteen-year-olds. There must be a better way to show young Americans less abstract benefits of...

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  10. July 27, 2011 04:41 PM

    Apparently, Global News Orgs Don’t Commit Online Errors

    Is that why so many of them lack coherent corrections policies?

    By Justin D. Martin

    Far too many modern news organizations do not have public corrections policies or prominent corrections pages, something that has been well-stated at CJR. International news outlets are certainly no exception.

    It has been my experience, after reporting from many locations around the world and working with others who do, that errors are more likely when covering foreign events...

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  11. July 21, 2011 01:18 PM

    Why Journalism Helps Foster Global Innovation

    Well-funded, diverse journalism increases innovative thinking

    By Justin D. Martin

    Recent scholarship on innovation suggests that good ideas are often hatched when people are exposed to many different disciplines and lines of thought.

    Newton getting thumped by an apple and Archimedes’s rising bathwater are cute stories but, even if these accounts are true, they don’t represent how innovative thinking usually works, in that they portray innovation as spontaneous fortune...

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  12. June 15, 2011 12:45 PM

    The Potential for Medical Journalism in Kenya

    A country that's aching for quality health reporting

    By Justin D. Martin

    NAIROBI, Kenya—Before landing in Kenya, my doctor had me get shots for typhoid, tetanus, cholera, yellow fever, and meningitis. He also gave me malaria pills. One in every fifteen Kenyans has AIDS. Nairobi is home to Kibera, one of the world’s most disease-rotted slums.

    Yet there’s not much of a push for medical journalism in Kenya, a nation that...

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  13. May 26, 2011 03:23 PM

    What’s So Wrong With ‘Parachute Journalism’?

    Nothing, if your ruck is packed with research

    By Justin D. Martin

    CAIRO—I’m an avid parachutist, though I’ve never jumped from a plane. A “parachute journalist” is a reporter who drops into a country for a relatively short period of time, files a story or handful of dispatches, and then leaves.

    “Parachutist” is a pejorative in the news business, based on the sense that an outside journalist who stays in a...

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  14. May 10, 2011 01:35 PM

    An Economic Case for More Women in Global Journalism

    Gender inequality isn't just a social issue

    By Justin D. Martin and Dalia Abbas

    CAIRO—In the last decade, gender rights advocates have, to notable success, made the argument that welcoming women into workforces and economic markets is simply logical policy.

    “In the 1970s and 1980s,” wrote Adam Segal in his book Advantage, “underrepresentation was considered primarily a social or moral issue—a question of affirmative action. Today, it is also seen as a competitiveness...

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