For many first year journalism students looking to foreign correspondence, the interest with the job is parallel; travel.
While intrigued with this aspect of the job, Brock Walsh believes travel is key to improving upon the way news overseas is reported in Australia.
“There’s a lot more stuff going on outside Australia that is a bit more relevant than what is being reported… half the news last week was about the royal baby and that’s not news … then you’ve got bloody ISIS taking over places in Syria.”
Brock’s passion about the kinds of international news aired to Australian audiences becomes apparent. Reporting significant worldly events is necessary to bridge communication gaps and ensure that Australian’s are informed on and reminded about serious situations overseas.
Kiara Tremolada states, “there is so much hunger, homelessness and extreme poverty, but instead, what consumes media stories is Zayn Malik leaving One Direction”. Kiara believes this issue can be overcome by covering the parts of the world that Australia has no idea about.
“Australia is in its own little bubble sometimes.”
When speaking to her, I noticed her excitement towards travel as a job possibility. She enthused about reporting “on world struggles, natural disasters and human suffering”. Kiara is planning to boost her experience by seeking out news stories in rural Australia. She believes this is a necessary step in order to build her reputation as a journalist in such a competitive field, “… you have to start small and get experience…they aren’t going to hire you straight off the bat to report overseas”.
Jake Allen is also aware about the issue of competition in the journalism industry, “It is a difficult field to get into because whilst it is dangerous it is also popular”. Therefore, to make him more appealing to future employers Jake is pairing a Language degree with his Journalism degree. “I would love to report current affairs… I can see the world and simultaneously inform people on what’s going on”. The implicit dangers associated with foreign correspondence is what Jake considers a “notable issue”. This is considering that “a lot of current affairs at the moment relate to, the state of a terrorist group”. With blatant honesty, Jake concludes;
“If someone is chasing you, you know you’re doing your job well”.
“I like the idea of being in the front-line…I like having something constantly exciting come up” states Sarah Leong. She confesses that she doesn’t want to be pigeonholed in reporting anything specific as a foreign correspondent.
“I would love to cover Eurovision, but i would also love to report serious stuff as well.”
“War zones would be interesting but challenging”. With the lingering threat of terrorism overseas and journalists losing their lives, Sarah believes reporting though other people’s first-hand experiences is an important alternative to getting stories. This plays on her biggest concern which is risking her own life to get a story especially since recently this has been the case for many journalists within Islamic State.
“We aren’t trained to be soldiers.”
Despite the exciting prospect of seeing the world and experiencing an array of cultures, these inherent issues associated with foreign correspondence clearly play on these young, ambitious minds.
ALEX 