I could tell you what Mitch has to say about this, or I could just let you read his wonderful blog post yourself.
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About reporting 
Cute. Great job Mitch!
Journalism at its craziest is many times journalism at its best. Rock the kid interviews, Mitch. They’re tough.
Nice way to localize the feeling of interviewing people who are actually excited that you work for a newspaper. Cute reporting tale. I’m happy that I got to read it!
Awesome blog post, Mitch. I really like how you show that even a simple story of about an elementary school exercise program can bring a smile to someone’s face.
Love it. I think there’s a good reminder here: a large part of reporting is in the relationships, and in embracing those random, crazy, surrounded-by-swarming-people moments.
Besides, that’s part of what makes reporting fun!
I agree! Through this semester, I’ve learned that the best conversations and interviews come from those who I have built a relationship with through consistent communication (email, face-to-face, etc.).
I like the language/narrative style used in Mitch’s blog post and the article itself.
I don’t know if anyone else felt this way, but in the movie, I wasn’t surprised to see the whole village out to meet Kristof and sneak a peek at him.
Not to take away from Mitch’s coverage (it’s nice to know at least kids in Columbia will never be journalist-weary), but in Kristof’s case, they were probably more interested in seeing him for reasons other than his profession.
It’s the ‘white-American-in-our-land’ syndrome.
Amrita just beat me to that comment. I, too, think the Nick Kristoff fascination case was not entirely because he’s a journalist (although camera crews have strange effects on all sorts of people), but because of what might be termed as a fascination of the White Man or as Amrita put it, the “white-American-in-our-land” syndrome. The crowds that gathered to see Kristoff might also have done so because they were expecting humanitarian aid distribution, but usually, we third-world folks get excited pretty quickly at the sight of western foreigners. Maybe it has something to do with being subjected to psychological conditioning through decades of racial colonialism and the resulting inferiority complex, an idea that was also explained by Frantz Fanon in his book, “Black Skin, White Masks.”
I’m going to go with Amrita and Waqas on this one. Kristof’s writing is great for moving the American public and I love how his definition of news is not dependent on the “newness” but the severity etc. Yet, I can’t help but wonder if his success is partially due to the “white-American-in-our-land” syndrome.
Then again, I can see Dustin’s blog post alluding to that (unintentionally?). It’s not everyday a first-grader gets to meet a college-aged photographer = instant fascination.
Amrita — that’s why I felt a little uncomfortable watching the movie, felt like propaganda, almost…journalists shouldn’t be welcomed as celebrities. But everything else about the moving was powerful and touching.
Lovely story. There’s no story too trivial. I used to have bias against community newspapers, thinking that they don’t do quality journalism, until I interned at one. They may only serve a small audience, but they really focus on issues people care about. Even when Kristof does his journalism and tries to bring peace to the world, he starts with a local angle and finds one person to zoom in on. We can all do that, no matter the scale of our stories.
I like this post! The lighthearted nature of it made me feel like I was right there with the kids with you. I love how you handled being swarmed by kids with everyone throwing out names and wanting attention. You made it work for you.
This post kept me smiling and interested the whole time. Great comparison, great writing! Good job!
nice work – simple and effective
A great post about the important of relationships in journalism.
I think this is great! Who doesn’t love hearing about the innocence and curiosity of little kids? This is really tasteful and it’s great to see that he knew just how to capture his surroundings. Great job Mitch!
For some reason, I must have skipped over this post. It was great Mitch, really. I wish more people could read your blog. Actually, I wish more people could be reporters & get to experience enlightening situations like we do. It’s truly amazing sometimes.
I love that story. Journalism at its best, I think, is valuing and showing people for who they are.