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Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard: Nieman Reports

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A Distinguished Correspondent
Over the course of two decades as a correspondent in the Middle East, Anthony Shadid built a reputation for honest and detailed reporting on the lives of people in the region. That career was cut short on February 16, when he died at age 43 of an apparent asthma attack in Syria. In 2004 Shadid spoke about trying to understand Iraq in wartime and the cost—emotional, financial, ethical—of that reporting in his Joe Alex Morris, Jr. Lecture at the Nieman Foundation.
Read the full transcript of his lecture »
‘The Face That Stays with Me’
In the 31st Joe Alex Morris, Jr. Lecture at the Nieman Foundation, “Today” show co-anchor Ann Curry said the face that stays with her from reporting overseas is that of a young woman who was gang-raped and left for dead in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The woman was still in the hospital two years later when Curry interviewed her. After the story aired, the phones lit up with calls from viewers who wanted to know how to help, she said.
Curry on PTSD, foreign reporting »
All photos, videos, and interviews ©Ofelia de Pablo, ©Javier Zurita.
All rights reserved.
Women Under Siege
During conflicts in Guatemala, Egypt, Libya and elsewhere, rape and other forms of sexual violence have been used as a weapon. Women Under Siege, a new project of the nonprofit Women’s Media Center, aims to document the incidence of such violence and push for prevention efforts. The initiative presents case studies on several countries and first-person accounts from survivors of sexual violence, both civilians and journalists.
Read more of these powerful stories »

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In this Issue: Writing the Book

Brief Story, Book Proposal, a Longer Feature, Then a Book
By Amy Ellis Nutt
A Year of Reinvention
By Alfredo Corchado
Tips for Journalists Writing Memoirs
By Michele Weldon

Nieman Fellows & Contributors in the Field

All in the Family
In “My Nanking Home: 1918 – 1937,” Nancy Thomson Waller writes about growing up as the daughter of missionaries in China. “We were a family of five,” she writes, “plus Jimmy, the great surprise who came along in 1931.” Jimmy was the late James C. Thomson, Jr., who went on to lead the Nieman Foundation as curator from 1972 to 1984. While the memoir focuses on Nancy’s life, it also offers a window into the background of James, whose impact on the foundation included more fellowships for women, minorities, broadcast journalists, and reporters from smaller newspapers, as well as the move to its current home at Walter Lippmann House.
Leading a Public TV Station in Bogotá
Hollman Morris, NF ’11, is returning to Colombia to become director of Bogotá’s public television station, Canal Capital. Discussing his new job with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, Morris said he wants to provide television that is “in the service of the people … that is popular and shows that television in Latin America isn’t only about distraction, but an instrument for development.” A documentary filmmaker and broadcast journalist, Morris last year wrote that “the desire to return—so common in those like me who have left Colombia because of persecution—stays with me.”

Professor's Corner

The Road to New Media

Two new essays on Professor’s Corner offer insights into the changing media landscape students will face. University of Nebraska professor Sue Burzynski Bullard writes about teaching students to include links in their articles and offers resources for teaching linking. And University of Arkansas professor Gerald B. Jordan takes the temperature of a newsroom in transition at The Philadelphia Inquirer, where he works during summer breaks.

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Recent Issues

Old Meets New

Cartoonist in a Cartoony Land

From “fledgling free marketeers peddling their wares” to “the first recorded sighting of security personnel sporting a ponytail,” the “Prague Sketchbook” by Doug Marlette, NF ’81, captures the energy of the newly free Eastern Europe in 1990. Marlette had traveled to Prague for the East-West Journalism Conference, co-sponsored by the Nieman Foundation. His “Sketchbook,” which appeared in the special Winter 1990 issue of Nieman Reports, also documented the wide gulf between journalistic traditions in the West and the East.