Facing History and Ourselves is an international educational and professional development orga-

nization whose mission is to engage students of diverse backgrounds in an examination of

racism, prejudice, and antisemitism in order to promote the development of a more humane and
informed citizenry. By studying the historical development of the Holocaust and other examples of
genocide, students make the essential connection between history and the moral choices they confront
in their own lives. For more information about Facing History and Ourselves, please visit our website
at www.facinghistory.org.

Copyright © 2010 by Facing History and Ourselves National Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

Facing History and Ourselves® is a trademark registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office.

Cover photos courtesy of Will Okun (www.wjzo.com).

To order classroom copies, please fax a purchase order to 617-232-0281 or call 1-800-856-9039 to place
a phone order.

To receive additional copies of this resource, please visit reporter.facinghistory.org.

ISBN-13: 978 - 0 -9819543 -5 - 6

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 ABOU T FACING HISTORY AND OURSELVES

Facing History and Ourselves is a nonprofit educational organization whose mission is to engage students of
diverse backgrounds in an exam­ination of racism, prejudice, and antisemitism in order to promote a more humane
and informed citizenry. As the name Facing History and Ourselves implies, the organization helps teachers and
their students make the essential connections between history and the moral choices they confront in their own
lives, and offers a framework and a vocabu­lary for analyzing the meaning and responsibility of citizenship and
the tools to recognize bigotry and indifference in their own worlds. Through a rigorous examination of the failure
of democracy in Germany during the 1920s and ’30s and the steps leading to the Holocaust, along with other
examples of hatred, collective violence, and genocide in the past century, Facing History and Ourselves provides
educators with tools for teaching history and ethics, and for helping their students learn to combat prejudice with
compassion, indifference with participation, myth and misinformation with knowledge.

Believing that no classroom exists in isolation, Facing History and Ourselves offers programs and materials to
a broad audience of students, parents, teachers, civic leaders, and all of those who play a role in the education of
young people. Through significant higher education partnerships, Facing History and Ourselves also reaches and
impacts teachers before they enter their classrooms.

By studying the choices that led to critical episodes in history, students learn how issues of identity and mem-
bership, ethics and judgment have meaning today and in the future. Facing History and Ourselves’ resource
books provide a meticulously researched yet flexible structure for exam­ining complex events and ideas. Educa-
tors can select appropriate read­ings and draw on additional resources available online or from our comprehen-
sive lending library.

Our foundational resource book, Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior, embodies a
sequence of study that begins with identity—first individual identity and then group and national identities, with
their definitions of membership. From there the program examines the failure of democracy in Germany and the
steps leading to the Holocaust—the most documented case of twentieth-century indiffer­ence, de-humanization,
hatred, racism, antisemitism, and mass murder. It goes on to explore difficult questions of judgment, memory,
and legacy, and the necessity for responsible participation to prevent injus­tice. Facing History and Ourselves then
returns to the theme of civic participation to examine stories of individuals, groups, and nations who have worked
to build just and inclusive communities and whose stories illuminate the courage, compassion, and political will
that are needed to protect democracy today and in generations to come. Other examples in which civic dilemmas
test democracy, such as the Armenian Genocide and the US civil rights movement, expand and deepen the con-
nection between history and the choices we face today and in the future.

Facing History and Ourselves has offices or resource centers in the United States, Canada, and the United
Kingdom as well as in-depth partnerships in Rwanda, South Africa, and Northern Ireland. Facing History and
Ourselves’ outreach is global, with educators trained in more than 80 countries and delivery of our resources
through a website accessed worldwide with online content delivery, a program for international fellows, and a
set of NGO partnerships. By convening conferences of scholars, theologians, educators, and journalists, Facing
History and Ourselves’ materials are kept timely, relevant, and responsive to salient issues of global citizenship
in the twenty-first century.

For more than 30 years, Facing History and Ourselves has challenged students and educators to connect the
complexities of the past to the moral and ethical issues of today. They explore democratic values and consider
what it means to exercise one’s rights and responsibilities in the service of a more humane and compassionate
world. They become aware that “little things are big”—seemingly minor decisions can have a major impact and
change the course of history.

For more about Facing History and Ourselves, visit our website at www.facinghistory.org.
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Primary writer: Elisabeth Fieldstone Kanner

Facing History and Ourselves extends much gratitude to the many individuals and groups whose
thoughtful conversations, committed partnerships, and generous support made this project possible.
We thank the Fledgling Fund for its generous support for the development of this study guide. Special
recognition goes to Nicholas Kristof and Reporter filmmakers Eric Daniel Metzgar and Mikaela Beard-
sley for making an important, engaging film and for their contributions to this study guide.

We would also like to recognize our staff and others who contributed to the creation of this study guide:
Our editorial team, Pamela Donaldson, Tanya Huellet, Mark Davis, Deb Chad, Adam Strom, Marc
Skvirsky, Marty Sleeper, Dimitry Anselme, and Margot Stern Strom, reviewed numerous iterations
of the manuscript. Rebecca Hamilton continues to be a wonderful friend to Facing History, sharing
with us her experience as a reporter and an anti-genocide activist. Elisabeth Fieldstone Kanner synthe-
sized comments from many sources to create this valuable study guide. April Lambert and Catherine
O’Keefe oversaw the production of this study guide with wisdom, energy, and efficiency. Emma Smizik
and Ronnie Millar coordinated our work, and our research intern Hilary Walker devoted countless
hours to the project. We would also like to thank Sara Arnold for her copyediting, Tom Beckham for his
work designing this guide, and Will Okun for supporting us in many aspects of this project, including
graciously permitting us to use his photography throughout the guide.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Film synopsis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Rationale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Suggestions for using this study guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Introducing Reporter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Pre-Viewing Reading 1: Letter to Students from Nicholas Kristof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Pre-Viewing Reading 2: Leana Wen’s Winning Essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Pre-Viewing Reading 3: Will Okun’s Winning Essay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Viewing Guide for Reporter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Pre-Viewing Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Viewing Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Post-Viewing Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Investigation One: Why don’t people act? Confronting psychic numbing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Reading 1: “Save the Darfur Puppy” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Reading 2: Psychic Numbing and Genocide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Investigation Two: Should reporters advocate? Exploring the role of journalists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Reading 3: “A Student, a Teacher and a Glimpse of War” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Reading 4: On the Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Investigation Three: What do we learn from the news? How reporters’ choices
shape our understanding of the world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Reading 5: “Dinner with a Warlord” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Reading 6: “Killing in the Name of God” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Reading 7: “Fear” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Reading 8: “3-Way Battles Again Jolt Eastern Congo” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Reading 9: Images of Congo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Investigation Four: What can we do to help? Education and action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Reading 10:“What Can We Do to Help?“ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Web Resources for Reporter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
 Darfur

Courtesy of Peace Corps World Wise Schools.

The documentary Reporter follows columnist Nicholas Kristof on a reporting trip to Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC). The DRC, formerly Zaire, is often referred to as Congo, and should not confused with the Republic
of Congo, its neighbor to the west. The film also makes references to Kristof’s work in Darfur, a western region in Sudan.
Reporter: film synopsis
Directed, edited, and photographed by Eric Daniel Metzgar
Produced by Mikaela Beardsley and Steven Cantor
Executive Producer: Ben Affleck
Running time: 90 minutes

Reporter is a feature documentary about Nicholas Kristof, a two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning colum-
nist for the New York Times. In the summer of 2007, Kristof traveled to the Democratic Republic of
Congo to shine his light into the darkest pockets of conflict and poverty. Congo is a country in the
midst of a humanitarian crisis. To date, 5.4 million people have been killed in Congo over the last
decade. Kristof’s charge is to put Congo on the international agenda. To help attract a broader audi-
ence, Kristof invited a college student and a teacher—winners of the 2007 “Win a Trip with Nick”
contest—to join him on this reporting trip to central Africa.

Reporter gives us access to the dilemmas Kristof confronts as a journalist who has an agenda: to get his
audience to care and take action. Kristof knows that statistics deaden his readers’ interest and compas-
sion. To get the world to care, he goes in search of individuals whose stories will reflect the country’s
desperate crisis, including a dying woman, a rebel militia leader, and a child soldier.

Courtesy of Will Okun (www.wjzo.com).

From left to right: photographer and teacher Will Okun, medical student Leana Wen, New York Times colum-
nist Nick Kristof, and filmmaker Eric Daniel Metzgar.

film synopsis 
Rationale
In the documentary Reporter, we follow New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof as he works to get
his readers to “care about what happens on the other side of the hill.” We see how he uses social sci-
ence research and the tools of journalism to try to expand his readers’ universe of responsibility—the
people whom they feel obligated to care for and protect. We watch him struggle with dilemmas: How
can he inform people about the larger context of genocide and other humanitarian disasters without
numbing his readers’ sense of compassion? As a print journalist, how can he adapt to the changing
landscape of web-based media? What is the relationship between journalism and advocacy?

For over thirty years, Facing History and Ourselves has asked the same questions that underlie
Kristof’s work: Under what conditions do people care about others? When does that care translate
into thoughtful action? What are the responsibilities of citizens to participate in their communities—
local, national, and global? How can information be used and abused? By raising questions about the
role of the reporter and the responsibility of the citizen, this documentary supports Facing History’s
mission to encourage students, educators, and
community members to reflect on the types of
civic engagement required by a vibrant democracy.
While Kristof uses the tools of journalism, Facing
History uses the tools of history and the humani-
ties to help students, educators, and community
members understand the conditions that encour-
age us to act (or to stand by) in the face of injus-
tice, hatred, and mass violence. The resources we
publish and the professional development Facing
History provides follow a sequence of study—what
Facing History calls its scope and sequence—that
helps us wrestle with questions of identity, mem-
bership, decision-making, justice, and civic par-
ticipation.*

This documentary aligns with Facing History’s scope and sequence by contributing to the study of
history. For example, when investigating examples of injustice, such as the Holocaust or apartheid-era
South Africa, students often ask, “How could this have happened?” Watching Reporter provides us with
tools we can use to confront this question, such as social science research explaining the “psychology
of compassion.” By raising questions about the role of the media to intervene in stopping the geno-
cide in Darfur or preventing violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo **, Reporter

* To learn more about Facing History’s approach, refer to the preface and introduction in the resource book Facing History and
Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior (http://www.facinghistory.org/resources/hhb).

** The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), formerly Zaire, is often referred to as Congo by Nicholas Kristof and by other char-
acters in Reporter. To maintain consistency, in this guide we also refer to the DRC as Congo. To avoid confusing the DRC with the
Republic of Congo, its neighbor to the west, we suggest reviewing a map of Africa, such as the one at the beginning of this guide,
which clearly differentiates between these two nations.

 TEACHING REPORTER
invites us to consider the role of the press during times throughout history when human rights have
been abused.

Reporter also contributes to the final stage of Facing History’s scope and sequence—“choosing to
participate”—which focuses on stories of individuals and groups who have tried to make a positive
impact on society. By studying these examples, we begin to answer the question, “What factors encour-
age us to take a stand on behalf of ourselves and others?” Investigation One of this study guide
explores how Kristof confronts this question in Reporter as he struggles to get his readers to care about
the genocide in Darfur and the humanitarian crisis in Congo.*

Is it the role of the reporter to inspire people to care? Should journalists try to guide their readers
toward particular actions? Or is the reporter’s job limited to providing accurate information? Investi-
gation Two examines these questions. Kristof believes in the power of journalism to galvanize people
to solve the world’s problems. For example, he has worked tirelessly to bring attention to the genocide
in Darfur. In Reporter, we hear actress and activist Mia Farrow** explain, “It was Nick [who] sounded
the clarion call. That there was a genocide unfolding in a place called Darfur. . . . It was through read-
ing Nick’s columns that I [gained] knowledge of a situation in a place I never heard of.” Samantha
Power, author of A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, describes Kristof’s efforts as
“relentless”:

He would find a hundred different angles into the same subject, but the central message was
consistent and, in its own way, repetitive. Genocide is happening and you’re not doing enough
to stop it. Moreover, you have the power to stop it, and that makes you doubly responsible.1

For his work writing about the genocide in Darfur, Kristof was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. While much
of his work focuses on problems facing people in Asia and Africa, in his column he also draws atten-
tion to domestic issues, including heath care, poverty, and education. Most recently, Kristof and his
wife, journalist Sheryl WuDunn, wrote a book about the plight of women around the world called Half
the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.† According to Kristof, they wrote
Half the Sky “not so much to inform people as because we wanted to shake people up and help address
these issues.”2

Nicholas Kristof follows a long line of journalists who have used their role to advocate for action
and change. For decades, Ida B. Wells†† used journalism “as a weapon against racial bigotry.”3 While

* Decades before Kristof’s outrage over the international community’s inability to stop the genocide in Darfur, Raphael Lemkin
expressed outrage over the world’s response, or lack thereof, to the Armenian genocide during World War I. Lemkin’s frustration led
him to coin the term “genocide.” For more information about the meaning of genocide and Lemkin’s struggle to have this concept
recognized in international law, refer to our study guide Totally Unofficial: Raphael Lemkin and the Genocide Convention
(http://www.facinghistory.org/resources/publications/lemkin).

** Mia Farrow has been a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador since 2000. In 2008, Time magazine named her one of the most
inf luential people in the world, highlighting her work to end the genocide in Darfur.

† The website http://www.halftheskymovement.org, a companion to the book Half the Sky, provides information about women around
the world and what can be done to improve their situations for the benefit of all.

†† Chapter 2, “The Promise of American Democracy,” in the first edition of Facing History and Ourselves: Choosing to Participate
(http://www.facinghistory.org/resources/publications/facing-history-choosing-participate) includes a case study on Ida B. Wells.

rationale 
best known for her articles exposing the injustices of lynching, she also wrote against Jim Crow
segregation and in support of women’s suffrage. During World War I, journalists’ accounts of the
mass murder of Armenians rallied the public to pressure their governments to intervene and stop
the abuses. Americans reacted to these reports of suffering Armenians with one of the largest
humanitarian responses in the history of the United States. 4 Throughout the civil rights movement,
some journalists recognized the role that the press had in furthering the cause against racial dis-
crimination and even risked their lives to report on the civil rights struggle.5

During the civil rights movement, “the press” meant newspapers, magazines, and television. In the
Internet age, the media world is far more complicated. Kristof and others refer to this changing media
landscape throughout Reporter. For anyone with a cell phone or a computer, technology presents excit-
ing opportunities to disseminate their ideas to a public audience. As a result, never before have we
had as much access to information from so many sources. Acknowledging that we are living in the
“most informed of times,” scholar Vartan Gregorian* wonders, “How can all of this knowledge add up
to real understanding?”6 Today, comprehending the words on the page or in a broadcast is no longer
sufficient; we need to be able interpret media with regard to the purpose and perspective of its creators.
Investigation Three of this study guide includes six different accounts of Congo published around the
same time. Comparing these texts gives us the opportunity to practice the media literacy skills that
Professor Pat Aufderheide says are “a basic tool for citizenship in an Information Society.”7

“The people must know before they can act . . .”

– Ida B. Wells

Ultimately, the consequences of reporting are decided not by the journalists but by the audience. Ida B.
Wells wrote hundreds of articles about lynching, but this dreadful practice continued well beyond her
death. Kristof wrote dozens of columns about Darfur, yet over a million Darfuris are living in refugee
camps, unable to return to their homes. Why is this? Eric Metzgar, the director of Reporter, provides
one answer: “Nick won his second Pulitzer Prize for helping to put the Darfur crisis on the interna-
tional radar. But the violence continues because it’s not enough for the public to simply know about a
calamity; we have to care.”8 And for change to take place, we also have to act based on that caring.

But is it the reporter’s role to tell us how to act? No, it is not, according to Metzgar. He argues:

In terms of human rights issues, I don’t believe in this kind of obedient action-taking, if you
will. . . . If you need to be told what to do, I don’t think that that equals the sustained compassion
that is required for us to really take on these issues. You know, if you really want to know what to
do, [it] takes five seconds to put “Congo crisis help” into a Google search engine and then you’re
off. There are a million things you can do. If I tell you one thing that I would do, that directs
everyone down one path. You know, you have to figure out what moves you the most and take
your own path.9

* Vartan Gregorian has spent his life advancing the use of knowledge for human progress and public service. Prior to assuming
his current role as president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, he worked in universities around the country as a professor,
dean, provost, and president. He was also president of the New York Public Library.

 TEACHING REPORTER
Once you have identified what “moves you the most,” what can you do to help? In particular, how can
media—new and old—be used as a tool to prevent injustice and violence, and also as a tool to encour-
age people to respond when children, women, and men are suffering? This is the question explored in
Investigation Four of this study guide.

Watching Reporter and using the materials in this study guide encourage us to consider how the
changing landscape of journalism expands and complicates our role as creators and consumers of the
news. We live in a time when technology gives each of us the opportunity to serve as reporter. What
opportunities and challenges does the “democratization of media” present? How will our choices as
consumers of media shape our understanding of the world? How will our choices as creators of media
shape our communities, near and far?

1. Reporter, (00:12:25).

2. Kristi Heim, “Half the Sky: Q&A with Nicholas Kristof,” The Seattle Times, October 9, 2009, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
html/thebusinessofgiving/2010032989_questions_for_nicholas_kristof.html.

3. Pamela Newkirk, “Ida B. Wells-Barnett: Journalism as a Weapon Against Racial Bigotry,” Media Studies Journal 14 (Spring/
Summer 2000), accessed August 13, 2010, http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/317.html.

4. Facing History and Ourselves, Crime Against Humanity: The Genocide of the Armenians (Brookline, MA: Facing History and
Ourselves National Foundation, Inc., 2004), 134–141.

5. Jack Nelson, “The Civil Rights Movement: A Press Perspective,” Human Rights Magazine (Fall 2001), http://www.abanet.org/irr/hr/
fall01/nelson.html.

6. Vartan Gregorian, foreword in Public Scholarship: A New Perspective for the 21st Century, a report by the Carnegie Corporation of
New York (2004), 5.

7. “Media Literacy Definitions & Quotes,” http://www.frankwbaker.com/Media_Lit_Quotes.html.

8. “Transcript: Caring About Congo,” NOW on PBS, February 12, 2010, http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/607/transcript.html.

9. Ibid.

rationale 
Suggestions for using this
study guide
This study guide has been designed to be used with the documentary Reporter, produced by Stick Fig-
ure Productions. There are many ways to engage with the film and the materials in this study guide.
Some teachers will show the entire 90-minute documentary and have students explore one or more
of the investigations included in this guide. Other classrooms might watch an excerpt from Reporter
and focus on one or two questions from the Viewing Guide. Regardless of how students explore these
materials, we recommend following a similar path:

1. Prepare students to view Reporter: Before viewing all or part of Reporter, prepare students for the
ideas and themes they are about to explore. You might have students write about and/or discuss one
of the Pre-Viewing Questions in the Viewing Guide. Or, to help students think about the purpose for
making (and watching) Reporter, you could have them read the letter from Nicholas Kristof or excepts
from Leana Wen and Will Okun’s “Win a Trip with Nick” winning essays (see pages 9–10). On page 50,
we have included links to resources that describe the humanitarian conflicts referred to in the film—
civil war in Congo and the genocide in Darfur. Prior to watching Reporter, reviewing the background
for these conflicts can increase students’ engagement and comprehension of this material. Additional
pre-viewing lesson ideas can be found on our Reporter website (reporter.facinghistory.org).

2. View all or part of Reporter: While watching the film, we suggest pausing at key moments to clarify
understanding and to give students the opportunity to respond in writing or discussion to what they
have viewed. For ideas on when you might stop the film, consult the Viewing Guide. It includes time
codes for suggested pause moments related to specific questions about themes raised in this film. If
you only have time to show a part of Reporter, reviewing the investigation overviews can help you select
film excerpts that address themes and questions most appropriate for your learning objectives.

3. Reflect on questions and ideas raised in Reporter: Listening to students’ reactions—noting their
interests, questions, and misconceptions—will inform your decisions about how to debrief after
their viewing of Reporter. Exploring one or more of the investigations is a useful post-viewing exer-
cise. The lesson ideas on the Reporter website (reporter.facinghistory.org) suggest different ways to use
the readings in the investigations to deepen students’ understanding of the ideas addressed in
the film. The lesson ideas also recommend projects and assignments that can be used to evaluate
students’ learning.

 TEACHING REPORTER
Educational resources in the study guide

@ Pre-Viewing Readings: To prepare students to view all or part of Reporter, we have included
three readings that introduce students to the main characters in the documentary: Nicholas
Kristof, Leana Wen, and Will Okun. Their writings foreshadow many of the important themes
and questions raised by the film.
@ Viewing Guide: The Viewing Guide includes Pre-Viewing Questions, Viewing Questions, and
Post-Viewing Questions. These questions explore the film’s specific content as it relates to uni-
versal themes such as empathy, social responsibility, and perspective-taking. They can be used
to facilitate large- and small-group discussions, prompt reflective writing, develop projects, and
evaluate student understanding. Questions are labeled with time codes from the film to allow
you to select specific moments on which to focus.
@ Investigations: To deepen students’ understanding of key themes in the film, ten supplemen-
tary readings have been included in this study guide. Readings are organized into four investi-
gations that correspond to specific excerpts and themes from the film. (Refer to the table of con-
tents for a list of readings by investigation.) Each investigation includes the following parts:
• Overviews: Overviews frame the readings and explain how they connect to an excerpt of
the film.
• Readings: Many of the readings included in the study guide—editorials, blog entries, and
photographs—were created by Nicholas Kristof, Leana Wen, and Will Okun while they
were on the trip that is the subject of this documentary. We have also identified additional
readings, such as an excerpt from Paul Slovic’s study on psychic numbing, to give students
an opportunity to further explore ideas presented in Reporter. We strongly recommend that
you preview readings to judge if the content and reading level are appropriate for your stu-
dents. Acknowledging that some readings may be challenging for students, on our website
we have posted teaching strategies aimed at helping students comprehend and interpret
challenging text (www.facinghistory.org/teachingstrategies).
• Connections: After the readings, you will find a collection of questions selected to help clarify
and deepen students’ understanding of themes raised in each investigation. They bring up
points of view that are not represented in the readings and provide opportunities for stu-
dents to connect the ideas in the texts to their own experiences. Teachers often select one or
two questions as the focus for class discussion, journal writing, or an assessment activity.
Sometimes teachers allow students to write about or discuss the question most interesting
to them.
@ Web Resources for Reporter: We have identified helpful online resources that provide back-
ground on events in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Darfur. We also suggest websites
that provide information about Nicholas Kristof, journalism, and writing a news story. As a
pre-viewing resource, information from these links provides students with context to help them
understand the material in the film. As a post-viewing resource, information from these sites
can help students continue their exploration of questions and themes raised in the film.

In addition to these resources, Facing History has developed a website, reporter.facinghistory.org, that
includes streaming video, lesson ideas, and other educational materials for Reporter.

SUGGESTIONS FOR USING THIS STUDY GUIDE 

Introducing Reporter:
Pre-Viewing Readings
The following readings help prepare students to watch Reporter and explore the materials in this
study guide.

Pre-Viewing Reading 1: Letter to Students from Nicholas Kristof

The film Reporter follows New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof on a reporting trip to central
Africa. Facing History asked Kristof what he hoped students would learn from watching Reporter, and
he responded with the following letter. What message do you take away from this letter? What does
this note reveal about Kristof’s goals as a journalist? How would you respond to him?

Dear student,

Watching Reporter and reading materials from its study guide, you probably won’t want to
come to dinner with me—at least not if a warlord is joining us. But I hope you’ll be nour-
ished, if not by a meal together, at least by the ideas
in here. Frankly, these are tough issues for high-school
students, or for people of any age, and some read-
ers might think that they are more appropriate only for
university students. War, genocide and rape are evils
we naturally turn away from. But I hope you will not
only recognize the horrors of these conflicts, but also

Courtesy of Will Okun (www.wjzo.com).

appreciate that they are not inevitable. We can make
a difference, we can chip away at these kinds of out-
rages, and we can as a result make this a somewhat
better world. And since these brutalities are happen-
ing to kids your age, and those much younger—often
by perpetrators who are also your age or younger—it’s
hard to argue that they are irrelevant to your age group.
So welcome to this journey, and I invite you to feel not
only outrage but also a sense that you can give voice Nicholas Kristof, two-time Pulitzer Prize
winner and New York Times columnist
to the voiceless. since 2001, has written extensively about
human rights abuses across the world,
Nicholas Kristof from Darfur to Indonesia.

 TEACHING REPORTER
“Win a Trip With Nick” Winning Essays (April 29, 2007)
In 2007, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof invited teachers and college students to apply to
“Win a Trip with Nick.” Medical student Leana Wen and Chicago teacher Will Okun wrote the winning
essays that gave them the opportunity to join Kristof on a reporting trip to central Africa that summer.
Reporter tells the story of their trip. Below, we have included excerpts from Wen and Okun’s winning
essays. What do these texts reveal about the winners’ reasons for taking this trip? Why do you think
Kristof asked a teacher and a college student to join him?

Pre-Viewing Reading 2: Leana Wen’s Winning Essay1 (excerpt)

If we just looked for them, we can find injustices every-

where. Hurricane Katrina exposed Americans to abject
poverty and health disparities right in our backyard. Many
more injustices exist “over there,” in developing nations,

Courtesy of Will Okun (www.wjzo.com).

that result in millions of preventable deaths and lifetimes of
wasted talent and squandered opportunity. I want to fight
these injustices and change the world.
My upbringing exposed me to injustices firsthand. Raised
in a dissident family in China, I came to the US on politi-
cal asylum after the Tiananmen Square massacre. We were
outsiders in a Communist regime and remained outsiders in
predominantly Mormon Utah and then inner-city Los Angeles. Since graduating from medical
school, Leana Wen has prac-
Though Shanghai, Logan, and Compton have little else in ticed emergency medicine in the
common, they all bear witness to the differences between United States and traveled around
the world speaking about global
the haves and have-nots, and I grew up keenly aware of the health issues.
impact of political, cultural, and socioeconomic oppression.
As a child with life-threatening asthma and debilitating speech impediment, I also confronted
the stigma of disability and the challenges of seeking health care with limited resources.

Yet the mechanisms to address injustices eluded me. I thought that becoming a doctor
would allow me to help those most in need; however, I witnessed more problems than
found solutions that had sustainable rather than short-term impact. . . . Pills might help the
individual patients at that point in their lives, but [that] does not resolve the root causes of
their problems.

Global change requires more than pills and individual-level change: it hinges on concerted
education and mobilization. . . . It is to learn communication to the public as a method
of effecting change that I apply for this opportunity. . . . Treating a patient’s problems and
moving on to the next ailment is not enough, and I want instead to convey my patients’
stories and describe their communities’ struggles. I want to solve global problems by educat-
ing and motivating the public to action. I want to learn these tools from you.

INTRODUCING REPORTER 
Pre-Viewing Reading 3: Will Okun’s Winning Essay2 (excerpt)

Nearly every day after school, I go to students’

houses to shoot photographs of the students

Courtesy of Will Okun (www.wjzo.com).

with their families and friends. Since our
school, Westside Alternative High School,
is located in one of the lowest-income com-
munities of Chicago, there is ample opportu-
nity to photograph the poverty which seem-
ingly envelops their lives. . . . But I do not
take these pictures. These pictures have
already been taken. Book after book, exhibit Will Okun taught English and photography for nine
upon exhibit depict only the poverty and years at Westside Alternative High School in Chicago.
His photography website, www.wjzo.com, features
misery of the current black community in portraits of his former students and their families,
America. Unless you happen to live or work as well as images from his trip to central Africa with
in a black community, it is likely that blacks Nicholas Kristof.
are perceived by the majority of America as either extremely poor and sad (from the media
and photographs) or extremely materialistic and “gangsta” (from rap music and videos).

Instead, I seek to capture the happiness and joy that can occur in everyday moments and
the beauty that exists within every person, regardless of their income. Most importantly, I
try to produce unique portraits that capture the essence of each person. Secondly, I want
the people to be happy with their own photographs. Nothing gives me greater satisfaction
than going into a student’s house and seeing my framed pictures on the walls. Lastly, I
hope my photographs offer another perspective of black American teenagers that is largely
inaccessible to the general public. (My photographs are posted on my www.wjzo.com website,
which receives over 30,000 views a week from all over the world.)

This is the perspective I will bring to Africa with Nick Kristof. While America is only pre-
sented with images representative of Africa’s poverty and misery, I will seek stories and
photographs that will offer our young people a more comprehensive depiction of African
people and culture. I hope my photographs and stories will present young Africans with
an opportunity to educate, communicate with, and relate to young Americans. In addition,
I hope to produce photographs and stories that will emote pleasure and pride from the
Africans themselves.

1. Leana Wen, “Winning Essay: Leana Wen,” New York Times, April 29, 2007, accessed September 19, 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/opinion/29wat-wen.html.

2. Will Okun, “Winning Essay: Will Okun,” New York Times, April 29, 2007, accessed September 19, 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/opinion/29wat-okun.html.

10 TEACHING REPORTER
Viewing Guide for Reporter
The following questions can be used to facilitate large- and small-group discussions, prompt reflec-
tive writing, develop projects, and evaluate student understanding. They are meant to complement,
not replace, the questions raised by students themselves. Also, keep in mind that after exposure to new
material, the best questions are often the simplest: What have you just seen? What ideas strike you as
important or interesting? What questions does this material raise for you? What perspectives were rep-
resented? Which perspectives were left out or de-emphasized?

Pre-Viewing Questions

1. Mother Teresa, a nun famous for her work helping the poor, said, “If I look at the mass, I will never
act. If I look at the one, I will.” What do you think Mother Teresa meant by this statement? Do you
agree or disagree with her? Explain.

2. What is “the news”? Describe your habits related to the news. Where do you get the news? How
often do you read, watch, or listen to the news? What stories interest you the most? Identify a news
story you heard recently that got your attention. What about this story engaged you?

3. Write a job description for a reporter. What is a reporter’s job? What skills are required to do this
job well?

4. If you wanted to get people to care about an issue facing your community, how would you get them
to care? What information would be most likely to motivate people to do something to address this
issue?

5. What do you know about the Democratic Republic of Congo? How or where did you learn this
information? What do you know about Darfur? How or where did you learn this information?

Viewing Questions

(Time codes indicate where you might pause the film to reflect on the question in writing or through
discussion.)

1. Who is Nicholas Kristof? What do we know about him? (6:30)

2. Journalism expert Tom Rosenstiel believes that travel is important to Kristof’s work as a reporter,
explaining, “I think that bearing witness is a critical element of what makes some columns better
than others, and there are certain kinds of stories that need to have witness borne in person. It just
is more powerful to go there.” What does it mean to “bear witness”? What responsibilities come
with bearing witness to an event or situation? (7:16)

VIEWING GUIDE 11
 3. Stephen Colbert asks Kristof, “Why should we pay attention to the rest of the world?” How would
you respond to this question? (14:03)

4. Describe the results of the Rokia study. What did Paul Slovic learn about the “psychology of com-
passion” from this study? To what degree do these results represent your own experience? (16:31)

5. In the film, Kristof says, “I’m outraged at what I see and I want it to stop, and I think one way you
can fight a militia is with UN peacekeepers with large guns. Another way you can fight them is
with small notebooks and pens.” Respond to Kristof’s statement. To what extent can a journalist
help stop civil war and prevent human rights abuses, if at all? (22:40)

6. Describing his dilemma about whether or not to travel to a displacement camp outside of Goma,
Kristof explains, “I want to get a good story but I don’t want to put them [Leana and Will] at risk or
make them feel uncomfortable.” What are the risks involved in this mission? What advice would
you give to Kristof as he decides whether to go or turn back? What do you think he will decide to
do? What makes you think this? (30:54)

7. Kristof reveals that most of the time when he hears stories of rape and abuse, they don’t really
bother him because he approaches these stories with “professional distance.” How do you recon-
cile (make sense of) Kristof’s desire to rouse compassion in his readers and his own dispassionate
(unemotional) reaction to these stories? Is compassion something that can be turned on and off
like a switch? If so, what activates our sense of empathy? What turns it off? (36:25)

8. What is the difference between the way Leana Wen responds to Yohanita and the way Nicholas
Kristof responds? Given that their purpose for being in this village is to find a story, do you think
that the team of journalists should stop their reporting to try to save Yohanita? Why or why not?
(55:14)

9. How does General Nkunda explain how he came to have his position as leader of a rebel militia?
He calls himself a “liberator,” while Kristof refers to him as a “warlord.” Which title is most appro-
priate for him? What does this exchange reveal about the power of language? (1:13:27)

10. What are your thoughts after seeing Kristof interview child soldiers? What did the child soldiers do
to end up as Nkunda’s prisoners? If they are guilty of committing crimes, should they be punished
for their actions even though they are under the age of 18? Should we think of the actions of child
soldiers the same way we think about the actions of adult soldiers? Why or why not? (1:15:56)

11. At the end of the film, the narrator says, “The most recent statistic states that 5.4 million people
have died in Congo over the last decade as a result of the ongoing warfare, and that 1.2 million
people are now displaced in eastern Congo alone.” What does Kristof think needs to happen to end
the humanitarian disaster in Congo? Who do you think is responsible for helping the Congolese?
(1:28:15)

12 TEACHING REPORTER
Post-Viewing Questions

1. Identify an image from the film that was particularly powerful for you. What about this image
moved you? How did it make you feel? What questions does it raise for you?

2. Why do you think the filmmakers made this film? What message (or messages) are they trying to
express? What do you notice about how the filmmakers shot the film? What techniques did they
use to help communicate their message? What might you have done differently if you were the
filmmaker?

3. Why do you think Kristof wanted to bring a college student and a teacher with him on a report-
ing trip to central Africa? Why bring a student and a teacher, as opposed to anyone in the general
public? What do you think of this decision? Would you want to travel with Kristof on a reporting
trip? Why or why not?

4. Kristof argues that the media does not pay enough attention to the problems in Congo and other
places around the world. Yet some people criticize him for only covering stories that involve human
misery (wars, disease, extreme poverty, etc.). What do you think of this critique of Kristof’s writ-
ing? Is his coverage unfair to Congo? Why or why not?

5. Kristof assumes that it is important for people to know about what is happening “on the other side
of the hill.” Yet most of us only have a limited amount of time to read or watch the news. Where
do you think our attention should be focused—on learning about places close to home or far away,
or both? Explain your answer.

6. Nicholas Kristof is a columnist whose articles appear on an editorial page. His articles do not
appear in the news section of the paper. Does this distinction matter? Why or why not?

7. Identify a challenge or dilemma Kristof confronts when writing his column. What do you think
about how he handles this situation?

8. Describe Kristof’s method for writing his column. What do you think of his writing method? What
aspects of it appeal to you? What aspects of it concern you? What tips about reporting do you take
away from watching Reporter?

9. Kristof explains, “I spent a lot of time trying to put various crises on the international map. Maybe
the most difficult to put there is Congo.” What has made it so hard to bring attention to the devasta-
tion in Congo? What does this reveal about the way that news is reported and published? Would you
suggest any changes to the criteria that get a story on the front page? If so, what would they be?

10. Kristof hopes that his writing galvanizes people to do something to make the world a better
place. Has reading a newspaper article or editorial ever roused you to take action? If so, why do
you think this article affected you? If not, why do you think this is the case? What has inspired
you to care about others?

VIEWING GUIDE 13
 11. When you feel an obligation to care for and protect someone, you include that person in your
universe of responsibility. Who does Kristof include in his universe of responsibility? What do
you know about Kristof’s identity—his values, background, and experiences—that might have
influenced how he defines his universe of responsibility? Who do you include in your universe of
responsibility? What has influenced your choices about whom to include?

14 TEACHING REPORTER
Investigation One
Why don’t people act? Confronting psychic numbing

The readings in this investigation have been selected to deepen our understanding of ideas presented
in chapters 3 and 4 (12:05–19:56) of the documentary Reporter (approximately 8 minutes). In this clip,
Stephen Colbert asks his guest on The Colbert Report, Nicholas Kristof, “Why should we pay attention
to the rest of the world?” Kristof answers this question by referring to social science research about “the
psychology of compassion” and explains how he applies this knowledge when writing about the genocide
in Darfur.

Overview

According to the International Association of Genocide Scholars, in the twentieth century more people
have died from genocide and mass murder than from all wars.1 After each atrocity, men and women in
the international community cry “Never again,” but human rights abuses against innocent children,
women, and men continue. In his job as a reporter for the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof has been
able to see these human rights abuses firsthand, winning a Pulitzer Prize for bringing attention to
the genocide in Darfur. Yet despite the attention Kristof and others have drawn to this humanitarian
disaster, the violence continues. Why is this the case?

Looking to history can help us address this question. In the 1940s, Jan Karski, a courier for the Pol-
ish resistance, publicized reports about Nazi atrocities to a mostly unbelieving audience. After the
war, he spoke of his attempts to alert people to the mass murder of European Jews, explaining, “The
tragedy was that these testimonies were not believed. Not because of ill will, but simply because the
facts were beyond human imagination.”2 During the Holocaust, many people did not intervene to stop
the genocide because they were not able to “imagine the unimaginable.” As Professor Larry Langer
argues, “Even with the evidence before our eyes, we hesitate to accept the worst.”*

In his editorial “Save the Darfur Puppy,” Kristof provides another reason why many people do not
respond when confronted with information about genocide or humanitarian disasters. Drawing on
the work of Paul Slovic, a professor who studies the psychology of compassion, Kristof explains that
“the human conscience just isn’t pricked by mass suffering, while an individual child (or puppy)
in distress causes our hearts to flutter.”3 He refers to studies that demonstrate how people are more
likely to help one person, or even one animal, than they are to help hundreds of suffering people.
This investigation includes that editorial as well as an excerpt from the abstract ** of Slovic’s study
on psychic numbing and genocide.

* The reading “Is Knowledge Enough?” (pages 367–370) in Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior provides
more information about why people may have ignored or discounted information about Nazi atrocities during the Holocaust.

** An abstract is a brief summary that highlights the main points of an academic study.

WHY DON’T PEOPLE ACT? 15

Both of these readings help us think about a concept called “psychic numbing.” Psychiatrist Robert
J. Lifton* coined this term to refer to “a general category of diminished capacity or inclination to
feel.”4 Writing about the “numbing of everyday life,” he explains, “We are bombarded by all kinds of
images and influences and we have to fend some of them off if we’re to take in any of them, or to
carry through just our ordinary day’s work. . . .”5 In her book High Tide in Tucson, novelist Barbara
Kingsolver affirms Lifton’s observation that people numb themselves to disturbing information:

Confronted with knowledge of dozens of apparently random disasters each day, what can
a human heart do but slam its doors? No mortal can grieve that much. We didn’t evolve to
cope with tragedy on a global scale. Our defense is to pretend there’s no thread of event
that connects us, and that those lives are somehow not precious and real like our own. It’s a
practical strategy, to some ends, but the loss of empathy is also the loss of humanity, and that’s
no small tradeoff.6

Kingsolver writes about how the loss of empathy is also the loss of humanity: by closing themselves
off to caring for others, people can allow horrible crimes to occur.

“It is possible to live in a twilight between knowing and not knowing.

It is possible to refuse full realization of facts because one feels
unable to face the implications of these facts.” 7
– W. A. Visser’t Hooft, a Dutch theologian, explaining why he and many others
discounted early accounts of Nazi crimes

While acknowledging the costs of psychic numbing, Lifton also identifies a benefit: sometimes numb-
ing allows you to perform a task that would be challenging if you were distracted by strong emotions.
He explains:

And yet, [psychic numbing] isn’t all negative. For instance, I realize that if you take the example
of a surgeon who is performing a delicate operation, you don’t want him or her to have the same
emotions as a family member of that person being operated on. There has to be some level of
detachment where you bring your technical skill to bear on it.8

Supporting Lifton’s argument, Kristof reveals how he experiences a degree of psychic numbing in his
own work as a journalist:

In a career [of ] reporting I heard a lot of really wrenching stories about murder and rape and
everything else, and at this point, and see I’m not really proud of it, I may be a little embarrassed
about it, [but] I can listen pretty dispassionately to the most inhuman stories. And they, most
of the time, don’t, you know, really bother me. Maybe it’s that sort of clinical role of a—of
a surgeon somewhere in [an] operating theater, but I can, you know, approach things normally
as a journalist and treat it with a certain amount of professional distance.9

* Lifton found evidence of psychic numbing in the survivors of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima and in Nazi doctors who performed
inhumane experiments on concentration camp prisoners.

16 TEACHING REPORTER
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would reallocate
reallocate for There’s
There’s
the new a
afarm big
big catch, catch,
bill, thethough:
though: Bush small
small
ad- the can switch
market cost from
program as much is paper.
the health
asresidents
nutrition $1,500without
edu- ising
nowup
andpenalty open
incu to
the poor, including two programs But, income it turns neighborhoodsout, new efforts where to en-
tofresh
gal
information about human suffering around the world. What do we do with this information? What
WIC benefits benefits now restricted
restricted eggs ministration farmers might might notto reap athe windfall. for steep
cation
don’t that
steep comes
monthly
monthly that with it.existing conditions.
service
service fees,
fees,
all individ
not
not put
buy at farmers’ WIC now toto eat eggs farmers
— would be entitled
not reap $6 the windfall.
month and, market managers say, the
million Seniors Farmers’ them toMarket suggested making recipients
The need
know
for farmers
the
toget enter year
Using
theend.
that allow
Nutrition Program and the separate courage
produce food-aid
isproducts,
otherwise recipients a rarity stamps can beYes, used at supermarkets
farmers’ mar- may lars,wellit has made the plan fre
markets. and
and dairy
dairy products, which
which
should we do with it? There are no simple answers to these questions, and in our attempts to address have
have long
long Over
Over
produce.
available the
the past
past
And
$200 in15
15
million, its years,
years,initial
starting most
most proposalsstates
states
next kets. Acashless mention
mention
have
the great
reason often seeneconomy
majority
given workers
workers
their
for of sales
is
theincreased
poor trained
trained
obvious.
and bene- with
plummet
limited tocost
to
Wire-
the more
wit us
us
to
$25 million Farmers’
That normally Market Nutri-
would be great for more “food fruitsdeserts.’’ and vegetables — which of incomecover ins
tion Programsmall (part of theWithout
farmers. food aid enjoyed the
the guaran- enjoyed the muscle muscle of of well-financed
well-financed year, have
have
for the
to switched
switched
buy new fruits farm from
from
and bill, paper
paper the
vegetables coupons
coupons
Bush for
great
ad- less them?
them?
successfits
the of
for the
switch
card
WIC
fresh farmers’
produce.
from
readers
percent
But
paper.
will a small
benefit
for famili
both
are But, calamitouslyout, underrepresented
them we confront how we define our universe of responsibility—the individuals and groups whom
lobbies,it turns fruits new andefforts to en- Finally, we’re beginning to under- market program less
slice is willing
oftheanutrition
much toedu- give
larger
ing
in could
up
pie
to
the third
$52,000 fund. sce
a year. It r
program forteed income from
families known the farmas bill’s $15 lobbies, to fruits
to and vegetables,
vegetables, the for
for
ministration
poor. foodIf stamps
food stamps
such to debit
to
suggested
suggestions debit cards, cards,
get making
ap- re- that
re-
cation
people comes Without
Without
The on need
with it.
food card
card
for
assistance
allreaders,
readers,
farmers individuals to obtain
and to farmer
farmer
enter
foodiesTheinsur th
ref
WIC), some smallmilliongrowers Seniors would Farmers’ be Market in American
courage diets
food-aid — could
recipients end to up eat stand what it would take to galvanize amount
nario, to
inmay as
which much Rokia’sas
year or end. more
suffering
And it requires wa bu
out of business,
Nutrition Program and the separate which
and many others which haven’t. haven’t. Millions Millions of
we feel an obligation to care for and protect. For whom do we show compassion and empathy? Why? of children
children proved, moving
moving
available the
the
hundreds $200 stigma
stigma million,
of of redemption
of redemption
millions starting more next
Yes, supermarkets
at
theat who fear
fear
money
cashless (like they
they
than
well get
will
will
farmers’
economy
me) lose
lose
don’t markets
with the
isthe
carry
more now
obvious. bulk
bulk
than
sponsibilit
all of
of
10 employeesWir
the th
th
$25 million Farmers’ Market Nutri-
would be reluctant to sell in oflow-
shutting
more fruits out the andsmall vegetables farmers — who which President Bush, other leaders and great majority
presented
getproduce.
of increased
from food-assistance as bene-
part of
programs.
cover ainsurance
broader or pay pat into
tion Program
income neighborhoods where
(part the food aid
Under what conditions? In the following readings, Kristof and Slovic point out that all too often we
freshknown as are are thecalamitously
backbone of these markets.
underrepresented the
the
year,
dollars
the checkout
checkout
to buybe
could
American counter.
counter.
fruitsspent
public and everytoThe
The
vegetables WIC
WIC on
year
respond pro-
Tim
fits Lane
pro-
for
to
slice
for fresh
ofcash
farm
farm
less
atern. And
much they the
bill
bill
card
larger
Buthelp
end
new pie
a smallthey
help
readers
up
money
could they
eager fund.
available
get
get
will to spend. now,
now,
benefit
for
and
and But bot bb
program for families
gram, which still uses paper, will shut out of those new hundreds
Ab
would be entitledKummer,to $6 a monthaforsenior and, market managers say, they bill still
would let food-aid recipients buy toshut The reform gives everyon
produce is otherwise
WIC), some a rarity — would Corby
be Corby
The
in And Kummer,
Agriculture
American a senior
Department editor
editor has at
at freshgram,
the poor.
produce. which If such uses
suggestions paper, get will
ap-
amount
who people
fruit will
as much
and out on
pay as of
vegetablesor those
food
for more assistance
the
would new
machines,
mean hundreds
that and foodie
which uno
in its initial diets — could end theirup the genocide in and Sudan: a suffering
small growers
define our universe of responsibility narrowly, making room for only one person. What would our
out of business, and many others produce. proposals have seen sales plummet with fruits vegetables wherever they than
money Evidence
farmers’
“specialty markets
crops” is—now overwhelming
sponsibility. But itthat
the kind we actu-
leaveshu
“food deserts.’’ The
theThe Atlantic
new Atlantic Monthly,
Monthly, ad- is isthe
the
the author
author of puppy
of most likely
most
proved, likely
ahundreds docatch,
do the
the
find same.same.
of millions Most
Most farm-
farm-
more millions.
millions.
who (like The
The proposals
proposals at
at the
the allAgrAgr
proposed
shutting rules
outthe that
the would
small reallocate
farmers who There’s with big
big eyes though:
and floppy small
ears. can cost asme)
asofprograms.
much as don’t$1,500 carry and incur th
heal
get from food-assistance
But, it turnswould
out, new be reluctant
efforts to sell infor
to en- low- farm
fresh “The Pleasures
bill, Bush switch from paper. can them. That means
Tim Lane super- mans
ally think respond food,to the
as suffering
opposed to of ind
courage food-aid
income neighborhoods where ministration
recipients to eat WIC “The
are Pleasures
benefits
the suggested
backbone to $6 aof
now of
makingSlow
Slow
communities—local, national, and global—look like if more people were in the habit of paying atten-
restricted
of these Food.’’
for Food.’’
The toneed
markets. eggs formanagers
farmers ers,
ers,
dollars
farmers to enter
That’s ofmight
of course,
course,
could
the
the markets
not don’t
bedon’t spent
reap
implication — which take
take
every
the plastic
plastic
remain
ayear
windfall.
of the most
series
And
—
on the culture
—andsteep new money available
culture
cash
crops monthly they
like Department
Department
corn, end soy
for
upandeager
service cotton and
and fees,toin
that inspend.the
the
not farm far
toBu
produce is otherwise a rarity — would be entitled month and, market say, they bill would let food-aid recipients buy fruit viduals
vegetables wouldrathermean thatthan A better way o
groups. Think o
more fruits and
are calamitously
“foodvegetables
deserts.’’ — which
available
and
$200 million,
produce.
dairy
The
tion to those in need, rather than tuning them out?
But,underrepresented
it turns out, new efforts to en- year, to buy
for fruits
the new
And in its
products,
Agriculture
and
farm
starting
vegetables
bill, the
next cashless
initial proposals
which
Bush Department
for ad-
have seen
have
less
the card
switch
economy
long
their sales
from has
readers paper.
is plummet
Over
will
obvious.with
offresh the
studies
benefit
Wire-fruits
produce.
past
both by
can
convenient
15
and vegetables
find years,
psychologists
Farmers’ them.
place
market
That
wherever
most
means
to buy they produce.
states
trying
advocates
super-
“specialty
toare mention
ally think of
get the
who
crops”
the
dollar
—will
toddler
as food,
much
the
commodity
pay
workers
kind criticized
as opposed
we for
actu-
Jessica
subsidies
to
themultibillion-
machines,
trained
McClure with
health care is w
— would to whic
use
fallin
in American courage
diets —food-aid could end up to
recipients enjoyed
theeatpoor. If suchthe
proposed
ministration muscle
rules
suggested
suggestions getof
that ap- well-financed
would
making people reallocate
The need
on food forassistance
farmers have to andThere’s
understand switched
enter the markets
foodies awhybig
alarmed.—catch,
from people
which
paper
The though:
remain
— the
money good,mostsmall
coupons
will gocon- them?
to thelike
crops can
down
finally
corn, soy costaget wellas
and support
cotton much
inthat fromasthe
1987, or$1,500 the
farmLindberg and incu
shutting out themore
are
fruits farmers
small
calamitously
are the backbone of these markets.
and vegetables which available
who — proved,
underrepresented lobbies,
dollars WIC hundreds
could bebuy
$200ofmillion,
year, tobenefitsto fruits
spent
millions
fruits
andnow
every
starting
more
and
vegetables
year on
next who cashless
(like economy
for vegetables,
restricted less card
cash they to me) don’t
eggs
readers
end up
is obvious.
for
will
eager
carry Wire-
farmers
scientious
benefit
to food
spend.
all theconvenient
bothstamps
But might centralized
people
Farmers’
supply not
to
place to
—
market reap
aren’t
debit
supermarkets,
buy produce.
industrial
the
advocates moved
cards, they
farmsgetthat
windfall.
are re-
say by
dollar
—
the much
the
bill.criticized
steep
Without
commodity
Moremonthly
subsidies
multibillion-
people
card
—
wouldservice
would readers, within our mea
eat healthier fees,farmers not t
the poor. If such suggestions get ap- people on food assistance and foodies alarmed. The money will go to the finally get diets, and farmers might start grow- the majo
in American diets — could end up whichand haven’t.
dairy products, Millions
farmers who proved, hundreds of millions more who (like me) don’tmoving
which of
whochildren
have pay long genocide
Over oronesfamines.
the centralized
past
stigma 15 years,
of redemption Time
most and
states
at andfear mention
support from workers
ing they willthe farm
lose the trained bulk of tothe us
NICHOLAS D.
D. KRISTOF
KRISTOF
The Agriculture
shuttingDepartment
out the small has
fresh produce. will for the machines, all which that crush small farmers
NICHOLAS
carry the industrial farms that bill. More people even
would eat better-tasting
healthier varieties, while gett
proposed rules arethat would reallocate
the backbone of these markets. There’senjoyed
a bigcould
dollars catch,the
be spent muscle
though: every yearof
small on well-financed
cancashcostthey asend much up eager the again,
as $1,500
tohave andBut
checkout
spend. we’ve
incur
switched waste seen
counter.
supply fuel. that
from
supermarkets, The theythe
paper WIC human
say —coupons
pro-
the diets, andfarm them?
confident
farmers bill might ofhelp
finding
start grow- a market.
they get
the now,
majority withand
sult,
secure itbehas in
WIC benefits now Therestricted
Reading 1: “Save the Darfur Puppy”
AgriculturetoDepartment eggs farmers has fresh
Corby
might
lobbies,
not reap the windfall. steep
produce.
pastKummer, tocatch, fruits astates The more who die
andmention
senior
who willmonthly
vegetables,
editor
pay for service
the machines,
at as10$1,500
fees,which
conscience
gram, for and food
not toones that
which just
stamps
So:crushHelpsmall
fuel.isn’t
still
small
to pricked
uses debit paper,
farmers
farmers and and
bytruly
cards, mass
will
ing the
re-
localshut
Many othervarieties,
even better-tasting
Without
outafarm of bill
programs
card
those could new
while proposed
readers,
getting the rest
hundreds
Experienc
covered.
farmer isof

Save the Darfur P

and dairy products,
proposedwhich rules thathavewouldlongreallocate
Over the There’s 15a years,
big mostthough: small can cost as much
workers trained incur
to usewaste places dedicated to selling confident offor
finding
the market. sult,
bring it locally
has had strong plan public aca
WIC benefits
enjoyed the muscle now restricted tohave
of well-financed The which
eggs switched
farmers might
Atlantic haven’t.not
the past 15Monthly,
from paperreap the Millions
windfall. them?
coupons is themention of
steep
author children
monthly service suffering,
of trained most fees, not to
moving use the
likely while
doSo:
the
food,Helporan
stigma small
same.
helpofindividual
farmers
redemption
the Most and the
sharply farm- child
increasing atthemillions.
Many other
fear
grown they
programs
food The will
proposals
to proposed
places lose
that wantthe
Experience
atand bulk
with it
thedelivering of
Agri-
offers tha

the less
and dairy products, which have long workers to
lobbies, to fruits and vegetables, for foodOver stamps to debit years, most states
cards,couponsre- Without card readers, (or farmers
puppy)
places
food, in
dedicated
number of to
distress
selling
people truly local
struggling
causes
forfeed
to
our
farm bill could bring locally plan is accumulating.
need it, like schools and hospitals. change. And be T
which haven’t.
enjoyed the muscle of well-financed
Millions of children “The havePleasures
switched from of paper Slow Food.’’ them? ers, the of checkout
course, counter.
ordon’t
help
themselves
thetake
sharplyThe WIC
plastic
increasing pro-
— foodfarm
grown culture to places billthat help
Department want and they it and get
offers ain now,the
mechanism and
farm
may cove
that can b
lobbies, to fruits and vegetables, moving for thefood
stigma of redemption at re- fearWithout
they will cardlose the bulk of thenumber of people and their tofamilies? The Butschools
farmers’ and markets
hospitals. are whereThe
change. theguaranteed hea
which haven’t. Millions of children Corby
the checkoutmovingcounter.
stamps
theKummer,
stigma
to debit cards,
The WIC apro-
of redemption senior fear editor
at farm bill
theyhelp will theyat the
lose
hearts
readers,
getgram,
farmers
now,ofand
bulk
to
thewhich
flutter.
most
bethemselves still
equitable
and their
struggling
uses way paper,
families?to
feed need
The will
help farmer’s
it, like
But farmers’ shut canout
billmarkets are of
best serve
where those
thecooks may new
—cover a fre- hundreds
5 percent of the a
first, but o
The following editorial was written by columnist Nicholas Kristof and published in the New York Timeswe care.
Corby Kummer, a senior editor at gram, The which still counter.
the checkout
Atlantic
Finally,
Finally,
gram,
uses paper,
we’re
we’re
The WIC
Monthly, willpro- shut
beginning
beginning is farm
the
shutto
out
to
billofhelp
author under-
under-
those
they new
of new less
most
get now,
less
Inandone
hundreds be ofmost
likely
willing
willing
experiment,
markets
doequitable may
the
tosupport
to give
give
way tobe
same.
inurge
in
psychologists
help
the
the
to farmer’s
Mosturge legislators
third
third farm- bill can best
sce-
sce-
quently
millions.
that
serve cooks
that 30,000
well-financed,
30,000 The— a fre- always
proposals
children
alwayschildren
first, butopin-
opin- integrates, diethat
die
as job-based
at
daily
daily
the plan
integrates
the
ercan
health c
Agr
of
of
manytake th
th n
in
The Atlantic Monthly,
Corby Kummer, is the author a senior most
of editor at likely dowhich
the same. still uses
Mostpaper, farm- will millions. outThe of thoseproposals hundreds
at the of markets
Agri- to may begood
to legislators
programs already
quently in well-financed,
ionated special-interest group
“The Pleasures of Slow Food.’’ asked
ers, ofordinary citizens tothe contribute
incourse, don’t take plastic culture
— special-interest startDepartment and in the farm
er many necessary.
The ofAtlantic Monthly, is the author
stand
most likely
ers,ofofstand
opinion section on May 10, 2007. what
what do the
ititsame.
would
would Most
take
farm-
take — to
to galvanize
galvanize
millions. The proposals
nario,
at in
nario,
thetheAgri-
in which
to support
which Rokia’s
goodbill,
Rokia’s
programs
suffering
already
suffering was
in ionated
consequences
consequences group that
of
of poverty
Ø poverty
Ø —has
— presum
The
presum re
In was
“The Pleasures Slow Food.’’ course, don’t take plastic — culture Department and farm the farm like Farmers’ Mar- should acting like one.
“The Pleasures of Slow Food.’’ ers, of course, don’t take plastic culture Department and$5 in the to farm
alleviate the farmhungerbill, like theabroad.
Farmers’ Mar- one
should start acting like one. The reform its hurd
question.
President Bush,
President Bush, other leaders and version, other leaders and presented as
presented as part part of of aa broaderbroader pat- ing
pat- ing that this number that this number question. will
will shock
Some shock
residents pe
peoar

the American
the American public public to to respond
respond to to tern. tern.
the money would go to a par-
ple into
ple
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
into action. action. But
about being madeabout
But
erage the the
— 6 percent opposite
opposite
to buybei
erageof incom
hea
—
ticular girl, Rokia, a 7-year-old in nothing. Next April, nothing. when
the genocide
the genocide in in Sudan:
Sudan: aa suffering
suffering Evidence
Evidence is overwhelming
is overwhelming that hu- hu- baby true: the
true: the more victims,
more victims, theinless
the less com
com
to 21 million that kidnapping in kicks 1932 (whic

Save the Darfur P

NICHOLAS
NICHOLAS D.KRISTOF
D. KRISTOF
Mali; in another, hungry penalty penalty
(refusers kw
puppy with
puppy with big big eyes eyes and and floppyfloppy ears. ears. mans
mans respond
respond to
to the
the suffering
suffering of
of indi-
indi- passion. described
passion.
Mencken
their
as
personal
the
tax exemptio
their per
“the big
Africans; in a third, to Rokia — but NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Savethe
the Darfur
Darfur Puppy
will hear about it. As enrollm

Save Puppy
That’s the the implication
implication of of aa series series viduals will hear
That’s viduals rather thanas groups. Think of Instory
In one experiment,
one experiment, people
in people inin inon on
wasrather than groups. Think of of thecosts the guaranteed pl
she presented a victim a gest since Resurrection”).
there will also be intense costs pub
of studies
of studies by by psychologists
psychologists trying trying to to the the toddler
toddler Jessica
Jessica McClure
McClure falling
falling group
groupEven could
could the donate
donate
right to
to
animaltoa a $300,000
$300,000 there
evokes fun
fun
will

Save the Darfur P

larger tapestry of global hunger. sure increase the minim
Finally, we’re beginning to under- understand understand why
why people
in the people
third sce- — — good, con- die down for who medical treatments that sure wou to in
togood, con- for medical treatments ployer contribution
stand
Finally, we’re what it would
beginning take to galvanize
to under- less willing
less willing to give
Finally,
nario,to in give
which we’re
in the third
Rokia’s beginning
sufferingsce-was that
that 30,000 children
under-
30,000
consequences children
of povertyless down
die —dailyNot
willing
presum-ofaa well
surprisingly,
theandtoNATOin
give
polish
1987,
the in
or
daily of the NATO rapid-response capability, side). Those
well in 1987, or
people
the the
the
rapid-response
“responsibility thirdLindbergh
Lindbergh
were
to pro- sce-less
less. that
capability, similar
side). 30,000
did math donated
Those sympathy.
children
who did math Adie
$295) dogand daily
donated clampthat
stranded down
ployer
(curren
of woul theon cooth
scientious
scientious people
people —— aren’t
aren’t moved
moved by
by save the life of one child — or, in a
asave thearoused life of of poverty
one child —presum-
or, intha an
President Bush, other leaders and presented as part of a broader pat- ing that this number will shock peo- tect” as a legal basis to stop atroci- So maybe what we need isn’t better But this is what a real
$295) system
and
stand what it would take to galvanize nario,
the American public to respond stand
in which Rokia’s suffering was consequences
to tern. what it would take to ple galvanize of poverty
into action. But nario, thelikely
— presum-
in to
whichgive and to polish
Rokia’s anonymousthe “responsibility
suffering millions
was less.
to pro-consequences ship so much
gathering — everyone pity in and
President Bush, the genocide in Sudan: a suffering genocide
other leaders and presented genocide
as part of or aor broader famines.
famines. pat- ingtrue: Time
Time
that this number and
and opposite is ties. (The Genocide
will shock peo- tect” as a legal basis to stop atroci- otherIntervention Net- laws but more
othertroubled
So maybe group,
by group,
consciences
what we the
the —
lives
needlives isn’t
hardbetter of eight
of eight chi
But thischise
the Americanpuppy public withto bigrespond to tern. President Evidence isBush, overwhelming other that hu- leaders
ple the and
the more
into action.
victims, the than
Butpresented
the
less com-
opposite to Rokia.as
is
workpart and But
ties.on of Enough
the
(The a they
theseGenocide
broader were
project
things.) Intervention
are also
pat- pricked,ing
Net- $48,000
perhaps,that a in
this
Darfur private
number
puppy money
the
will —was
shock
choices.
gatheringspen
peo-
eyes and floppy again,
ears. again,mans respond we’ve
we’ve seen
seen
to the suffering that
ofthat the
indi- passion. human
human working with big eyes laws
and but
dren.
dren. floppy more ears.troubled
People
People Once wedonated consciences
donated The approach more
more is not just tha
tha
thevidualsAmerican public toof true:
respond tovictims,
The more who die trying to rescue
the genocide inThat’s Sudan: a sufferingof a series
the implication Evidence Finally,
is overwhelming
rather than we’re groups. beginning
that hu-
Think to
Inthe under-
onemoreexperiment, tern. less
the less
people inwilling
onecom- But, tofrankly,
work give
and after in the
the Enough
four third
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he toddler Jessica McClure falling
own a well in 1987, or the Lindbergh
The more who die
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aby kidnapping in 1932 (which
Mencken described as the “the big-
est story since the Resurrection”).
Even the right animal evokes a
imilar sympathy. A dog stranded on
ship aroused so much pity that
48,000 in private money was spent
rying to rescue it — and that was be-
ore the Coast Guard stepped in. And
fter I began visiting Darfur in 2004,
was flummoxed by the public’s pas-
ion to save a red-tailed hawk, Pale
Male, that had been evicted from his
est on Fifth Avenue in New York
City. A single homeless hawk
roused more indignation than two
million homeless Sudanese.
Advocates for the poor often note
18 TEACHING REPORTER
group could donate to a $300,000 fund
for medical treatments that would
save the life of one child — or, in an-
other group, the lives of eight chil-
dren. People donated more than
twice as much money to help save
one child as to help save eight.
Likewise, remember how people
were asked to save Rokia from star-
vation? A follow-up allowed students
to donate to Rokia or to a hungry boy
named Moussa. Both Rokia and
Moussa attracted donations in the
same proportions. Then another
group was asked to donate to Rokia
and Moussa together. But donors felt
less good about supporting two chil-
dren, and contributions dropped off.
“Our capacity to feel is limited,”
Paul Slovic of the University of Ore-
gon writes in a new journal article,
“Psychic Numbing and Genocide,”
which discusses these experiments.
Professor Slovic argues that we can-
not depend on the innate morality
even of good people. Instead, he be-
lieves, we need to develop legal or po-
litical mechanisms to force our
hands to confront genocide.
So, yes, we should develop early-
warning systems for genocide, pre-
pare an African Union, U.N. and
watching the U.N. Security Council, should call ABC News. ABC’s news
the International Criminal Court and judgment can be assessed by the 11
the Genocide Convention accomplish minutes of evening news coverage it
little in Darfur, I’m skeptical that ei- gave to Darfur’s genocide during all
ther human rationality or interna- of last year — compared with 23 min-
tional law can achieve much unless
backed by a public outcry.
utes for the false confession in the
JonBenet Ramsey case.
One experiment underscored the If President Bush and the global
limits of rationality. People prepared public alike are unmoved by the
to donate to the needy were first asked
either to talk about babies (to prime
slaughter of hundreds of thousands of
fellow humans, maybe our last, best
the emotions) or to perform math cal- hope is that we can be galvanized by a
culations (to prime their rational puppy in distress. Ø
A Note to Readers
The Op-Ed columnists now appear on the following schedule:
SUNDAY Maureen Dowd, Thomas L. Friedman and Frank Rich
MONDAY Nicholas D. Kristof and Paul Krugman
TUESDAY David Brooks and Bob Herbert
WEDNESDAY Thomas L. Friedman and Maureen Dowd
THURSDAY Gail Collins* and Nicholas D. Kristof
FRIDAY Paul Krugman and David Brooks
SATURDAY Bob Herbert and Gail Collins*
*Gail Collins’s column will begin in July.
© Gideon Mendel, Corbis.
The “Rokia study” demonstrates that
when people are shown a single human
face, they are more likely to donate than
when they are presented with statistics or
even the image of two victims.
Reading 2: Psychic Numbing and Genocide11

The following excerpt is from the abstract (summary) of a research paper written by Dr. Paul Slovic,
professor of psychology at the University of Oregon. It was published in the academic journal Judgment
and Decision Making (April 2007).

Most people are caring and will exert great effort to rescue individual victims whose needy
plight comes to their attention. These same good people, however, often become numbly
indifferent to the plight of individuals who are “one of many” in a much greater problem.
Why does this occur? The answer to this question will help us answer a related question
that is the topic of this paper: Why, over the past century, have good people repeatedly
ignored mass murder and genocide? . . .

My search to identify a fundamental deficiency in human psychology that causes us to

ignore mass murder and genocide has led to a theoretical framework that describes the
importance of emotions and feelings in guiding decision making and behavior. Perhaps the
most basic form of feeling is affect, the sense (not necessarily conscious) that something
is good or bad. Affective responses occur rapidly and automatically—note how quickly
you sense the feelings associated with the word “treasure” or the word “hate.” . . . One last
important psychological element in this story is attention. Just as feelings are necessary
for motivating helping, attention is necessary for feelings.

The behavioral theories and data confirm what keen observers of human behavior have
long known. Numerical representations of human lives do not necessarily convey the
importance of those lives. . . . The numbers are important, and yet they are not everything.
For whatever reasons, images often strike us more powerfully, more deeply than numbers.
We seem unable to hold the emotions aroused by numbers for nearly as long as those of
images. We quickly grow numb to the facts and the math. Images seem to be the key to
conveying affect and meaning, though some imagery is more powerful than others.

Imagery
Feeling Helping
Attention
Figure 1: Imagery and attention produce feelings that motivate helping behavior.

Probably the most important image to represent a human life is that of a single human
face. Journalist Paul Neville writes about the need to probe beneath the statistics of job-
lessness, homelessness, mental illness, and poverty in his home state of Oregon, in order
to discover the people behind the numbers—who they are, what they look like, how they

WHY DON’T PEOPLE ACT? 19

 sound, what they feel, what hopes and fears they harbor. He concludes: “I don’t know when
we became a nation of statistics. But I know that the path to becoming a nation—and a com-
munity—of people is remembering the faces behind the numbers” (Neville, 2004). . . .

Perhaps there is hope that vivid, personalized media coverage of genocide could motivate
intervention. Perhaps. But again we should look to research to assess these possibilities.
Numerous experiments have demonstrated the “identifiable victim effect” which is also so
evident outside the laboratory. . . . Small, Loewenstein, and Slovic (2007) gave people leav-
ing a psychological experiment the opportunity to contribute up to $5 of their earnings to
Save the Children. The study consisted of three separate conditions: (1) identifiable victim
[image], (2) statistical victims [facts], and (3) identifiable victim with statistical information
[image + facts]. . . . Participants in each condition were told that “any money donated will
go toward relieving the severe food crisis in southern Africa and Ethiopia.” The dona-
tions in fact went to Save the Children, but they were earmarked specifically for Rokia in
Conditions 1 and 3 and not specifically earmarked in Condition 2. The average donations
are presented in Figure 2. Donations in response to the identified individual, Rokia, were
far greater than donations in response to the statistical portrayal of the food crisis. Most
important, however, and most discouraging, was the fact that coupling the statistical reali-
ties with Rokia’s story significantly reduced the contributions to Rokia. . . .
$2.00
DONATIONS IN DOLLARS

$1.00
$0

Identifiable STATISTICAL IDENTIFIABLE

Life Life WITH STATISTICS

Figure 2: Mean donations when people are exposed to different information.12

Clearly there are political obstacles posing challenges to those who would consider inter-
vention in genocide, and physical risks as well. What I have tried to describe in this paper
are the formidable psychological obstacles centered around the difficulties in wrapping
our minds around genocide and forming the emotional connections to its victims that
are necessary to motivate us to overcome these other obstacles. . . . In this paper I have
drawn upon common observation and behavioral research to argue that we cannot depend
only upon our moral feelings to motivate us to take proper actions against genocide.
That places the burden of response squarely upon the shoulders of moral argument and
international law.

20 TEACHING REPORTER
Connections

1. What is empathy? What is compassion? When have you felt empathy and/or compassion for some-
thing or someone? What provoked this feeling in you? Did you do anything as a result?

2. What does “universe of responsibility” mean? What individuals and groups do you include in your
universe of responsibility? Why? How does your universe of responsibility influence the choices
you make about how to treat others?

3. Philosopher John Ruskin said, “What we think or what we know or what we believe is, in the end,
of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.” How might Nicholas Kristof respond
to Ruskin’s argument? What do you think of this statement?

4. Historian Leni Yahil divides knowledge into three parts: receipt of information, acknowledgment
of information, and action based on that information.13 How does Yahil’s division of knowledge
apply to the way people have responded to more recent humanitarian crises, such as the genocide
in Darfur? What do they think can be done, if anything, to move people from receiving informa-
tion to acting on that information? How would Nicholas Kristof and Paul Slovic answer this ques-
tion?

5. What is psychic numbing? Under what conditions is psychic numbing helpful? Under what con-
ditions is psychic numbing harmful? Identify a time when you may have experienced psychic
numbing—when you may have felt numb to disturbing information and images. Why do you
think you felt numb to this information? What could have been done, if anything, to get you to
pay thoughtful attention to this information?

6. According to researcher Paul Slovic, studies show that people are more likely to help one person
than many people. How do your observations and experiences support and/or refute Slovic’s
findings? According to Paul Slovic and Nicholas Kristof, what galvanizes people to take action
on behalf of others? Think about a time when you were motivated to help someone else. What
inspired these actions? Based on your own experiences and on research about human behavior,
what are five possible ways to galvanize the public to take action on behalf of others?

7. When suggesting what is needed to prevent genocide and mass murder, Nicholas Kristof writes,
“[M]aybe what we need isn’t better laws but more troubled consciences.” On the other hand, Paul
Slovic argues that “we cannot depend only upon our moral feelings to motivate us to take proper
actions against genocide.” He recommends stronger international laws to prevent and stop large-
scale acts of violence. What is the relationship between compassion and law? How can empathy
(“moral feelings”) and laws be used together to prevent genocide?

8. What has motivated you to feel empathy or compassion for others? In her book High Tide in Tucson
(1996), Barbara Kingsolver highlights how art, especially storytelling, can be used to get people to
care about others. She writes:

WHY DON’T PEOPLE ACT? 21

 The power of fiction is to create empathy. It lifts you away from your chair and stuffs you gently
down inside someone else’s point of view. . . . A newspaper could tell you that one hundred
people, say, in an airplane, or in Israel, or in Iraq, have died today. And you can think to yourself,
“How very sad,” then turn the page and see how the Wildcats fared. But a novel could take just
one of those hundred lives and show you exactly how it felt to be that person rising from bed
in the morning, watching the desert light on the tile of her doorway and on the curve of her
daughter’s cheek. You could taste that person’s breakfast, and love her family, and sort through
her worries as your own, and know that a death in that household will be the end of the only
life that someone will ever have. As important as yours. As important as mine. . . . Art is the
antidote that can call us back from the edge of numbness, restoring the ability to feel for another.14

To what extent do you agree with Kingsolver’s statement? When has art—a movie, play, story, song,
painting, etc.—ever motivated you to feel compassion for someone else? Why do you think this
piece had this effect on you?

1. Gregory H. Stanton, “About Genocide,” International Association of Genocide Scholars, Genocide Watch, 2002,
http://www.genocidescholars.org/about.

2. Quoted in Macief Kozlowski, “The Mission that Failed: A Polish Courier Who Tried to Help the Jews,” in My Brother’s Keeper?
Recent Polish Debates on the Holocaust, ed. Antony Polonsky (Routledge, 1990), 83.

3. Nicholas Kristof, “Save the Darfur Puppy,” New York Times, May 10, 2007.

4. Robert J. Lifton, The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide (Basic Books, 1986), 442,
http://www.holocaust-history.org/lifton/LiftonT442.shtml.

5. Conversations with History, Robert Jay Lifton Interview, Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley, November 2, 1999,
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people/Lifton/lifton-con3.html.

6. Barbara Kingsolver, High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never (New York, Harper Perennial, 1996), 232.

7. Leni Yahil, Ina Friedman, and Haya Galai, The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932–1944 (Oxford University Press, 1991), 545.

8. Kreisler, Harry, “Evil, the Self, and Survival: Conversation with Robert Jay Lifton, M.D.,” Institute of International Studies, UC
Berkeley, Nov. 2, 1999. http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people/Lifton/lifton-con3.html.

9. Reporter, (00:36:25).

10. Nicholas Kristof, “Save the Darfur Puppy.”

11. Paul Slovic, “If I Look at the Mass I Will Never Act: Psychic Numbing and Genocide,” Judgment and Decision Making, no. 2 (April
2007), http://journal.sjdm.org/7303a/jdm7303a.htm.

12. Chart in Slovic (2007), reprinted from Small et al. (2007), with permission from Elsevier.

13. Leni Yahil, Ina Friedman, and Haya Galai, The Holocaust, 544.

14. Kingsolver, High Tide in Tucson, 231–232.

22 TEACHING REPORTER
Investigation Two
Should reporters advocate? Exploring the role of journalists

The readings in this investigation have been selected to deepen our understanding of ideas presented
in chapters 10 through 13 (46:18–1:01:40) of the documentary Reporter (approximately 15 minutes). In
this clip, we are introduced to Yohanita, a dying Congolese woman who becomes the focus for Nicholas
Kristof’s editorial “A Student, a Teacher and a Glimpse of War.” Where Kristof sees a subject for his
column about the victims of war in Congo, Leana Wen, a medical student, sees a patient in need of care.

Overview
In “A Student, a Teacher and a Glimpse of War,” Nicholas Kristof asks the reader, “How can you walk
away from a human being who will surely die if you do so?” Why does he include this language in his
editorial? Speaking to journalism students, Kristof mentioned that the goal of his column is to “make
people spill their coffee when they read it, then go volunteer or donate” to help solve the problems he
writes about.1 Is this the role of a journalist? Should a reporter be in the business of advocacy—of
attempting to influence public policy and individual behavior?

In the interview excerpted below, Brooke Gladstone, host of the show On the Media, refers to Kristof
as an “advocacy journalist.” According to journalism professor Robert Jensen,

The term “advocacy journalism” typically is used to describe the use of techniques to promote
a specific political or social cause. The term is potentially meaningful only in opposition to a
category of journalism that does not engage in advocacy, so-called “objective journalism.”2

But just what is meant by “objective journalism”? Brent Cunningham, editor of the Columbia Journal-
ism Review, presents the challenges of answering this question:

Ask ten journalists what objectivity means and you’ll get ten different answers. Some, like the
Washington Post’s editor, Leonard Downie, define it so strictly that they refuse to vote lest they be
forced to take sides. My favorite definition was from Michael Bugeja, who teaches journalism at
Iowa State: “Objectivity is seeing the world as it is, not how you wish it were.”3

Communications professor Richard Taflinger understands the desire for “neutral” or “objective”
reporting. He explains, “Such objectivity can allow people to arrive at decisions about the world and
events occurring in it without the journalist’s subjective views influencing the acceptance or rejection
of information.”4

Kristof “flinches” when Gladstone calls him an advocacy journalist. He worries that advocates are
perceived as “somebody who goes out and finds evidence to buttress their preexisting convictions.”
Advocacy journalist Sean Condon counters this concern by stressing the importance of accuracy.
“You still have a responsibility to be telling the truth,” he says, “and if you sacrifice that to advocate

SHOULD REPORTERS ADVOCATE? 23

on behalf of something, you might be doing more damage than help.”5 Kristof maintains a similar
approach to his writing. “What I want to do is shine my light to illuminate that problem,” he explains,
“but I don’t want to tinker with the evidence. I just want to galvanize people by showing them what
is out there.”

“Showing them what is out there,” however, requires making choices about what to include and what to
leave out. This is why Taflinger refers to objectivity in journalism as “an unrealizable dream.”6 Robert
Jensen agrees with him. He argues:

All reporters use a framework of analysis to understand the world and report on it. But reporting
containing open references to underlying political assumptions and conclusions seems to
engage in advocacy, while the more conventional approach appears neutral. . . . Accounts of the
world, including journalistic ones, must begin from some assumptions about the way the world
works. None is neutral.7

If no reporting can be purely objective or neutral, then at what point does an article move from news
reporting to advocacy? Where along this continuum would we place Kristof’s work? How do we account
for the fact that Kristof is a columnist whose articles appear on the opinion page of the paper? This
role may give him more leeway to advocate on behalf of a cause than a traditional news reporter has, a
distinction that Rebecca Hamilton, a reporter for the Washington Post, points out. In her role as special
correspondent for Sudan, she explains, she is not an activist, even though she cares deeply about stop-
ping the violence in Darfur. Before becoming a reporter, Hamilton spent years working in Sudan and
the United States on behalf of victims of the genocide in Darfur. This experience gives her a unique
perspective on the role of a reporter. She explains:

As an activist, one of the most valuable tools in my arsenal was quality reporting from those
who were perceived as objective. Whoever you are pushing knows you have an agenda and
sometimes can discount your claims because of that. Being able to point to objective reporting
that backs up your point is very powerful.

Therefore, Hamilton tries to keep her writing as objective as possible. She refers to an article she
wrote about the expulsion of aid workers in Sudan that was used by humanitarian organizations and
advocacy groups because it “said things that these organizations were unable to say themselves.” By
finding hard-to-get perspectives and delivering this information to a broad audience, Hamilton feels
she can use her position to help the people in Darfur.

“On so many of the issues that I care deeply about, the reason that they’re not
being addressed is simply because they’re not on the agenda. And shining a
spotlight and making people uncomfortable about what they see in that
spotlight, I think, truly is the first step toward getting more resources and
more attention and more energy dedicated to solving them.” 8
– Nicholas Kristof

Reading Kristof’s columns and learning about his method of storytelling gives us the opportunity to
get to know one model for how journalists can use their role to confront violence and injustice around

24 TEACHING REPORTER
 M
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a
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quieter brand
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1944to—
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rica
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ered
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tervention a a and
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Politics:
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ty, He
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medical
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vaccines
to Washington
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lican
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politics.
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Illinois. As Doug- help Congo isn’t to take in
very soon,examined
she die,” Leanawho saidcould en go
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public and
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— were tinged by the
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village by ram- from 2004 to 2006 — to a
Congo, suicide
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glimpse of Gate Bridge. to exploit
thatch-roofed
bluntly. “We havecontradications
village
to get her to
in
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fine hospital in two
of Goma run
University,
quito battled
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nets to over
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Leana suddenly found her- hut and laid it on the ground. eastern
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A Student, a Teacher and a Glimpse of War

traordinary
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immigration And ye
woman dying of starvation.
tionspatchesus.and from Congo
weaknesses by the
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by patient in Africa.
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rs took what For are Changing
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the re- from,
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hospital is offbut th
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60 contest winners traveling with infrom HealaAf- human being who willthe —surely full ofvailed.
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pital.” about anyone,
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Platt agreed Roosevelt give the
1898 promising
workers. But this a quieter
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looked like a by the bullies with ele
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
pounds. She
aid suicide
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of war and poverty.
exploit
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contradications
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Worldone turned War
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A Student, a Teacher and a Glimpse of W

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Americans
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tions
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tervention
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vailed.
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or Europeans
groups
(www.healafrica.org).
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makes
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booming
wrote
had beenit scholar,
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And yet —
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village
how can you
human being Yohanita
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gion,
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hernow we D.
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ilies werekill
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needier
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die if youcould
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41, weighedwith first Yohanita
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flict since helpWar
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mother, their
Anastasie, village
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tion Day 2008. individ
of
nswers to a few questions. MALEHE Instead , Congoof spending inlook awefew
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A Student, a Teacher and a Glimpse of Wa

So spoke to Simona old-fashioned starving nothing bananas since ed villages here in Congo, Yohan-
Yohanita. .blogs.nytimes.com.
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ita’s
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ita,
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rica Hospital. Leana saved one of her
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Senate where
suggested an
a Con-

Courtesy of Will Okun (www.wjzo.com).

Republicans
two
quitobattled
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eacher and a Glimpse of War

tialofDemocratic advantageand labor in Ohio.
corruption, courtinpacking, ics. Consider Hayworth, who gives “jumping
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ber childrenagreed
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claimed
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use her vehi-
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numbers food.
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bad no name. delusion Ousted thatfrom our in- his “Arizona
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talk it did
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promote quite
Yohanita’s his so- a the
ilies state’s
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NPR liberal Democratic
starving
are
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away
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die NICHOLAS
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The village
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war.
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victims
majority.
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velt’s activism,
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cle wetransport
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Simona
Yohanita
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Congo
tervention to
isn’teat
makes 120 but
to days
a bananas
take toindividual
leave
difference since theto ed
they
fore,” saidhere
picked up a
David in Senate
Congo,
Waid, like and Yohan-
chairman a Con-of
the League Refugee of Nations. yond, shaped his career. “I am aand
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acher and a Glimpse of War

Norwegian
look
tal. after her, and theCouncil, ple or exposing
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paging which them to
soldiers in December. Yohan-
malnutrition. disease. country
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people
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itthe massive,
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gressional
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rect
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ahave
ita’s
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ymous,
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nytimes.com
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did
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where
an international an
who could go with Yohanita help Congo isn’t to
Ohio and built a strong base and
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in
not referring
help
of
near- their
to village
theand Chicago by ram-
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tois2006
hard—toto aboutthis. 30 per-
flict
to the
look has raged
fine
after around
hospital
her, andathe in them.
kill
Goma
family
paging Simona
only
run within
agreed
soldiers by guns
December. machetes
Yohan- /twofortheroad.)
part because
starving Congo tosameis off
the people
the world’s
hospital but who to NPR
cent
Some
priority.liberal
of theHispanic
vote.
find.
know Ø
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by
Heal states.
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wouldagreed
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une’s
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her
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much
aidas
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work tostop
endno athesingle
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war tuberculosis
—that yet our insteadcar-
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tionwide, is in Yes, play this
likestate’s
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reformsto of
It isfamily
unclear returned
rural what to theirClinton,
Hillary home a rier from entering Republican senators, John McCain
of the ofcountry. fore,”
lican said David Waid, chairman of
cle to transport with a hospi-
diarrhea,
Leana saves a
malaria, AIDS and tervention is makes aup difference toin candidates dropped 10 points
group with strong American
en not to the local public hospital but connec- Yohanita,
One
the war like
measure millions
heating the others inhere,
international
again Congo,
schools,
tal. labor, budget and public ad-
Rudolph Giuliani and (maybe) Mi- CongoThe (though
syndicated it talker Neal Boortz and
the
fromJon
state’sKyl,to
2004 favor
2006the
Democratic — comprehensive
to Party.
about 30 “And
per-
tions
to the (www.healafrica.org). malnutrition.
fine hospital in Goma run by suffered
indifference
part because as a is resultthedid
Congo make
ofshortage
isarmed
off the quite
conflict
of
world’said ain
ministration, roads and prisons.
chael Bloomberg chuckles attothe human collision along immigration
the Republicans bill.are And yes,
literally President
handing
here will have towere say cent of the vote. Yes, this state’s two
The village found a teenage girl
patient in Africa. difference Yohanita). The way to
Now,
Heal Africa, nearly anfour The people
days later,
outstanding aid in Malehe the
groups region.
radar. here: Neighboring Rwanda,
But Midwesterners had
about one a choice an advanced border fence. “I don’t Bush is the bill’s
itRepublican
to us.” chief proponent.
senators, John McCain
who could isgoon withtheYohanita out another’s
and help records byinram-
New help Congo isn’t toeconomically,
take individual
Leana saves a
Yohanita
group with strong road driven
American to recovery, of their village
connec- which One ismeasure
booming of the international is But pragmatism is know
being drowned
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look
lying went a her,with and thetheman theand
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infamily party
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agreed though, that each care
starving
full of ifaid
Mexicans
people
workers. to pile
the But upthisagainst
hospital but
area that
to
of Some
and Jon Republicans
Kyl, favor the this.
comprehensive Na-
tionson clean
(www.healafrica.org).bed paging Heal Af- in December. Yohan- indifference is the shortage of aid out by theHispanic
bullies
promising a quieter brand ofher
will family politics.
have a returned
strong chance to theirtohome buildaa fencetolike
work end tumbleweeds — in yetthe Santa tionwide,
immigration bill.withAndelectronic
support yes,forPresident bull-
Repub-
that
rica it would
Hospital. be best
Leana to have
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Congo is farwarneedier instead
and yet
patient in Africa.
ita’s groups
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en
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to the
nearly
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national campaign. And it’s a pretty Ana
the winds,”
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horns,
lican who’ve
Bush candidates
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proponent. points
first patients.
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on the public
road hospital
to recovery, but
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two
home
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is ofbooming
something
any aid
economically,
called
groups.
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from But2004 scared.
to 2006 — is
pragmatism to being
about drowned30 per-
mood
to of weariness
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fair bet that Wilson
hadeach willtaken.
also have Thento part because Congo is off the world’s
What
lying a hospital
onalmost clean killed
bed Goma
Yohanita
livestock
in the Heal run wasby
Af- been World
full of Vision
aid is
workers. one
triot Radio News Hour” here mocked ofBut the thisvery area few of cent“Ifby
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bullies Yes,
withwaythis and
state’s
electronic the twobill
bull-
and the
Heal Africa,Democrats.an Harding
spend time
outstanding hadandpre-
aid energy campaigning radar.
American groups active
starvation in a narrow
rica Hospital. Leana saved one of her Yohanitasense, but
a miscarriage and the eastern
the HispanicCongo is far
Games, heldhere
needier lastandinweek-
the
yet dies, so who’ve
Republican
horns, too may Republican
senators,
got theirJohn party electoral
McCain
leaders
vailed.
group
more
tions
of the
with strong
broadly
first patients.
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she is
one
(www.healafrica.org).
warfare
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in a place
American
one moreconnec-
family
few months
dates
thought rarely
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which
Yohanita
victim
spent all
Thomas
meant
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later,
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livestock had been taken. Then
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their
they
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isOne
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end home
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in Phoenix.
imagine
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is
“jumping the fence” andthe
World Vision is
of the
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one
any
They
international
shortage
of four
aid groups.
suggested
of aid
million
very
“leaving few
the
prospects
and
wrote
Jon Kyl,
running
immigration
“If they
forfavor
scared.
Clint get
the foreseeable
Bolick,
bill.
the comprehensive
Andway
their ayes,
future,”
conservative
President
and the bill
Now, four
claimed
starvation
Yohanita
since
more1998.
nearly
is Even
broadly on she
a four
inmillion narrow
the21st-century
road
is oneto
days
lives
food. in Congo
sense,
recovery,
“We used
more
family spent
later,
wars
but
toall
victim have
patient in Africa.
Yohanita had a miscarriage and the
its plenty
moneyto eat, but
saving her
groups
Americans
American
scene
which
Northinis
killed
events
ofhere: or
angroups
abooming
Kivu
for war,
Neighboring
area.
Latino
Europeans
accident”
and
active
economically,
that white
athletes.
Rwanda,
had
here
as competitive
Ha-ha.fam-
been
in the
is
scholar,
Bush
dies,issothe
week.
in
But pragmatism
prospects
The
toobill’s
may Arizona
chief Republic
proponent.
Republican
is being drowned
for the foreseeable
this
electoral
future,”
lying
like on awarfare
of Congo’s
the clean— the bed most
that in the
now has
— which Heal
lethal
we have Af-
con-
already
meant nothing,”
that theyYohanita’sran out of fullDemocrats
ilies of
were
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workers.
starving
are laughingtoBut
that this
death
four allasarea
the a way
re-
million of out Remember
by the
wrote Clintbulliesthat prediction
with
Bolick, electronic on Elec-
a conservative bull-
rica
flict Hospital.
claimedsincefour WorldLeana War
million saved II —
mother, one of
kill her
the
food. Anastasie, told us. “We’ve
lives in Congo eastern
sult
to aofnew
Americans Congo
that war.orisThe
Western farmajority.
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victims
Europeans and
had isolat-
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horns, Day
scholar, 2008.
who’ve
in The gotArizona
their party Republic leaders Ø
this
first
since patients.
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1998. Even way, 21st-century
by starving peo-
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butplenty
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sincebut isthey
ed home
villages
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picked aherehardly
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war, aand any
Congo,
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like
and
white groups.
Yohan-
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World Vision is in one ofpoor
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Glimpse of War
ple What
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orCongo’s
exposing killed
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livestock
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see video
Yohanita’s ita,
iliesmay
gressional
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black
starving andColorado,
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“If theyEgan,
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that way Seattle
prediction and the cor-
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starvation
That’s
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Worlda narrow
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of IIsense,
Yohanita in the
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mother, — killbut
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Leana
“We’ve American
ymous,
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that
brothers active
should
in cowboy
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make hats.in the
this
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dies,
tion so
Day too for The
may
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and theØ
more
veloping broadly
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had nothingspent all
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peo-
to its money
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nytimes.com
but bananas her North
war
they Kivu
indid
ed villagesCongo itarea.
no less
with
here an international
incounties
Congo, where
like Yohan- an author
prospects of “The
for the Worst Hard Time,”
foreseeable future,” is
ofplethe
kill not warfare
only
or exposing withthem thatto
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which already
/twofortheroad.)
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machetes
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beginning May.” they (To ran seeout of
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NPR
priority. imagine
liberal
ita, may be black is hard that
and fourand
to find.
poor million
anon- Ø a guest Clint
wrote
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Seattle cor-
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butThat’s in much
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numbers
the de-
visit and no delusion
read blogs that byourLeanain- Americans
“Arizona
ymous, butor isthatEuropeans
in play
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The Times Republic andthis the
since
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veloping1998.
diarrhea, Evenmalaria,
world 21st-century
so “We used
tervention
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and forwars
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nytimes.com to fore,”
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Congo Davidnoand Waid,
less that chairman
white fam-of
an international week.
author of “The Worst Hard Time,” is
like
kill Congo’s
not only —
malnutrition. with theguns most
now
Congo lethal
we(though con-
have nothing,”
/twofortheroad.)
and machetes it did make Yohanita’s
quite a the
ilies state’sstarving
were
priority. Democratic to death Party. as a“And re-Ø aRemember
guest columnist. that prediction on Elec-
flictThe since
people World here War in II
mother, — killwere
difference
Malehe the
Anastasie,
to Yohanita). told us. The“We’veway to the of
sult Republicans
that war. The arevictims
literallyinhanding isolat- tion Day 2008. Ø
old-fashioned
driven out ofway, theirbyvillage
hadstarving
helpnothing peo-
Congo toisn’t
by ram- eat but to take bananas since
individual edit to us.” here in Congo, like Yohan-
villages
ple or exposing
paging soldiersthem to disease.Yohan-
the beginning
starving
in December. people of May.” (To see video
to the hospital but to ita,Some
may be Republicans
black and poor knowand this.anon- Na- Timothy Egan, a former Seattle cor-
tionwide,but
ymous, Hispanic
that should supportmake for Repub- this
ita’s family returned wars
That’s what makes of
work
to their in the
our visit
to end and
home de-a
the read warblogs — yet by instead
Leana respondent for The Times and the
veloping world so deadly, for they and
the war Will, go toup again
is heating nytimes.com here, in licanin Congo
war candidates no less dropped
an international10 points author of “The Worst Hard Time,” is
kill not only with guns and machetes /twofortheroad.)
part because Congo is off the world’s from 2004 to 2006 — to about 30 per-
priority. Ø a guest columnist.
radar. cent of the vote. Yes, this state’s two
Republican senators, John McCain
Leana saves a One measure of the international
indifference is the shortage of aid
and Jon Kyl, favor the comprehensive
immigration bill. And yes, President
patient in Africa. groups here: Neighboring Rwanda,
which is booming economically, is
Bush is the bill’s chief proponent.
But pragmatism is being drowned
full of aid workers. But this area of out by the bullies with electronic bull-
eastern Congo is far needier and yet horns, who’ve got their party leaders
few months later, but their crops and is home to hardly any aid groups. running scared.
livestock had been taken. Then World Vision is one of the very few “If they get their way and the bill
Yohanita had a miscarriage and the American groups active here in the dies, so too may Republican electoral
family spent all its money saving her North Kivu area. prospects for the foreseeable future,”
— which meant that they ran out of Just imagine that four million wrote Clint Bolick, a conservative
food. Americans or Europeans had been scholar, in The Arizona Republic this
26 TEACHING REPORTER
“We used to have plenty to eat, but killed in a war, and that white fam- week.
now we have nothing,” Yohanita’s ilies were starving to death as a re- Remember that prediction on Elec-
mother, Anastasie, told us. “We’ve sult of that war. The victims in isolat- tion Day 2008. Ø
had nothing to eat but bananas since ed villages here in Congo, like Yohan-
the beginning of May.” (To see video ita, may be black and poor and anon-
Reading 4: On the Media 10

The following is an excerpt from Brooke Gladstone’s interview with Nicholas Kristof on the public radio
program On the Media (December 2009).

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  So you wrote in Outside Magazine recently that you had a revelation
when it came to covering Darfur in 2004, but it was coming back that opened your eyes to
coverage of Pale Male.

NICHOLAS KRISTOF:  That’s right. At the same time that I was so frustrated by the lack of
response to genocide, I found a cause that New Yorkers really could rally around, and that
was the eviction of a red-tailed hawk called Pale Male. The building in which he was living
had taken down his nest, and New Yorkers were galvanized. And I was just thinking, you
know, if only we could get as much indignation and action to prevent genocide as we could
about a homeless red-tailed hawk. And that kind of got me thinking about how one can
make that connection.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  And so you looked at some recent research about what moves us,
information that’s a big part of marketing.

NICHOLAS KRISTOF:  Well, I came across social psychologist Paul Slovic, who has done a
great deal of work in this area, and the experiments typically involve exposing people to a
particular scenario and then seeing if they will contribute. One of the classic experiments in-
volves a seven-year-old girl from the country of Mali who’s starving and asking if people will
help her out. Everybody wants to help Rokia. But if you ask people to help 21 million hungry
people in Africa, nobody particularly wants to help them. Maybe what I found even more
depressing is that the moment you even provide more background information [on] Rokia,
if you say that she is hungry because of a famine in her country, then interest in helping her
tends to drop. You know, we all know that at some point people tend to get numbed and tune
out, but one of the things that I found fascinating was the number at which we tend to tune
out. It’s not a million, it’s not a thousand, it’s not even a hundred—it’s two.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  Two! It was just amazing to me to read that. You’ve got starving little
Rokia. You add her starving brother, and people are less likely to support.

NICHOLAS KRISTOF:  That’s right. Even though people are very generous in supporting
either Rokia or the boy, Moussa, the moment you put them together, they’re less willing
to help just two seven-year-old kids. And, you know, so the moment we start talking about
hundreds of thousands, people’s eyes just glaze over. . . .

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  How do you finesse a story that might not end happily? Because,

SHOULD REPORTERS ADVOCATE? 27

 obviously, you’re an advocacy journalist; you report not just to report but to spur action. . . .
So you’ve been writing that these sorts of rules—an emphasis on individuals rather than
groups, not worrying so much about context, putting the spotlight on positive stories—that
these are being heeded by companies trying to sell soap more than they are by philanthropic
organizations.

NICHOLAS KRISTOF:  You know, at the end of the day I think humanitarians really feel very
awkward and embarrassed about marketing, but it really doesn’t matter whether a shampoo
gets better marketing. It does matter when a famine or a huge crisis is—well, I hate to use the
[term] “marketed better,” but, you know, is publicized in a way that will be more effective.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  Have you seen a product with no social significance be marketed
according to these rules?

NICHOLAS KRISTOF:  Sure. I mean, any time you see a shampoo, for example, being mar-
keted, it’s not based on the fact that, you know, 38 percent of adults have shinier hair when
they use this product. It’s about, you know, one particular person who—wow, she looks
better and she’s going to get a better date or whatever it may be. It’s these individual stories
that feel kind of empowering and heartwarming. I mean, one of the challenges for me,
frankly, is that if you follow this research, then you would leave out context. All you would
do would be telling individual stories, and that would be one step too far for me. I do want
to connect with people and inform them about these larger problems. So my compromise
is that I do try to find a story that will resonate with people. But then at that point I try to
throw in the larger context, the background information, and make it clear, in the case of the
Congo, for example, how many millions of people are affected and hope that doesn’t deter
the power of that individual story. . . .

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  You said that you flinch when you get called an advocacy journalist,
but when you sit down to write a column, what is it that you’re trying to achieve?

NICHOLAS KRISTOF:  Yeah. Well, I’m advocating. But I’m reluctant to be called out on it.
My career was as a reporter, and there’s an uncomfortable tension there, because one of the
reasons that I became a journalist is, frankly, that I wanted to make a difference. And yet, at
the same time, there is sometimes a perception that an advocate is somebody who goes out
and finds evidence to buttress their preexisting convictions. And that’s why I flinch.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:  But you can tell the truth and still want to spark a particular action.

NICHOLAS KRISTOF:  Yes, absolutely. That is one of the great perks of journalism, that there
are a lot of problems in the world and that we carry a spotlight. What I want to do is shine
my light to illuminate that problem, but I don’t want to tinker with the evidence. I just want
to galvanize people by showing them what is out there.

28 TEACHING REPORTER
Connections

1. If you had the opportunity to interview Nicholas Kristof, what would you want to ask him?

2. Handbook for Citizen Journalists defines advocacy journalism as “a genre of journalism that adopts
a viewpoint for the sake of advocating on behalf of a social, political, business, or religious pur-
pose. It is journalism with an intentional and transparent bias.”11 Based on this definition, what is
the difference, if anything, between advocacy journalism and propaganda?

3. What does the phrase “objective reporting” mean to you? Communications professor Richard
Taflinger argues that that objectivity is “an unrealizable dream.” Do you agree with him? Why or
why not?

4. Brooke Gladstone refers to Kristof as an “advocacy journalist.” Where, if at all, do you see examples
of advocacy in the editorial “A Student, a Teacher and a Glimpse of War”? What is Kristof advocat-
ing? In her article “Does ‘Caring’ Require Advocacy in Journalism?,” journalist Elecia Chrunik
provides some warnings to writers and readers regarding advocacy journalism:

There can be negative consequences to advocacy journalism, like any form of journalism, when
it is not done responsibly. . . . Becoming involved with a cause blurs the lines of a journalist’s
duties and responsibilities. The public might have a difficult time accepting and trusting that
journalists are both promoters and truth-tellers. And there are many ways that a journalist can
abuse his or her power if he or she feels that the ends justify the means.12

What arguments does Chrunik make about advocacy journalism? How might Kristof respond to
these arguments?

5. Nicholas Kristof is a columnist; his job is to write opinion pieces that appear on the editorial page.
Does this role give him permission to use his articles to advocate for certain policies and behav-
iors? Why or why not? Why do you think newspapers include opinion pages? What do you think
qualifies someone to express an opinion in a newspaper?

6. Kristof said, “We flinch at the idea of marketing a cause. . .[b]ut it could matter tremendously if
we could get people to care about, say, malaria.”13 What is the difference, if any, between market-
ing aimed at consumer goods, such as soda or shampoo, and marketing aimed at getting people
to care about social issues? What strategies do advertisers use to make products attractive to
buyers? Which of these techniques, if any, are appropriate for activists to use to promote a social
or political issue?

7. To find “an individual whose story, in essence, will inspire the most outrage in his readers over
breakfast,” Reporter filmmaker Eric Metzgar says that Kristof often talks to 50 to 100 people a day.
Here is how Metzgar describes finding Yohanita, the subject of the editorial “A Student, a Teacher
and a Glimpse of War”:

SHOULD REPORTERS ADVOCATE? 29

 When we found her, Nick had sort of found his Rokia. . . . This is the woman who is going
to represent the crisis in Congo. Because he had disregarded a few hundred people’s terrible
stories and he really found the one that, even to the crew and everyone around, crushed us
the most, devastated us the most. But also, the way that. . .Nick told it in his column, it really
inspired you the most. And it told the story politically of what was happening in the area. That’s
important, too.

How did the story of Yohanita impact you? What feelings and ideas did it spark for you? What
does the story of Yohanita reveal about conditions in Congo? About three weeks after the New York
Times published “A Student, a Teacher and a Glimpse of War,” Yohanita died from an infection
she had when she was brought to the hospital. How does your response to this column change, if
at all, knowing that Yohanita did not survive?

8. “What is the greater goal of journalism?” Filmmaker Eric Metzgar asked this question when travel-
ing in Congo with Kristof to produce the Reporter documentary. In an interview about his experi-
ence making this film, Metzgar describes the tension between writing about suffering and inter-
vening to end the suffering:

Journalism exists because everyone can’t be there to witness it. Right? So we’ve designated these
few people about whom we say, “They’re not going to help out. They’re not going to intervene.
They’re simply going to watch and tell people who don’t know about it.” And that’s a strange
reality when you’re there. To wake up and read the newspaper or read it online is one thing. But
when you’re there, the idea that you should simply document the story is very strange.14

Metzgar says that Kristof probably would not have intervened to get Yohanita to the hospital if
Leana Wen, the medical student, had not been on the trip with him. What do you think about
Kristof’s decision to intervene in this instance? Is this part of his job as a reporter? Is it part of his
responsibility as a human being? How do you think journalists should respond to human suffer-
ing before their eyes when they are reporting?

1. Stig Arlid Pettersen, “Nic Kristof: Balancing the Fine Line Between Journalism and Advocacy,” The Morningside Post at
Columbia University, April 14, 2010,
http://themorningsidepost.com/2010/04/nic-kristof-balancing-the-fine-line-between-journalism-and-advocacy.

2. Robert Jensen, “Advocacy Journalism,” in The International Encyclopedia of Communication, ed. Wolfgang Donsbach,
(Hoboken, NJ, Blackwell Publishing, 2008).

3. Brent Cunningham, “Re-thinking Objectivity,” Colombia Journalism Review (April 16, 2006), http://www.rdillman.com/Dillman/
Courses/COMCommon/articles/news/Re-thinking%20Objectivity.pdf.

4. Richard F. Taflinger, “The Myth of Objectivity in Journalism: A Commentary,” May 29, 1996, http://www.wsu.edu/~taf linge/
mythobj.html.

5. Elecia Chrunik, “Does ‘Caring’ Require Advocacy in Journalism?,” Center for Journalism Ethics, June 16, 2008,
http://www.journalismethics.ca/feature_articles/does_caring_require_advocay.html.

6. Richard F. Taflinger, “The Myth of Objectivity in Journalism: A Commentary.”

30 TEACHING REPORTER
7. Robert Jensen, “Beyond Advocacy v. Objective Journalism: Who Is Really Objective?,” MediaBite (Ireland), July 3, 2007,
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/freelance/beyondadvocacy.htm.

8. “Nicholas Kristof on Journalism & Compassion,” Krista Tippet on Being, September 23, 2010,
http://being.publicradio.org/programs/2010/journalism-and-compassion/transcript.shtml.

9. Nicholas Kristof, “A Student, a Teacher and a Glimpse of War,” New York Times, June 21, 2007.

10. “Follow for Now,” Interview with Nick Kristof, On the Media, WNYC, December 11, 2009,
http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2009/12/11/03.

11. Jack Driscoll, “Handbook for Citizen Journalists: Catching the Journalistic Attitude,” May 11, 2010, (e-book available from
http://www.citizenjournalistnow.com).

12. Elecia Chrunik, “Does ‘Caring’ Require Advocacy in Journalism?”

13. Stig Arlid Pettersen, “Nic Kristof: Balancing the Fine Between Journalism and Accuracy.”

14. “Transcript: Caring About Congo,” NOW on PBS, February 12, 2010, http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/607/transcript.html.

SHOULD REPORTERS ADVOCATE? 31

Investigation Three
What do we learn from the news? How reporters’ choices shape our
understanding of the world
The readings in this investigation have been selected to deepen our understanding of the ideas presented
in chapters 13 through 17 (1:01:40–1:19:38) of the documentary Reporter (approximately 20 minutes).
In this clip, Nicholas Kristof, Will Okun, and Leana Wen travel to the headquarters of General Laurent
Nkunda, leader of a rebel militia fighting against the Congolese government and known for perpetrating
war crimes. Kristof interviews Nkunda about his role in the civil war and is then granted the opportunity
to interview child soldiers captured by Nkunda’s army.

Overview

According to journalist Elecia Chrunik, “The outcome of a [news] story is based on a myriad of deci-
sions, and a journalist, good intentions or not, has to face thousands of decisions with every story.”1
Which details should be included? Which should be left out? What should be emphasized? What cri-
teria should reporters use when making these decisions?

Nicholas Kristof has been criticized for focusing on the most negative stories about Africa and casting
“a very downbeat light on an entire region.”2 Richard Dowden, author of the book Africa: Altered States,
Ordinary Miracles, argues, “The media’s problem is that, by covering only disasters and wars, it gives
us only that image of the continent.”3 Kristof responds to this argument using the media’s coverage of
Congo as an example:

My own take is that we in the news media and in the aid world can and should do a much
better job providing context and acknowledging successes. Yet the problem surely isn’t that the
news media have overdone coverage of the disasters. Congo is the most lethal conflict since
World War II, costing about five million lives since 1998, and it has dragged on partly because
journalists haven’t done a better job propelling it onto the international agenda. You’ll never
persuade me that we’ve overcovered the slaughter in Congo—our sin is that we didn’t scream
enough, not that we screamed too much.4

While the limited coverage of Congo does tend to focus on “disasters and wars,” these accounts do
not present events in exactly the same way. We have selected four published accounts about the situ-
ation in eastern Congo written between June and November 2007. The first reading, “Dinner with
a Warlord,” is an editorial written by Kristof. The next two readings are blog entries written by the
college student, Leana Wen, and teacher, Will Okun, who accompanied Kristof on this trip to Congo.
The last article, “3-Way Battles Again Jolt Eastern Congo,” comes from the world news section of a
prominent newspaper and would be classified as news reporting. After reviewing each text, consider
these questions: What information does it provide? What feelings, ideas, and questions does it elicit?
What impression of Congo does it imprint in your mind? What do you think the author’s purpose was
when creating this piece?

32 TEACHING REPORTER
While traveling with Kristof in Congo, teacher Will Okun did not only blog; he also photographed his
experience. As he wrote in his winning application essay for the “Win a Trip with Nick” contest,

While America is only presented with images representative of Africa’s poverty and misery,
I will seek stories and photographs that will offer our young people a more comprehensive
depiction of African people and culture. . . . I hope to produce photographs and stories that will
emote pleasure and pride from the Africans themselves.5

In a video blog recorded at the end of his trip, Okun reports that he achieved his goal of capturing
images that offer a different impression of Congo than that of the war-torn nation depicted by most
news media. He hopes his images* “could be taken anywhere,” explaining,

The poverty in the countries that we visited is overwhelming. People can tell you about the
poverty, but really until you see it firsthand it’s incomprehensible, and it is truly unfair for
human beings to be forced to live in these types of conditions. But within the poverty, I was
struck by the spirit of the people. So, despite all that poverty, I hope to show the students that I
work with that we share the same Earth with these people and that what the students in Chicago
have in common with the young people in Africa, what they share in common, is greater and
more important than the differences between them.6

Four of the images Okun captured are included in Reading 9. When you look at them, what do you
see? What do they tell you about Congo? What is universal about them? What feelings or memories
do they call up for you?

“Some see media literacy as a citizenship survival skill, necessary to be a thoughtful

consumer and effective citizen in a superhighway-driven media age.” 7
– Dr. Renee Hobbs, founder of the Media Education Lab and professor at
Temple University School of Communications

Each of the texts included in this investigation was created by someone for a specific reason—to
inform, to persuade, to galvanize, etc. Being able to identify the author’s purpose is an important
component of media literacy. So is being able to access and synthesize information from a variety of
sources. When we practice analyzing and synthesizing media, we hone a valuable civic skill. Renee
Hobbs, author of the article “Building Citizenship Skills through Media Literacy Education,” agrees.
She writes, “Some see media literacy as a citizenship survival skill, necessary to be a thoughtful con-
sumer and an effective citizen in a superhighway-driven media age.”8

Why has the rise of the Internet made media literacy a “citizenship survival skill”? For one, we now
have access to far more information from a range of authors. The Internet now hosts over 10 million
blogs, in addition to social networking sites, citizen journalism websites, and video-sharing sites.9
Indeed, as the website PBS MediaShift** says about the growing role of “citizen journalists,”

* You can view Will Okun’s photographs at www.wjzo.com. For the pictures he took on his trip with Kristof, click on the link “c.africa.”
** See www.pbs.org/mediashift.

what do we learn from the news? 33

 Because of the wide dispersion of so many excellent tools for capturing live events—from
tiny digital cameras to videophones—the average citizen can now make news and distribute it
globally, an act that was once the province of established journalists and media companies.10

The blogs written by Leana Wen and Will Okun might be considered examples of citizen journalism.

This trend of citizen journalism is not limited to adults. Young people are also publishing their
ideas about the world around them. Researchers on youth and digital media at the Good Play Proj-
ect have found that “[f]ar from being passive consumers (or, as some fear, victims) of new media,
young people are actively contributing to and defining the new media landscape through sites such
as Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube, [and] Second Life as well as blogs and multi-player games.”11
While youth are clearly developing the practical know-how to navigate the media superhighway, these
researchers ask if young people are developing an ethical sense regarding how they create and con-
sume media. What does it mean to use media in a responsible way? How do we know what information
to trust? What criteria should we use? Where do we learn how to make moral choices about the words
and images we publish? These are some questions to consider as you explore the following texts and
as you use media in your daily life.

34 TEACHING REPORTER
 . Its lyrics were written in
aftali Herz Imber, a Cen-
pean poet. The melody, by
ohen, was inspired by the
mposer Bedrich Smetana’s
Moldau,” itself based on a
would no longer be enough for many
to regard themselves as semi-dis-
connected citizens.
Three years ago in Jaffa, I met a
Jewish community activist named
Sami Albo. Mr. Albo told me of his
show both
Along thestrength and the
way to see confidence,
warlord, still hasn’t risen to a prominent place
because it would send a clear mes- on the international agenda.
sage: here we are, Israelis — Jewish, That’s why I came here with Lea-
Christian, Muslim, African, Russian na Wen and Will Okun, the student
A war that’s not
and more — in the heart of the Mid-
dle East. And we are here to stay. Ø
and teacher from my win-a-trip con-
test. (Video and photos of the trip
playing at your and blogs by Will and Leana are at
nytimes.com/twofortheroad.)
local theater. The U.N. did hold elections last

Court’s Bonus Babies

Reading 5: “Dinner with a Warlord” 12 year, and much of Congo is indeed
more stable today. But here in this re-
gion of eastern Congo, a wretched sit-
we stopped at an elementary school. It uation is getting even worse.
The following editorial was written by columnist
is financed by by
Nicholas
thetheparents,
Kristof
who pay $9
and published in the New York Times
Since January about 150,000 people
wo years after their clerk- For every Supreme Court clerk, ment, paid for private sector, to
which time they may noopinion there issection
another on June 18,
similarly 2007.
gifted law- per year per child
comparatively modestto the eight wages
clerkly teach- have been driven from their homes by
t the firm). yer who could N do law firm workA19 just ers who
(less thaninstruct
$65,000 a520 students. Many renewed violence, and there are wide-
year).
the best justification for as well, but who narrowly missed out parents cannot freedom
The financial afford that sum, by
supplied so spread fears that a larger war is
g clerkship bonuses is that on a high court clerkship. Such “near- they keep
these their children
bonuses can allow at home.
the clerks looming.
The school building hadn’tcareerbeen “We see war coming,” Mr. Nkunda
Court clerkships correlate misses” NICHOLAS
are like D. KRISTOF
generic drugs, or who
kept
decide
up since
against a corporate
thequickly
Belgians ruled truly
Con- said, and he pulled out his laptop to
ith legal genius; the clerk store-brand paper towels: they per- to move on more to what
coveted that those who get form the same function, at a fraction go in the them
interests years — before 1960. The
academia, Bel- show a map indicating that various
govern-

Dinner
t be the best legal minds. of the cost. For every $250,000 Su-
em with this “screening preme Court clerkship bonus, a firm
the Vietnamese civilians could pay five clerkship bonuses of
t in this appeal is a woman $50,000 — the going rate — to former
gians practice
ment
Congo,
Law
rounds
less
were brutal
firmsbut end
after
of kleptocratic
wealthy
colonial masters
or public-interest
upenduring
in effect subsidizing
precincts of incompetence
in government-backed forces are being
law.
subsequent dispatched to attack him. He added:
the profes- “The only reply to war and ammuni-
and civil war, some Congolese feel tion is war and ammunition.”

With
sion.
ng Hong Nhut, who lived in appeals court clerks who just missed nostalgic
In recent foryears,
the lesser tyrannyof
the practice oflaw
co- I told him — a bit nervously — that
w firms throw
ring the war, the very same out on clerking for the Supreme Court
ietnam where my father (disclosure: I’m one of those former
lonialism.
at
come
the nation’s largest firms has be- such tribalism and fighting has torn
Finallymuch wemore
were of stopped by a band
a business and apart a country that should be one of
ney at former
A Warlord
our. After losing numerous appeals court clerks who didn’t get a of soldiers
much less of who searched us
a profession. Firmscarefully
have Africa’s richest. But Mr. Nkunda, who
miscarriage and deformity, golden ticket). and then
been led us past
squeezing more more guardshours
billable with quotes Gandhi, emphasized that what
s. This is good.
ng Nhut sent a biopsy The bigger point is that even if the
or analysis. The results astronomical Supreme Court clerk-
AK-47s
out
sanctum
less
and grenade
of their associates,
of Laurent
lucrative
launchers
practiceNkunda,
to the counts here is simply force. “You go
abandoning
areas and the by strength,” he said.
at, years after the war, her ship bonuses A HILLTOP may IN beEdubious CONGO
ASTERN invest- chieftain of
showing thea swath
door to of war-torn
partners east- who There are no easy solutions here, al-
retained traces of dioxin. In ments One for
hintlaw thatfirms,
this wouldthey be areangood un- ern Congo.
don’t bring in enough business — though some steps are essential: sup-
onjustification,
interview, she however,
said: “It usual for
is news interview
our legal camesystem.
when the war-
Here’s Mr. Nkunda,
measures 40, is have
that would a smart been andun- porting professional training and re-
w-clerk hiring
matter if theprocess lord walked
isn’t why:
companies in wearing
by promising clerksa button read-
a financial charismatic
heard of in theman with a more
profession’s university
gen- form of the Congolese security forces,
merit-driven. TheWhat
justices ing “Rebels For Christ.” education
teel days. who treated us to several pressuring neighboring Rwanda to
mit their crimes. real- windfall on the back end of their clerk-
qualities other than Thenfirms
legala ships, whenencourage
I reached to sipRutu
bright the café
young hours
So thisof lively
bizarreconversation
competition in among
his flu- support central authority over the full
is that people see that Modan
au lait that the ofguerrilla leaders of- ent English, followed law by a tasty chick- country, bolstering the peace process,
khen picking clerks (as they lawyers
place.” — many whom carry loads prestige-hungry firms to collect
tlyisentitled
It as much toando). The for- of
expression fered methat,
in their jungle
— to redoubt, they en dinner. He described
legal rockhimself as a and interdicting mineral exports that
een eight years since I went dismay
educational on Holocaust
debt Memorial
render serv- the most young
devout Pentecostal and said
stars actu-
that most
Justicenationalism
ntury William Rehnquist
as of icelooked
Day, reproachful
when
to the courtthe andand quicklyThe
memorial
country. bowed
siren
bo- ally represents a healthy check, how- finance rebel armies. But the most
m, and I am just starting to of hismodest,
troops had
plicants for
earning whotheplayed
Holy tennis.
Land. their heads
sounded,
nuses place theand said
muezzin
clerks ingrace. of a nearby
a similar (or su- ever on converted as well; he important step is simply for the in-
this profit-maximiz-
d that my trip was less showed us aBy church whereirrational
he said ternational community to acknowl-
k, who
rael was in
needs from
the Alabama, I’m taking
mosque
21st cen- perior) recited
position a student and atoteacher
the Koran,
financially rather
their ing behavior. harnessing
nging
spot theclerks
for past, from
an impossi- theyfirm
prayegotism
daily, and to he showed photos of edge that a war that costs four million
anthem that can beSouth- than
alongobserve
sung classmates who the
on a reporting wentmoment
trip
directly in into
silence,
to Africa, and
pri- law serve the rest
it by
hools. Andany stretch of
all the justicesthe because a Muslim look atreligious civilleader of baptisms
the profession, of theenormous
soldiers. clerkship lives must be an international priori-
citizens, of whatever faith. vate practice
we wanted to instead of
how clerking for
wars
on, and
prospective more about taking
clerks toradical- had
assess two died.
tearyears (the first
countries apartwithanda lower-court
block the Then again,
bonuses achieve the angovernment
impressive, has in-
is- ty, even if the victims aren’t staring at
of rising Islamic
o understand
ybsolutely
fit — which and recognize
makes sense, sued an international
creasingly difficult feat: arrest warrant
getting top us from television screens. Ø
in Israel’s long- judge, the economic
Updating
continent’s second
“Hatikvah” with a Supreme
to take ac-
development. So
kes be
will ofworking
the Vietnam
closely War.
with Court
count justice).
of
we rented Israel’s
a jeep The andbonuses
religious can the
drovediversity
past be against
law firms him to for war crimes,
contribute and hu-
to something
est to bind its Arab minor-
sow,
for after 40 years,
an entire year. the vic- viewed
would as an demand
rightly
last checkpoints after-the-fact
outsidea the supple-
reciprocal
city of man rights
other monitors
than their like Refugees
own bottom line. In- Ø Paul Krugman is on vacation.
gent Orange will finally get gesture Goma, and from thenits Arab along
jounced minoritya tortu- to ternational say that his troops have
gnition. Ø also respectfully
ous dirt road into the commemorate
hills. the killed and raped civilians and pillaged
ontradiction victims
green
of the Holocaust.
We traveled
Many will
hills andclaim
through gorgeous
forests, that at a time
thatch-roof vil-
their villages. He denies the charges.
“I’m not a warlord . . . I’m a libera-
rapped in a when
lages Israel
threats
Government
faces such existential
and mist-shrouded
as a potential
is only a rumor Iranian
canyons.
nucle-
here, for
tor of the people,” he said.
That’s the problem: So are they all.
onal anthem. ar
thebomb,
capitala is
week’s triumph
resurgent
1,200 miles
of a
Hezbollah,
away andlast
recalcitrant
no control in the east and offers no
has
Ha-
More than four million people have
died in Congo’s wars since 1998, mak-
mas and daily
services. Thererocket barrages
is no postal service,from no ing it the most lethal conflict since
Gaza,
nationalaltering
health “Hatikvah”
or educationwould system, be World War II.
state. At the same time, if anosign of weakness.
authority to rein in the ultimate Probably no slaughter has gotten
prepared to evolve and I would
boss in theargue precisely
third world: a manthe with
oppo-a fewer column inches — or fewer tele-
Courtesy of Will Okun (www.wjzo.com).

must demand full civic loy- site. gun. Changing that one word from
its Arab population. It “Jewish” Along the to way“Israeli”
to see the soulwarlord,
would
onger be enough for many show both strength and confidence,
themselves as semi-dis- because it would send a clear mes-
citizens. sage: here we are, Israelis — Jewish,
A war that’s not
ears ago in Jaffa, I met a Christian, Muslim, African, Russian
mmunity activist named and more — in the heart of the Mid-
playing at your
. Mr. Albo told me of his dle East. And we are here to stay. Ø
local theater.
vision minutes — per million deaths.
So even after all that suffering, Congo
still hasn’t risen to a prominent place
on the international agenda.
That’s why I came here with Lea-
na Wen and Will Okun, the student
and teacher from my win-a-trip con-
test. (Video and photos of the trip
and blogs by Will and Leana are at
nytimes.com/twofortheroad.)
The U.N. did hold elections last

s Babies
year, and much of Congo is indeed
more stable today. But here in this re-
we stopped at an elementary school. It gion of eastern Congo, a wretched sit- General Laurent Nkunda, rebel leader
is financed by the parents, who pay $9 uation is getting even worse. in eastern Congo, considers himself
ry Supreme Court clerk, per year
ment, paidperforchild
by thetoprivate
the eight teach-
sector, to Since January about 150,000 people a “liberator of the people.” He was
other similarly gifted law- ers who instruct
comparatively 520 students.
modest Many
clerkly wages have been driven from their homes by
ould do law firm work just parents
(less thancannot
$65,000 afford
a year).that sum, so renewed violence, and there are wide- arrested in 2009. The Congolese
t who narrowly missed out they
Thekeep their children
financial freedomatsupplied
home. by spread fears that a larger war is government plans to try him for war
ourt clerkship. Such “near- The bonuses
these school can building
allowhadn’t been
the clerks looming. crimes committed in the country.
re like generic drugs, or keptdecide
who up since the Belgians
against a corporateruled Con-
career “We see war coming,” Mr. Nkunda
d paper towels: they per- gomove
to in theonyears
more before
quickly1960. Thetruly
to what Bel- said, and he pulled out his laptop to
ame function, at a fraction gians were
interests brutal
them — colonial
academia, masters
govern-in show a map indicating that various
t. For every $250,000 Su- Congo,practice
ment but after orenduring subsequent
public-interest law. government-backed forces are being
urt clerkship bonus, a firm rounds
Law firmsof end
kleptocratic incompetence
up in effect subsidizing dispatched to attack him. He added:
five clerkship bonuses of and wealthy
less civil war, some Congolese
precincts feel
of the profes- “The only reply to war and ammuni-
the going rate — to former nostalgic for the lesser tyranny of co-
sion. tion is war and ammunition.” what do we learn from the news? 35
urt clerks who just missed lonialism.
In recent years, the practice of law I told him — a bit nervously — that
king for the Supreme Court at Finally we were
the nation’s stopped
largest firmsbyhas
a band
be- such tribalism and fighting has torn
e: I’m one of those former of soldiers
come muchwho more searched us carefully
of a business and apart a country that should be one of
urt clerks who didn’t get a and then
much lessled
of us past more Firms
a profession. guardshave
with Africa’s richest. But Mr. Nkunda, who
et). AK-47s
been and grenade
squeezing morelaunchers to the
billable hours quotes Gandhi, emphasized that what
Reading 6: “Killing in the Name of God”13
The following post was written by medical student Leana Wen and published on June 21, 2007, on the
New York Times blog Two for the Road: In Africa with Nick Kristof (twofortheroad.blogs.nytimes.com).

Killing in the Name of God

Posted by: L. Wen Date: 06/21/2007

The most bizarre experience on this trip so far has been the visit to
General Laurent Nkunda. It’s hardly an everyday occurrence to go to
the military camp of an actual “warlord” who is accused of raping and
massacring thousands. (He prefers to be referred to as “liberator of
the people” and denies all allegations against him.) . . .

One of the most striking parts of the interview is the religious fervor
with which General Nkunda led his troops. Apparently, he is very influ-
enced by the evangelist movement, and as a pastor in the Pentecostal
church, he helps to convert and baptize his troops. He proudly sported
a pin, “Rebels for Christ.” Before each drink and meal, he and his
faithful prayed. “We fight in the name of the Lord,” he told us. “That is
what I tell all my troops. When they fight, they have God on their side.”

As a lapsed Christian, I have to admit that I don’t know much about

Christianity. But something about Nkunda’s comments made me feel
ill to my stomach. Was he really using God as a license to kill? Was it
really his conviction that God was with him in battle, or was he using
“the God card” as a way to manipulate and control his troops? It would
not be the first time that the name of God has been used to consolidate
power, and certainly not the first time religion has given hope and
purpose to unemployed young men without good futures. . . .

I lie awake at night thinking about our experiences in Congo. Meeting

this charismatic general who sounds like a preacher is superimposed
with seeing the villages destroyed and hearing the stories of those
whose lives were cut short because of conflict. To be fair, other
“warlords” and rebel groups are also implicated in the conflict. And
I may not know much about Christianity, or God. But the basic values
of humanity are such that killing and maiming innocent people—in
anyone’s name—is just wrong. That General Nkunda is able to use
religion as a rallying cry to the point of committing such atrocities
is testament to the depth of the problems and the erosion of human
values in Congo.

36 TEACHING REPORTER
Reading 7: “Fear”14
The following post was written by high-school teacher Will Okun and published on June 20, 2007, on the
New York Times blog Two for the Road: In Africa with Nick Kristof (twofortheroad.blogs.nytimes.com).

Fear
Posted by: W. Okun Date: 06/20/2007

I can hear the music pulsating in the thick Congo night, inviting me.
“Come over, dance, drink, have a good time, enjoy life.” But I am
scared to leave the hotel at night.

The breaking news is just over those mountains, the stories that
will bring attention to the horrific conflicts of Congo. But I am too
scared to go. There is fighting in the hills, and everyone says the
soldiers on both sides are immoral, unpredictable, and without
remorse.

It is terrible to feel such fear, it shakes you to the core. It controls

your days and your nights, your security, your freedoms, and even
seeps into your dreams. I do not have to live in such fear; in one week
I can go home. But such is life in parts of the Democratic Republic of
Congo, where various conflicts have killed four million people and
displaced one-and-a-half million more since 1998.

Imagine living in a rural community where your daughter could be

raped, or even sodomized, by soldiers every time she leaves home.
Recently, Nick Kristof asked a village leader to speak with a woman
who had been raped, and the line continued to grow and grow at a
sickening rate.

Imagine living in a rural community where you do not grow crops

to feed your family, because the soldiers will simply eat all the fruits
of your labor anyway. Imagine hiding the fact that you have a job,
because the soldiers will ransack your house first. Imagine leaving
your village and home with your family in the dark of night for places
unknown, because the soldiers’ violence devours everything in its path.

The gripping control of fear is not exclusive to Congo. I know families in

Chicago who do not let their kids outside to play. I have seen children
scatter when it was only a car backfiring. I have taught high-school
gang members who know any day could also be their last day.

what do we learn from the news? 37

 People do not appreciate security until they experience fear. Fear
is so encompassing that it can become a person’s driving force. It is
ludicrous to expect a person, community, or even a nation to prosper and
progress when they are in the throes of instability, insecurity, and fear.

Basic human rights like education, health, liberty, etc., cannot be devel-
oped and obtained until security is established, whether it be in Congo
or in Chicago.

And yet most of us, including myself, are only truly concerned about
the security of our loved ones. We do not care about the other side of
town, [let alone] the other side of the world. How can I care about wars
in Africa when I do not even care enough to combat gang warfare, bad
schools, inadequate health care, unsafe water, etc., on the South Side
of Chicago? How do I change this mindset, for myself and for others?

38 TEACHING REPORTER
Reading 8: “3-Way Battles Again Jolt Eastern Congo”15
The following news article was written by reporter Jeffrey Gettleman and published on page A3 of the
international section of the New York Times on October 25, 2007.
NAIROBI, Kenya—Eastern Congo
continues to be wracked by violence,
UN officials said yesterday, and battles
between rival militias are driving
thousands of beleaguered villagers
from their homes and complicating
the government’s efforts to strike a
truce.
Sylvie van den Wildenberg, a UN
spokeswoman in eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo, said a three-sided
fight broke out this weekend among
the Congolese government and two
militias, one allied with government
troops and the other fiercely indepen-
dent. The government is now trying to
disarm both militias, but it is not clear
if either will submit.
The warfare has turned eastern
Congo into a kill zone, and in the
past few days tens of thousands of
residents have fled. The number of
displaced people in just one province,
North Kivu, has swelled to more than
750,000.
“It’s a catastrophe,” van den
Wildenberg said. “. . . All these people
are running, and no one seems to
know where to go.”
After Hutu death squads extermi-
nated hundreds of thousands of Tutsis
in Rwanda in 1994, many culprits fled
into the thickly forested hills of eastern
Congo, next door. The Hutu militias
have regrouped, and United Nations
officials blame them for terrorizing
civilians, especially women.
In the past few weeks fight-
ing has raged between the Congo-
lese Army and the forces of Laurent
Nkunda, a dissident Tutsi general who
has accused the Congolese Army of
helping the Hutu militias, a charge
the army denies. Nkunda says his
men—and boys, because many are
child soldiers—are simply protect-
ing the Tutsis in Congo from being
massacred.
Joseph Kabila, Congo’s president,
tried to negotiate with Nkunda. Then,
a few weeks ago, Kabila gave him an
ultimatum, threatening to wipe out
his troops unless they turned in their
guns or joined the national army. UN
officials said more than 1,200 fighters
defected to the government.
But then the Mai-Mai entered the
equation. The Mai-Mai are a huge
force of loosely organized Congolese
militiamen, who have jumped into the
fight on the side of the government,
saying that Nkunda is a warlord.
On Saturday, as Nkunda’s forces
battled government troops near the
Rwandan border, the Mai-Mai attacked
Nkunda from a different direction.
Heavy artillery boomed and sent tens
of thousands of villagers scattering in
the rain. Kabila ordered the Mai-Mai
to stand down, but they refused.
what do we learn from the news? 39
Reading 9: Images of Congo
The following four photographs were taken by Will Okun during his trip to Congo in June 2007 and are
published on his website, www.wjzo.com.

40 TEACHING REPORTER
what do we learn from the news? 41
Connections

1. What is the benefit of reviewing multiple sources, written from different perspectives, about the
same topic? What are the consequences when we limit ourselves to only one version of events?
Given the tremendous amount of information available on the Internet, how do you know when
you have accessed enough information to form a thoughtful opinion about a subject?

2. Nicholas Kristof’s column is an editorial; Leana Wen and Will Okun wrote blogs; the other stories
appeared in the front sections of the newspaper. What information do you assume about media
based on its genre (type) and where you find it? Is it important that “news” stories are distin-
guished from opinion pieces? Why or why not?

3. According to the Center for Journalism Ethics, “The internet has created a new sphere where
everyone can be a journalist; all you need is a computer and an opinion—no training necessary.”16
Do you think that only a trained journalist should be reporting the news? Why or why not? When
reading a news story, what do you want to know about who wrote it? Why is this information
important?

4. What criteria do you use when deciding if you can trust what you are reading, watching, or hear-
ing? If you were writing a news story, blog, or editorial, what could you do to improve your trust-
worthiness as a writer?

5. When you think of Africa, what images and topics come to mind? Do you think of Africa as
one vast continent or as a collection of distinct nations? Do you think of Nobel Prize winners,
successful businesses, and thriving agriculture? Why might this be the case? See Africa Differently
(www.seeafricadifferently.com) is a website dedicated to celebrating the good news coming out of
Africa. What is the role of such a website?

6. Richard Dowden argues that journalists like Kristof paint a negative portrait of Africa because they
cover only the problems facing the continent. Reporter filmmaker Eric Metzgar responds to this
argument as follows:

My response is that—the way that Nick works is. . .a bit like a surgeon. You know, you don’t
wanna go in and have your surgeon tell you, “Well, I’ve looked you over and your elbow is
workin’ just fine and your vision’s great. And come back later.” You know, you’d say, “Well, I
came here to know what the problems are and what we can do to fix ’em.” And so Nick goes in
there simply to say, “Look, there’s excess suffering happening here. And people are not shining
a light on it. Americans are not aware of what’s happening, and if they were then maybe they
can do something.17

What do you think of Metzgar’s argument? What could be the consequences if reporters focus
exclusively (or mostly) on the problems facing a community? What could be the consequences if
reporters focus exclusively (or mostly) on solutions? What do you suggest as a reasonable compro-
mise for those who want reporters to cover both problems and solutions? How should communities

42 TEACHING REPORTER
 be represented by the media? Is it important for journalists to balance negative stories with positive
ones? How is your community covered by the media? Are there stories that should be told that are
not covered by the media? Why do you think this may be the case?

7. In an interview with Teen Ink magazine, Kristof shares one of his concerns as a reporter. He
worries that “focusing on the massacres, and the mass rape, and all the other bad things, I leave
people with a misperception of the continent [Africa] as a whole that discourages tourism, that
discourages studying abroad, that discourages investment.”18 Do you think this is a valid concern?
What could Kristof do so that readers are less likely to hold misperceptions of Africa?

8. In the editorial “Dinner with a Warlord,” Kristof complains about the lack of media coverage of
Congo:

More than four million people have died in Congo’s wars since 1998, making it the most lethal
conflict since World War II. Probably no slaughter has gotten fewer column inches—or fewer
television minutes—per million deaths. So even after all that suffering, Congo still hasn’t risen
to a prominent place on the international agenda.

What gets the most attention in the media, in the newspaper, on television, and on the Internet
and social networking sites? What should get the most attention? Why?

9. According to a 2008 survey by the Pew Research Center, most Americans “follow international
news only when important developments occur.”19 What can be done to bring attention to ongoing
humanitarian crises, like poverty, lack of clean drinking water, the mistreatment of women and
girls, etc.?

1. Elecia Chrunik, “Does ‘Caring’ Require Advocacy in Journalism?,” Center for Journalism Ethics, June 16, 2008,
http://www.journalismethics.ca/feature_articles/does_caring_require_advocay.html.

2. “Transcript: Caring About Congo,” NOW on PBS, February 12, 2010, http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/607/transcript.html.

3. Nicholas Kristof, “Bright Continent,” New York Times, May 1, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/books/review/
Kristof-t.html?_r=2.

4. Ibid.

5. Will Okun, “Winning Essay: Will Okun,” New York Times, April 29, 2007, accessed September 19, 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/opinion/29wat-okun.html.

6. Will Okun, “Win a Trip: Will’s Reflections,” New York Times video, July 2, 2007, accessed September 10, 2010,
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2007/07/03/opinion/1194817111919/win-a-trip-wills-ref lections.html.

7. Renee Hobbs, “Building Citizenship Skills through Media Literacy Education,” Center for Media Literacy,
http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article365.html.

8. Renee Hobbs, “Building Citizenship Skills through Media Literacy Education.”

9. Carolynne Burkholder, “Citizen Journalism: Blogging,” Center for Journalism Ethics, http://www.journalismethics.ca/
citizen_journalism/blogging.htm.

10. Mark Glaser, “Your Guide to Citizen Journalism,” PBS MediaShift, September 27, 2006, accessed September 19, 2010,
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/09/your-guide-to-citizen-journalism270.html.

what do we learn from the news? 43

11. “Research Profile: The GoodPlay Project–Overview,” 2007, accessed September 19, 2010, http://www.goodworkproject.org/research/
digital.htm.

12. Nicholas Kristof, “Dinner with a Warlord,” New York Times, June 18, 2007.

13. Leana Wen, “Killing in the Name of God,” Two for the Road (blog), June 21, 2007, http://twofortheroad.blogs.nytimes.com.

14. Will Okun, “Fear,” Two for the Road (blog), June 20, 2007, http://twofortheroad.blogs.nytimes.com.

15. Jeffrey Gettleman, “3-Way Battles Again Jolt Eastern Congo,” New York Times, October 25, 2007, http://www.nytimes/
com/2008/01/06/world/africa/06congo.html.

16. Carolynne Burkholder, “Citizen Journalism.”

17. “Transcript: Caring About Congo.”

18. Eliza E. and Alicia H., “Journalist Nicholas Kristof,” Teen Ink, accessed September 19, 2010, http://www.teenink.com/nonfiction/
celebrity_interviews/article/207195/Journalist-Nicholas-Kristof.

19. “Key News Audiences Now Blend Online and Traditional Sources,” The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press,
August 17, 2008, http://people-press.org/report/?pageid=1356.

44 TEACHING REPORTER
Investigation Four
What can we do to help? Education and action

The reading in this investigation has been selected to deepen our understanding of ideas presented in
the documentary Reporter. As we follow Nicholas Kristof through eastern Congo, we are confronted with
many of the problems—including poverty, lack of medical care, and violence—endured by the women,
children, and men living in the region.

Overview

In the spring of 2007, Leana Wen, a medical student, applied to win a trip to central Africa with New
York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. In her winning essay, she writes, “I want to fight these injus-
tices and change the world.” She believes that traveling with Kristof will give her some tools to do this.
Wen’s desire to fight injustice comes from personal experience. She explains:

My upbringing exposed me to injustices firsthand. Raised in a dissident family in China, I came

to the US on political asylum after the Tiananmen Square massacre.* We were outsiders in a
Communist regime and remained outsiders in predominantly Mormon Utah and then inner-
city Los Angeles. Though Shanghai, Logan, and Compton have little else in common, they all
bear witness to the differences between the haves and have-nots, and I grew up keenly aware of
the impact of political, cultural, and socioeconomic oppression. As a child with life-threatening
asthma and debilitating speech impediment, I also confronted the stigma of disability and
the challenges of seeking health care with limited resources. Yet the mechanisms to address
injustices eluded me.1

Wen decided to become a doctor so that she could “help those most in need.” Yet during her first few
years in the medical profession, she “witnessed more problems than found solutions.”2 Frustrated, she
arrived at the following belief: “Global change requires more than pills and individual-level change: it
hinges on concerted education and mobilization.”3 While in central Africa with Kristof, Wen elaborated
on this idea in the blog entry “What Can We Do to Help?” Her broad suggestions—educate yourself,
educate others, and take action—can be applied to help solve any problem, from global poverty to

“I think that there are a lot of young people who are not put off by the vastness of the
challenges, but are making these incremental differences in real places. . .” 4
– Nicholas Kristof

* In 1989, thousands of demonstrators, many of them students, gathered in the largest public square in the world—Tiananmen
Square in Beijing—to protest against the Chinese government in favor of democratic reform. The “Tiananmen Square massacre”
refers to the government’s crackdown on protesters, which resulted in an unknown number of deaths, with estimates ranging from
100 to 3,000 (http://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/21/world/a-reassessment-of-how-many-died-in-the-military-crackdown-in-beijing.html).

what can we do to help? 45

neighborhood hate crimes. After reading this blog post, consider the issues that impact your commu-
nity, problems that provoke your sense of outrage, or causes that you care about. What can you do to
help? In particular, how can you use your voice to intervene in the face of injustice? How can you use
your role as a consumer and creator of media to prevent future injustice?

Reading 10: “What Can We Do to Help?”

The following post was written by medical student Leana Wen and published on the New York Times blog
Two for the Road: In Africa with Nick Kristof (twofortheroad.blogs.nytimes.com) on June 27, 2007.

“What Can We Do to Help?”

Posted by: L. Wen Date: 06/27/2007

One of the most common comments

we get goes: “What can I do to
help? You guys talk so much about
the problems, and now I want to do
something.” I don’t like to bring up
Courtesy of Will Okun (www.wjzo.com).

problems without proposing solu-

tions. In this second-to-last entry,
I propose concrete action steps to
channel passion and idealism into
activism and action.

Be forewarned that I don’t think that

giving money is usually the best
Doctor Leana Wen travels around the
world learning about global health way to help. I believe that educa-
issues and educating others. tion, awareness, and tangible actions
multiply many times over. They are
actions that, during your lifetime, will far outweigh infrequent monetary
contributions. An aid worker at HEAL Africa summarized my thoughts
when she said, “It’s too easy to give money and feel like you’ve helped.
Doing something shouldn’t be about relieving your guilty conscience.”
That said, there are many humanitarian organizations doing great
things that rely on donor funds, and I do hope that you consider sup-
porting them. I am just proposing other ways to help beyond monetary
contributions.

46 TEACHING REPORTER
1) Educate yourself
Exposure to and understanding of issues is the most important and
most fundamental step of “doing something” to help. Broaden your
understanding through reading and traveling. Your voice as an activist
will be much stronger if assertions are backed by evidence, and if your
passion and conviction is grounded in reality. . . .

2) Educate others
Once you understand the issues and have spent time abroad, use your
social and professional networks to educate others and share ideas.
You have more networks than you might think. Forward articles to
help educate family and friends. Join discussion forums. If you worked
abroad or spent time researching an issue, seek opportunities in your
community to give talks. . . .

3) Take action
Assist existing humanitarian aid groups. There are many excellent aid
organizations worthy of your investment or volunteer time. . . . Lobby
your legislators. It’s not because of politicians that the US is not doing
enough to help Africa or to stop the war in Congo. It’s because we have
not, as a country, expressed interest in global issues. . . . Ultimately it
is us who will propel our government to action.

Finally, remember that problems don’t exist just in Africa; ­injustices

exist everywhere. Social activism is not limited just to the places “over
there”; there are many opportunities to assist no matter where you
are. Insecurity is not limited just to war-torn areas; there are destruc-
tive people and destructive values that exist in our own backyard.
There is a lot we can do by assisting our own communities. Part of
being globally conscious involves striving to help all those around us, to
the best of our abilities, every single day.

what can we do to help? 47

Connections

1. Make an identity chart for Leana Wen.* What do you know about her? How do you think her
identity has shaped her goal “to solve global problems by educating and motivating the public to
action”?5 How has your identity shaped your beliefs about civic participation—about being involved
in your community (local, national, or global)?

2. Wen’s first suggestion is to “educate yourself.” What do you want to know more about, in terms of
problems facing communities near or far? Where might you look to find this information?

3. Wen writes about the need for people to be “globally conscious.” In other words, people should
know something about what is happening around the world. Yet despite the rise in access to news,
the proportion of young people who do not read or watch the news—online, in print, or on televi-
sion—has actually increased.6 Do you think this is a problem? What can be done to get more young
people to access the news? Besides watching or reading the news, how else might young people
learn about what is going on in the world?

4. In an interview with Teen Ink magazine, Kristof offers advice about how we should “educate our-
selves” about what is happening in the world:

Maybe the biggest thing I would caution against is something that is very human, which
is to seek out sources we agree with. There is a deeply ingrained tendency for liberals and
conservatives alike to find sources that just seem incredibly reasonable, and tend to be those
that confirm our every prejudice. . . . And I think that tends to be bad for democracy and for
one’s own intellectual development. So, I would encourage students to bite the bullet and go out
and seek out intelligent views that challenge the things they hold dear.7

What are the consequences when we only read or watch points of view that affirm our beliefs?
Where would you go to seek out views that are different from your own?

5. Wen’s second suggestion is for people to “educate others.” How might this be done? The website
www.halftheskymovement.org (a companion to the book Half the Sky, written by Nicholas Kristof
and Sheryl WuDunn, about the plight of women around the world) provides some ideas. It lists
three “simple actions [that] have the potential to reach thousands. . .even millions of people across
the planet”:

1) spread the word via social networking,

2) tell a friend by sharing an email, and
3) download images and use them on your blog or web page or add them to
your email signature.

* Learn more about identity charts (www.facinghistory.org/resources/strategies/identity-charts) by reading pages 8–9 of Facing
History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior (www.facinghistory.org/resources/hhb).

48 TEACHING REPORTER
 Have you ever done any of these things? What are other ways you can use the Internet to educate
others about a cause that is important to you?

6. Leana’s final suggestion is to “take action.” She reminds us that “problems don’t exist just in
Africa; ­injustices exist everywhere.” What injustices exist in your community? What is being done
about them? If you were going to take action, what could you do to help?

7. Even after learning about a problem, many people do not take action. Why do you think this is the
case? What obstacles get in our way? Under what circumstances might someone become moti-
vated to take action? Have you ever been motivated to take action for something you believed in?
If so, what motivated your decision to get involved? If not, why do you think that you have never
felt inspired to do something on behalf of a cause you care about?

8. How can teenagers play a role in helping to solve world problems? Are those under voting age too
young to make a difference? Kristof believes youth can have an impact in addressing world prob-
lems. He explains:

One thing I think today’s teenagers are really good at is starting projects that make a difference
abroad, instead of supporting some kind of symbolic protest that feels good but doesn’t make
a specific difference in people’s lives. Last night, for example, I met Brittany Young, a young
woman who started a group called “A Spring of Hope.” In high school she started this group
[that] essentially builds wells for schools in Africa. Although this is not going to solve the world’s
problem of bad water, or solve education problems in Africa, for a few specific schools, it’s going
to mean they’re going to get water where they didn’t have it before. That’s a real difference, and
I think that there are a lot of young people who are not put off by the vastness of the challenges,
but are making these incremental differences in real places.8

To what extent do you agree or disagree with Kristof’s statement? What opportunities exist for
teenagers to make “incremental differences in real places”? What might limit the ability of teenag-
ers to have an impact?

1. Leana Wen, “Winning Essay: Leana Wen,” New York Times, April 29, 2007, accessed September 19, 2010, http://www.nytimes.
com/2007/04/29/opinion/29wat-wen.html.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. Eliza E. and Alicia H., “Journalist Nicholas Kristof,” Teen Ink, accessed September 19, 2010, http://www.teenink.com/nonfiction/
celebrity_interviews/article/207195/Journalist-Nicholas-Kristof.

5. Ibid.

6. “Key News Audiences Now Blend Online and Traditional Sources,” The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press,
August 17, 2008, http://people-press.org/report/444/news-media.

7. Eliza E. and Alicia H., “Journalist Nicholas Kristof.”

8. Ibid.

what can we do to help? 49

Web Resources for Reporter
For information related to Nicholas Kristof and the film Reporter:

Making Media, Making Sense, Making a Difference (http://reporter.facinghistory.org)

Facing History has developed a website to help students, educators, and community members
explore questions about being an engaged global citizen in our information age. The website
houses a digital version of “Teaching Reporter,” as well as additional Reporter resources (e.g. stream-
ing film clips, lesson ideas, and interactive polls). This site also presents information about our
Digital Media Innovation Network, including student work created by it’s members

Two for the Road (http://twofortheroad.blogs.nytimes.com)

This is the blog that Leana Wen and Will Okun kept while traveling with Nicholas Kristof in cen-
tral Africa. The blog also includes video reflections and links to editorials Kristof wrote during
the trip.

Reporter film website (http://www.reporterfilm.com/main.html)

The official website for Reporter provides background information about Congo, photos taken
during the filming of the documentary, biographies of Nicholas Kristof and the filmmakers, and
action steps that might be taken after viewing this film.

Nicholas D. Kristof’s New York Times opinion page (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/

editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/nicholasdkristof/index.html)
This page provides links to all of Kristof’s columns, along with video footage from some of
his trips.

On the Ground (http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com)

Kristof’s blog on the New York Times website expands on the ideas from his columns. Readers’
comments contribute additional insights and questions. You can post your comments here,
as well. Kristof can also be followed on Twitter (http://twitter.com/nickkristof ) and Facebook
(http://www.facebook.com/kristof ).

WJZO Photography (http://www.wjzo.com)

This is where Will Okun posts his photographs. Click on “c.africa” to view the images he took on
his trip with Kristof.

Caring About Congo (http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/607/index.html)

In February 2010, the PBS show NOW interviewed filmmaker Eric Metzgar about his experience
making Reporter. You can read the transcript of this fascinating interview, watch it as a video, or
listen to it as a podcast.

50 TEACHING REPORTER
For information related to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Darfur:

Enough Project (http://www.enoughproject.org)

Enough Project was founded to build a permanent constituency to prevent genocide and crimes
against humanity. Its members maintain up-to-date resources on the situations in eastern Congo
and Darfur.

Ripples of Genocide: Journey through Eastern Congo (http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/

congojournal/)
This online exhibit, created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, provides insights
into Congo by examining the diaries of four individuals who traveled there in 2003 (including
actress Angelina Jolie). The site also has information about the current situation in Congo.

Genocide Intervention Network (http://www.genocideintervention.net)

This advocacy group was founded to empower individuals by giving them the tools to stop and
prevent genocide. The website includes background information about Congo and Darfur, as well
as ideas about what individuals can do to help restore peace to these regions.

A Promise Unkept  (http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2004/10/20/opinion/

20041020_DARFUR_FEATURE.html)
This online presentation about Darfur, narrated by Nicholas Kristof, includes small video clips
with topics such as “Why Should We Care?,” “America and Genocide,” and “What Can We Do?”

Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers (http://www.child-soldiers.org/home)

This organization works to prevent the recruitment and use of children as soldiers and to secure
their rehabilitation. The website provides an array of resources to help the public better understand
this issue, including basic facts and the testimony of child soldiers.

For more information about journalism and reporting:

HSJ.org
Published by the ASNE (American Society of News Editors), HSJ.org is one of the leading websites
for information about high-school journalism. It includes investigations for students and teach-
ers. In the teachers’ section, you can find hundreds of lesson plans and other resources on topics
ranging from writing editorials to conducting interviews to copyediting.

Newseum (http://www.newseum.org)
Newseum, located in Washington, DC, was founded for the purpose of “helping people better
understand the news and the important role it plays in their lives.” Watching Reporter would be
an appropriate activity before or after visiting this museum. The museum’s website hosts helpful
resources for teachers, including lesson plans on topics such as “First Amendment” and “Head-
lines from History,” and news stories from different historical eras.

Project for Excellence in Journalism (http://www.journalism.org)

The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence is a nonpartisan website dedicated to the study

web resources 51
 of the press. The website hosts survey results and reports—many of them focused on new media.
This is a great site to explore for deeper knowledge about the changing landscape of journalism.

Center for Journalism Ethics for the Global Citizen (http://www.journalismethics.ca/index.htm)

The website of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison focuses
on advancing the ethical standards of journalism. The center explores ethical issues related to
traditional journalism and new media, including blogging and citizen journalism. It also provides
links to different examples of journalism ethics codes.

News Writing with Scholastic Editors (http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/news/index.htm)

This website provides step-by-step instructions to help students write and publish their own
news stories.

The News Manual (http://www.thenewsmanual.net)

This professional resource for journalists includes three online manuals: Volume 1: Basic Tech-
niques, Volume 2: Advanced Reporting, and Volume 3: Ethics and the Law. For beginners, you might
want to start with “The Shape of a Story,” which includes an image and description of the inverted
pyramid structure for news writing.

Student Reporting Labs (http://www.studentreportinglabs.com)

PBS Newshour has created a website aimed to help student journalists create and share their
work. The website includes information on how to create a student reporting lab that connects
with local PBS stations and news professionals, as well as stories produced by students across
the country. The Student Reporting Labs Curriculum (http://www.studentreportinglabs.com/
reporting-labs-curriculum) consists of nine lesson plans focused on digital and news literacy.

52 TEACHING REPORTER
Credits

Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint the following:

Map of Congo. Reproduced with permission from Peace Corps World Wise Schools.

Photography by Will Okun, www.wjzo.com. Reproduced with permission.

“Follow for Now,” On the Media. Reprinted with permission from On the Media-WNYC Radio.

The following articles: © 2007 The New York Times. All rights reserved. Used by permission and pro-
tected by Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission
of the Material without express written permission is prohibited.

Nicholas Kristof, “Save the Darfur Puppy,” New York Times, May 10, 2007.

Nicholas Kristof, “A Student, a Teacher and a Glimpse of War,” New York Times, June 21, 2007.

Nicholas Kristof, “Dinner With a Warlord,” New York Times, June 18, 2007.

Will Okun, “Fear,” Two for the Road (blog), June 20, 2007.

Will Okun, “Winning Essay,” New York Times, April 29, 2007.

Leana Wen, “Killing in the Name of God,” Two for the Road (blog), June 21, 2007.

Leana Wen, “What Can We Do to Help?,” Two for the Road (blog), June 27, 2007.

Leana Wen, “Winning Essay,” New York Times, April 29, 2007.

credits 53