Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

33° Evanston, IL
Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Foreign correspondence

Fifteen years ago, National Public Radio foreign correspondent Tom Gjelten had to trek to a remote jungle hideout to attend a guerrilla press conference. Now, he logs on to the group’s Web site.

Gjelten was joined by NPR foreign correspondent Phillip Davis and NPR President Kevin Klose, who spoke to a crowd of approximately 120 at Fisk Hall about the influence of technology on foreign coverage.

Davis said reporters have to be much faster now because they can file their stories so quickly. He records his stories on digital minidiscs and sends them as compressed sound files back to Washington, D.C.

“There’s no breathing room,” said Davis at Monday’s Crain Lecture Series talk, sponsored by the Medill School of Journalism. “You can send a story as soon as you can find a cell phone.”

Technology has changed at such a speed that it has revolutionized reporting techniques.

In the mid- to late ’80s, when Gjelten was working out of Central America, he had to use the hotel phone to file stories and could never travel far from his home base. In Bosnia in 1992, he used satellite phones “the size of trucks” that operated off huge diesel-powered generators. The phone service cost $40 a minute, which meant he could barely afford to talk to his editor. A few years later, in Kosovo, the satellite phones had shrunk down to the size of laptop computers.

Technology has influenced the audience as well as the media, Davis said. He has seen Internet caf

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Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881
Foreign correspondence