OXFORD, Miss. – Whether it’s the evening news on ABC, CBS or NBC, or
the steady stream of talking heads on CNN, Fox News or MSNBC, voters
seem to have grown used to – and in some cases, tired of – incessant
media coverage of every minute detail of the presidential campaign.
But what are reporters in Australia and the Netherlands saying about
the election? Or those in India and Japan? Given their cultures,
education and interests, how are media agencies around the world
covering the election of America’s 44th president?
These questions and more will be addressed Sept. 23 at the University
of Mississippi when a panel of international journalists share insights
on how they cover the U.S. election – and how their audiences view it.
The panel presentation on “Views of the U.S. Presidential Election from
Abroad” begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Overby Center Auditorium. Sponsored
by the Croft Institute for International Studies, it is free and open
to the public.
The event is among dozens of debate-themed academic programs hosted by
the university in anticipation of the first 2008 presidential debate,
scheduled Sept. 26 at UM’s Ford Center.
“This brings something new to the university and to Mississippi, to
hear how we are perceived beyond our borders,” said Kees Gispen, Croft
director. “It is part of the Croft Institute’s mission and I think it
will appeal to our larger audience here.”
The panel will include:
– Anirudh Bhattacharyya (India). Based in New York City, Bhattacharyya
covers U.S. politics for CNN-IBN, Network 18 of India and the online
news site IBNLive.com. His blog can be found at http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/
– Geoffrey Elliott (Australia). Elliott, a 19-year veteran journalist,
has worked in the Washington, D.C., bureau of The Australian since 2005
and maintains a blog about the U.S. presidential election at http://blogs.theaustralian.
– Derk Jan Eppink (Netherlands). Eppink has worked as a political
analyst for Actua-TV, based in Belgium. He writes for the weekly Dutch
magazine Opinio, as well as the Flemish magazine Trends. He is the
author of “Life of a European Mandarin,” released in 2007.
– Yoichi Kato (Japan). Kato is bureau chief of the American General
Bureau of the Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s major daily newspapers.
Based in Washington, D.C., Kato was the national security correspondent
in Asahi’s Tokyo head office and reported extensively on security
issues in the Asia Pacific region.
The discussion is to be moderated by UM’s Cook Chair of Journalism
Curtis Wilkie, a veteran foreign correspondent for the Boston Globe.
Wilkie said U.S. politics could benefit from a more worldly electorate
that pays attention to how the rest of the world sees us.
“Americans don’t take as much interest in international affairs as we
should,” said Wilkie, who spent more than 10 years in Jerusalem as a
reporter. “We should care how the international community views us,
particularly today, when the U.S. has about as low a standing overseas
as we’ve ever had.”
In late August, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced that
the UM debate would focus on national security and foreign affairs
instead of domestic issues as originally planned. Gispen said the
change adds new relevance to the panel discussion.
“It makes our panel more timely for this debate,” Gispen said. “It
highlights the importance of focusing on international studies and
America’s place in the world. Our panel should mesh very well with the
theme of the debate.”
International journalists are often multilingual and have been exposed
to a variety of different cultures; consequently, they tend to have a
broader world view than their U.S. counterparts, Wilkie said.
“The kind of people the Croft Institute is bringing, they tend to be
worldly, sophisticated and have a better sense of what’s going on in
the world than American journalists,” Wilkie said. “It’s important to
understand how we’re seen in the world. These are seasoned
professionals who ask good questions. We need to listen to them.”
For more information or to request assistance related to a disability,
call 662-915-1500. To learn more about the Croft Institute, visit http://www.croft.olemiss.edu. For a complete list of presidential debate-related events and more about the debate, visit http://www.debate.olemiss.edu.