Indiana University School of Journalism

Home » News » Owen spends week discussing international media

Photo by Riya V. Anadwala

Professor John Owen of City University of London is spending the week at the School of Journalism, talking to classes and groups of students.

Related Newspaper editors tell how they guide narrative storytelling (Nov. 23) Star editor advises using data to 'cut through the noise' (Nov. 15) Buck meets with students to share career advice (Nov. 12)

As the newspaper industry dwindles, John Owen, professor at City University of London, offered examples of ways international media are finding ways to survive and thrive.

Owen visited classes and talked to groups as a School of Journalism professional-in-residence April 6-10.

A native of Huntington, Ind., Owen, M.A. ’72 (Radio-TV), was a long-time head of TV news for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Later, he became the founding director of the European Centre of the Freedom Forum. Now based in London, he is applying his years of experience to the classroom.

In Professional-in-Residence Joe Coleman’s J560 International Reporting class, Owen talked about the role of media in providing international news and pointed out that many foreign news bureaus have been eliminated. Often, correspondents are not present in the area where the news occurs and instead write about it sitting in the New York or London office, he said.

Owen showed several videos to demonstrate differences among news organizations. One video clip from Globeandmail.com, Canada’s national newspaper, interviewed Taliban members to find out who they are. The video revealed many of them are farmers or shopkeepers.

Owen’s aim in showing these videos was to talk about the role of journalism. He said the role depends on the power of truth: getting information from witnesses, talking to people you can trust and confirming facts.

Owen also talked about media survival as not only foreign correspondent jobs disappear but also as news organizations are shutting down or downsizing. As examples of media organizations that are surviving, he discussed Monocle, a foreign affairs magazine; Global News Radio; and Demotix, a citizen journalism Web site.

While on campus, Owen is talking to students headed to London this summer as part of the School of Journalism’s Summer in London program, where each student will have an eight-week internship in the city. He met with last year’s group and is planning a variety of activities for this summer, including sessions on journalists’ sensitivity toward sources.

“I want students to learn how to deal with people who are traumatized,” he said. “In my own class, I have asked students to do role playing. They should understand how to get information out of people without making them feel exploited.”