Teaching the UN to Shoot: Why Hope CNN Shows Up?

We are here in Geneva this week training Public Information Officers for the UN who work for UNHCR – the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

These people have come to Geneva from all over the world – Congo to Iran to Russia to Southeast Asia and so on.

The daily are exposed to some of the most important stories there are.

Up until now, the job of the PIO was to generate press releases and hope against hope that CNN or The BBC might send a crew to Somalia or Tunisia or Libya.

They might, but then again, they might not.

Why should global news coverage be dependent upon the whims or financial problems of a ‘news organization’?

It is far easier to equip the people who are actually living and working there, and who know the stories so well – to shoot and edit their own work and then send that out both to news organizations, but also to the world at large, via the web.

And that’s what we’re doing.

 

Michael Rosenblum

For more than 30 years, Michael Rosenblum has been on the cutting edge of the digital video journalism revolution. During this time, he has lead a drive for video literacy, and the complete rethinking of how television is made and controlled. His work has included: The complete transitioning of The BBC's national network (UK) to a VJ-driven model, starting in 2002. The complete conversion of The Voice of America, the United State's Government's broadcasting agency, (and the largest broadcaster in the world), from short wave radio to television broadcasting and webcasting using the VJ paradigm (1998-present). The construction of NYT Television, a New York Times Company, and the largest producer of non-fiction television in the US. Rosenblum was both the founder and President of NYT TV, (all based on this paradigm (1996-1998). The President and Founder of Video News International, a global VJ-driven newsgathering company, with more than 100 journalists around the world. (1993-1996). Other clients include Spectrum News, Verizon and CBS News.