Next Generation Journalism

March 19th, 2013  |  By Mary Stucky

An Orchestra of Guns

Electric Guitar by Pedro Reyes Courtesy of Lisson Gallery, London; Photograph © Ken Adlard

The United States and Mexico share deep personal, economic, geographic and cultural connections, but understanding — on both sides of the border — is often limited by stereotype and media exaggeration.  Round Earth Media is out to change that. We launched in 2005, with a bounty of stories from Mexico, supported by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Now, in a groundbreaking new collaboration and with generous support from the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation, Round Earth Media is pairing young American and Mexican journalists, to produce powerful, untold stories from Mexico.  These stories are broadcast and published in top-tier media, reaching huge audiences in both countries.  Here’s our latest, broadcast on NPR.  Mexico City artist Pedro Reyes is in the process of converting thousands of narco gang weapons seized by the government into musical instruments. Click HERE to listen.

February 22nd, 2013  |  By Mary Stucky

Soultana: ‘The Voice of Women’ Raps in Morocco

Soultana in concert. PHOTO: Shalea Harris

This week marks the two-year anniversary of Morocco’s version of the so-called Arab Spring. It didn’t unseat a dictator. But, tens of thousands of Moroccans took to the streets demanding democracy. Morocco’s powerful King diffused the protest by offering a few reforms. But little has changed for most Moroccans – especially the country’s young people. Many have found their voice in rap music.  From Morocco on The World, with stunning photos by student photojournalist Shalea Harris.  The latest from Round Earth Media’s groundbreaking collaboration with SIT Study Abroad.   Click HERE to listen and view the photos.

February 19th, 2013  |  By Mary Stucky

Transforming Guns into Musical Instruments

Mexico City artist Pedro Reyes is in the process of converting thousands of narco gang weapons seized by the government into musical instruments.  Mexican reporter Omar Sanchez de Tagle, paired with American reporter Marlon Bishop, produced this story as part of Round Earth’s Mexico Reporting Project.  Omar’s story appears in Animal Politico, a major Mexican investigative news website.

To read this powerful story in Spanish, view photos and a video, click HERE.

Our untold stories, published and broadcast in top-tier media, reach huge audiences in the U.S. and in the countries where we are reporting.


February 7th, 2013  |  By Mary Stucky

High-Tech Manufacturing Driving Economy in Mexico: The latest from Round Earth’s Mexico Project

Mexico City's ubiquitous VW bug } Photo: Marlon Bishop

Mexico was once known for cheap manufacturing. But as that sort of business has fled to Asia, Mexico has concentrated on auto manufacturing and other higher-tech industries.  From Marlon Bishop and Javier Risco, on PRI’s The World.

If you’ve ever been to Mexico City, chances are you’ve sat in an old Volkswagen Bug taxi, stuck in Mexico City’s notorious traffic. Volkswagen first came to Mexico in 1967, when it opened a plant in Puebla, a few hours drive from Mexico City. For decades, the Bug was the biggest-selling car in the country.  Today, the Puebla plant has expanded to become the largest auto factory in North America, employing 18,000 people. It’s a state-of-the-art facility full of industrial robots and blinking computer equipment. The plant has the capacity to produce 2,500 cars a day, in popular models such as the Jetta and Golf.  Many Mexicans are benefiting from this new high tech economy while many others are being left behind.  Click HERE for the story.

January 8th, 2013  |  By Mary Stucky

Mexico Aims To Save Babies And Moms With Modern Midwifery

The United States and Mexico share deep personal, economic, geographic and cultural connections, but understanding – on both sides of the border – is often limited by stereotype and media exaggeration. Round Earth Media is out to change that.  We launched in 2005, with a bounty of stories from Mexico, supported by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.  Now, in a groundbreaking new collaboration, Round Earth Media is pairing young American and Mexican journalists, to produce powerful, untold stories from Mexico, stories rich in place and humanity.  These stories, broadcast and published in top-tier media, are reaching huge audiences in both countries.

American journalist Monica Ortiz Uribe (in photo with mic) and Lillian Lopez Camberos, a Mexican journalist, interviewing in Mexico for the story they produced in partnership.

Round Earth Media’s new Mexico Reporting Project is supported by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.  The focus of these stories: important but little known or commonly misunderstood aspects of life in Mexico.

Click HERE to listen to Monica Ortiz Uribe’s story about midwives in Mexico, broadcast on NPR’s Weekend Edition. Good maternal health care is a challenge in many parts of rural Mexico. Maternity hospital wards are often overcrowded and caesarian sections are routinely scheduled, rather than allowing time for the natural birth process to take place. But this August, in the rural state of Guerrero, the Mexican government opened its first maternity hospital with trained, professional midwives to help alleviate these problems. We pay a visit to Guerrero and see how these new developments are making giving birth easier for women.

November 28th, 2012  |  By Mary Stucky

Mexico’s Drug War Is Changing Childhood

Mexico’s violent drug war has gotten a lot of sensational attention in U.S. media but there’s been very little attention paid to the effect of this unrelenting violence on Mexico’s children.  Round Earth Media’s Mexico Reporting Project is dedicated to reporting important, untold stories from Mexico, like this one from Annie Murphy which was broadcast on NPR’s  All Things Considered. CLICK HERE to listen to Annie’s powerful story about the ways in which violence is dramatically changing what it’s like to be a kid in Mexico. At Round Earth Media we pair early-career American reporters with early-career reporters in the countries where where we’re working to publish and broadcast in top-tier media in both countries.  Here’s Annie Murphy on the partnership and Round Earth’s ground-breaking model.

Mexican reporter Isabella Cota & and American reporter Annie Murphy interviewing together in Mexico.

Like most freelancers, I’m used to flying solo, which often means making many decisions on my own, at all stages of reporting. While there are things I really enjoy about that system, working with Round Earth was refreshing precisely because of the collaborative model the organization uses. I was paired to work in the field with reporter Isabella Cota, a top-notch Mexican journalist, as well as on the production side with veteran reporters and editors Mary Stucky and Leda Hartman. In working with Isabella I found both a colleague and a friend, a fellow reporter I will doubtless turn to for advice and feedback in the future, and someone whose career I’ll support in any way I’m able; that same spirit of camaraderie applies to the editorial side of the project as well. I think that the sum of all our experiences and resources as reporters and editors allowed us to tackle this pair of stories in Mexico in a way that was efficient, in-depth, and fun–and much more comprehensive than what I’d have been able to do on my own in the same amount of time. (more…)

November 21st, 2012  |  By Mary Stucky

Youth Dialogue and Debate in Morocco | By Karis Hustad

About one hundred Moroccan and American young people attended the symposium. Photo: Devdharm Khalsa

Throughout North Africa and the Middle East, young people have been at the forefront of revolution and political change. In Morocco, thousands took to the streets last year raising their voices, calling for reforms and demanding to be heard. That demand was in full force at a recent symposium in Rabat, Morocco’s capital.

“I think it is time to have this conversation,” said Yousef El Miadi, a cultural studies student at University of Mohamed V in Rabat, Morocco.  “Not from older to younger, but from man-to-man.”

The October 22 symposium, “Youth & Civil Society,” sparked dialogue and debate. One hundred Moroccans and Americans, most of them students, crowded into a meeting room at the University of Mohamed V for the symposium which was sponsored by World Learning, the parent organization of SIT Study Abroad which runs three programs for American students in Rabat including a journalism program in collaboration with Round Earth Media.  Moroccan academics and researchers presented their findings on subjects ranging from youth civil service to religious education to the uses of social media in bringing about political change.

Yousef El Miadi, a cultural studies student at University of Mohamed V in Rabat, Morocco Photo: Devdharm Khalsa

“For right or for wrong, your generation is going to inherit a number of really vexing, very challenging critical global issues,” said Adam Weinberg, president and CEO of World Learning, who addressed the gathering.

(more…)

November 8th, 2012  |  By Mary Stucky

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Round Earth’s Mexico Reporting Project: Isabella Cota and Annie Murphy reporting in Mexico

The U.S. and Mexico share deep personal, economic, geographic and cultural connections, but our understanding of Mexico is often limited by stereotype and media exaggeration. This fall, Round Earth Media is pairing young American and Mexican journalists, in a groundbreaking collaboration, to produce untold stories from Mexico, stories rich in place and humanity. These stories will reach huge audiences in the United States and in Mexico.

An indigenous village in Mexico got fed up with gangs and illegal loggers acting with impunity. So they kicked them out, kicked    out their local authorities and set up their own government. And some other villages are looking at it too.  “Josephina,” pictured above, was one of the first to get organized.  For security she doesn’t want to be identified. Photo: Isabella Cota

Click HERE to listen to this story which ran nationwide on The World.

September 26th, 2012  |  By Mary Stucky

The Latest from MOROCCO

Journalism Partners Sara Ait Khorsa and Veronica Jean Seltzer

Journalism partners Sara Ait Khorsa and Veronica Jean Seltzer

Veronica Jean Seltzer, a Classics major at Tufts University in Boston, and Sara Ait Khorsa, a journalism student at the Institut Supérieur de l’Information et de la Communication in Rabat, teamed up to produce In Morocco Some Dream of a Kingly Gift, just broadcast nationwide on the public radio program, Marketplace.

CLICK HERE for this surprising story,  which helps explain why the “Arab Spring” did not topple Morocco’s king.

Our program comes as U.S. newsrooms are contracting and closing and as the desire for stories outside U.S. borders is greater than ever before.  Democracy in our interconnected world depends on independent journalism!

Look for more stories soon and, please,  tell any aspiring journalist to sign up NOW for our Spring 2013 program, unique among journalism programs world-wide!

September 16th, 2012  |  By Mary Stucky

With the Arab world erupting in protests, Round Earth Media is back in Morocco re-launching our ground-breaking journalism program in collaboration with SIT Study Abroad.

Students on our program. Photo by Karis Hustad, a senior at Loyola University. Look for Karis' reflections from Morocco on Minnesota Public Radio on-line and regularly in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on-line travel section.

Twelve American journalism students, mentored by Round Earth’s veteran journalists, will spend almost four months in Morocco,  learning from Moroccan experts, academics, and activists while reporting on this country which is being called a “key U.S. ally” in a volatile region.  Some of our students are majoring in journalism, others in academic subjects ranging from geography to philosophy –  all are immersed in life here, living with familes in Rabat’s ancient medina.

What a great time and place to explore issues of free speech, press rights, the power of social media and the importance of journalism ethics and accurate reporting – not to mention the chance to report on Islamic movements, gender issues, the environment, economy, art and culture.

What do we conclude about this week’s protests from our perch in Morocco? There were non-violent protests in Casablanca on Wednesday and after prayers on Friday in Sale (Rabat’s twin town across a river), but the weekend has been quiet and Morocco is once again proving its “exceptionalism.”  Writing in the New York Times, Harvey Morris says this “North African kingdom is regarded by the United States and Europe as an island of stability in a sea of troubles.”

Morocco may be relatively stable but it is not a democracy.  In Morocco, the press, the government and the economy are controlled by the king and his coterie. More than half of all Moroccan women can neither read nor write.  One in two young people are unemployed.  While Morocco has avoided an Arab Spring revolution and the chaos that’s engulfing its neighbors, this country still faces enormous challenges.  Many Moroccans live squalid and difficult lives.

Their stories are waiting to be told.

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