Kristof Packages

This week has been crazy. I’ve gone nonstop (finishing a cookbook, writing a Spanish paper, tests, meetings…I could go on and on and on). I need sleep, and I won’t lie—I’ve had a few pity parties along the way.

Imagine my surprise when, sitting down to do this assignment, I find rejuvenation instead of a tedious check off my list. My boost in the arm came from Nicholas D. Kristof, a columnist for The New York Times. He spoke for the Human Trafficking symposium sponsored by SMU's Human Rights Education program Tuesday.

Kristof focuses his Op-Ed columns on human rights issues around the world. He’s won two Pulitzer prizes, his most recent in 2006 for commentary, with attention to his coverage of the genocide in Darfur.

Kristof grew up on a farm in Oregon. He graduated from Harvard College and studied law in Oxford. He started coving economics for The New York Times in 1984 and has been a columnist since 2001. Kristof has traveled to 120 countries and has focused his attention on Darfur.

According to the SMU Daily Campus coverage of his lecture, Kristof blames the media for apathy about Darfur. I have to agree, but with a twist. It’s the business of the media that stunts public interest. Parent companies think Americans want celeb gossip and glossed over world events, so that’s what Americans get. Maybe people do want that, but journalists should give information people don’t always want. Unfortunately that seems to be a dying reality.

However, a glance at Kristof’s columns assures that all is not lost for journalism. His multimedia packages push the field towards the future. They’re subtly electrifying. They inspire people to become involved in world issues without shoving it down their throats. I know they gave me a much needed reality check. Sex slaves, AIDS, village slaughtering—his packages quickly pop my college bubble.

His package, ”China: a Maturing Power,” highlights this hopeful turn for the media. It reviews China’s growing world presence, examining political, social, and economic changes. Using the Internet forces the user to be involved. He has a map of China with points connected to his different stories in the series. People can learn what interests them at their own pace.

Perhaps the most powerful element of the package is his use of photographs. When dealing with human rights, adding real faces makes impossible to imagine situations real. You hear and see people, but you have to pursue it, unlike TV.

Even so, I still doubt powerful packages like Kristof’s will become mainstream. The Internet is the future, but Big Business will find a way to tell you what to consume, even on the Web. I hope I’m wrong because I wish everyone could have the reality check Kristof’s packages gave me.