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If globalization is shrinking the world, why does the international arena seem farther away from the American classroom—and for that matter, from the general public? Part of the problem is that news organizations have dramatically scaled back their foreign coverage; another is the rise of an internet culture that fosters passive consumption of information, much of it superficial and celebrity-driven. The challenge for educators, in this difficult environment, is how to help our students become responsible and aware global citizens.
The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting is working to develop a solution. Through our Global Gateway program, we aim to provide students with access to the quality journalism we fund, encouraging them to learn about and engage with issues that are underreported but have long-term global and local implications. At PulitzerGateway.org, students can explore multimedia reporting via theme-based portals, post questions for the journalists, and share their own stories about the issues. This hybrid model of original news production combined with educational outreach seems only natural given that one of journalism's core functions is to inform the public.
We recently took three journalists who have reported on climate change in South Asia and the Carteret Islands to visit middle school, high school, and university classes in the St. Louis area. A highlight of the Global Gateway program, such interaction inspires students to learn about issues that receive little news-media attention as well as to think about how news is produced and disseminated. When we asked how many of the students in each class kept up with the news, very few raised their hands—and most of those who did said their news sources were limited to the Yahoo homepage and Google News. For these students, information has become so easy to find that discriminating between sources no longer seems necessary. There is more access than ever to "news" but far less understanding as to what constitutes credible reporting.
One fifteen-year-old suggested that news organizations channel reporting through cartoons or video games; not one of those "boring educational" ones, he clarified, but "something like Grand Theft Auto." While the Pulitzer Center is probably not bound for the video game market any time soon, he had a point. When students perceive no need to navigate the information surrounding them—and either take what is most readily available or ignore it all—we must find new ways to capture their interest.
The Pulitzer Center hopes that by connecting students directly with journalists, we are doing just that. In St. Louis, our environmental journalists shared their first-hand experiences of meeting yak herders who have lost their animals to warming temperatures in the Himalayas, and South Pacific islanders who are being forced from their homeland by rising seas. In sharing these stories, the journalists put a human face on issues of climate change which ultimately affect us all.
One of the first questions asked in every group we visited was, "What can we, as students, do about these problems?" Of course, students can raise money for environmental organizations. They can recycle and plant trees—and they should. But perhaps the best answer is exactly what they are doing when they explore our website, post questions, share their own stories, and talk to the journalists: becoming aware and contributing to a conversation based on that awareness. In fact, our journalists emphasized that they themselves have the same responsibility: they see themselves not as activists but as active global citizens spreading awareness.
Some students, particularly the younger ones, might not yet recognize the feeling of empowerment that should accompany knowledge. They might meet stories of people in crisis, instead, with a sense of guilt and helplessness. For this reason, we can't concentrate only on the problems but should also discuss ways those problems are being alleviated. We must give hope that answers can be found, and that if students continue to learn about the issues, they'll be equipped to contribute to concrete solutions. The lasting value of critical thinking and awareness cannot be underestimated.
In addition to casting light on untold stories and linking students personally with the reporters, we aim to render the issues more relevant to students by emphasizing global-local connections. The "crisis" in our name does not refer solely to violent conflict; we focus on systemic-level crises—problems that are long-term, occur throughout the world, and are therefore equally pertinent at a local level. One of our thematic portals at PulitzerGateway.org centers on Jamaica's struggles with HIV/AIDS, an epidemic with rates surging across the United States, as well. Another portal features stories on food insecurity, from Nigeria to Guatemala; at the same time, this problem affected nearly 15% of Americans as recently as 2008. We want students both to be aware of problems around the world and to recognize that the same issues exist in their own communities.
Another point we address is that the quick turnover of news today generally doesn't allow the journalist—let alone the consumer—to delve into and absorb fully the issue at hand. For that reason we support longer, more immersive projects and look at them as individual issue awareness campaigns. It's one matter for a student to read that rising sea levels are causing the disappearance of the Carteret Islands, which they probably have never heard of. It's another to hear directly from a journalist who spent six weeks living with the islanders, to see on film the broken coconut trees, the tears of an old man who is ready to go down with his drowning homeland.
These are the stories that we aim to tell and to keep alive on PulitzerGateway.org. In the words of Paulo Freire, "Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other." The Pulitzer Center has been fortunate to partner with educators around the country in the spirit of that restless, hopeful inquiry. We are eager to continue in our mission, welcoming students into issue-driven dialogues that connect them with the world.