Ami Vitale: evaluation

Transcript context

…Why do it for 10 years? Oh, I think it was the extraordinary people I met. It began because I just wanted to understand this world, and why we have so much suffering, and how do these conflicts emerge. I was never one of those adrenaline junkies. So many of my friends really hopped from one conflict to the next, and it was like parachute journalism. I, in the beginning, started my career and I was asked to go to . . . The first conflict I covered was Gaza. Actually, no, the first was Kosovo and the Balkan conflict, and then to Gaza and the second intifada. I immediately understood that I could not do parachute journalism. It is really important to take time to understand these stories that we’re covering. I ended up living in Kashmir for four years to cover the war between India and Pakistan and taking that time to listen, to truly hear people’s stories. I think what drew me in was the people I met. I am always shocked in these places that are so brutal, where you see the worst of humanity, I also met the people, the best of humanity, who taught me so much. They kept me coming back. After 10 years of that, that’s when I really shifted. I was broken and raw and wanted to quit. It was then I really began to realize this connection, that I had been telling these stories about people in the human condition, but at the backdrop of every single one of them was always the natural world. That was my profound awakening, when I began to understand that in every single example — well, not every example, but in many of them, it was scarcity of basic resources like water and in others, a changing climate and loss of fertile lands. Almost always, it is the demands placed on our ecosystem that drive conflict and human suffering. That was my big shift in understanding that it was important to talk about the conflicts, but it was equally important to talk about what we’re doing to this planet. Just in this last year alone, how many more conflicts have started around the world? How many more coups? I think in Africa just this year, maybe the last six months, is it six or seven more coups? Tyler, you know this better than I, but I see it, and I think to not acknowledge that connection is ignorant. We need to start paying attention to that. We’re going to see so many more conflicts if we do not pay attention. To focus on what do we do, it’s not enough as a journalist. That was something else that made me deeply uncomfortable, which is, I was asked to focus on the violence, show just one piece of the story. Never was I asked to tell the stories that acknowledge where we go, what do we do, where are the solutions? Are there solutions? I know there’s no easy balm and no solution for so many of these problems. But the truth is, in every story I’ve covered, there are amazing people who are working to try to find answers, but we don’t highlight their work. As journalists, we have to do a better job of not just talking about the challenges we face, but where do we go from here? What do we do? ing to try to find answers, but we don’t highlight their work. As journalists, we have to do a better job of not just talking about the challenges we face, but where do we go from here? What do we do? There are people in every single story, and we need to focus on their stories as well.…

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