Journalist Anthony Shadid has covered conflicts and uprisings across the Middle East, from the invasion of Iraq to the turmoil in Libya. Fluent in Arabic, he was able to tell stories of the ordinary people caught up in war, and he won two Pulitzer prizes doing it. He recently died of an asthma attack while covering the conflict in Syria.
Shadid's work was often dangerous. In 2002,he survived a gunshot wound while covering the West Bank. Last March, he and three other Times journalists were kidnapped in Libya by forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi as they covered the revolution. They were detained for six days.
Shadid was 43 years old. He leaves behind a wife and two children.
Quotes
"And it was really pretty early on in the war that people started talking a little bit more honestly than they might have before the invasion. And it was actually something my editor saw as well, that there was a story to tell perhaps in how people -- what people were saying, just popular sentiments, and that popular sentiments might be more revealing than we thought they would be." - Anthony Shadid, journalist
Warm Up Questions
1. What do foreign correspondents do?
2. Can journalism be a dangerous job? How so?
3. What is the Arab Spring? What do you know about it?
Discussion Questions
1. Why were many of the places mentioned in this video dangerous places to be a journalist? What was or is going on there?
2. According to the video, what was unique about Shadid's reporting?
3. Would you ever want to be a foreign correspondent? Why or why not?
Additional Resources
