Why Does the Foreign Press Care About U.S. Political Conventions?

For many Americans the conventions are a time to celebrate their political parties’ past, present and future. They are usually well-attended by U.S. press, but members of the foreign media come out as well.

A reported 15,000 credentialed media were on hand to cover this year’s Republican National Convention. The RNC said on its website that it was “an international press corps second only in size to this summer’s London Olympic Games.”

Some of the international journalists told the NewsHour they were interested in not only foreign matters but how the American political system works and what the conventions are like.

Ayesha Tanzeem, senior political correspondent for Voice of America’s Urdu Service, said reporting on the coronation of candidates at national conventions is not as easy as it would seem.

Chidanand Rajghatta, the foreign editor of the Times of India, said he had his eye on two prominent Indians at the convention: Republican governors Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Nikki Haley of South Carolina.

And Thomas Gorguissian, Washington correspondent for Al Tahrir, said his readers were intrigued by what a possible Romney-Ryan administration would mean for a still-transitioning Egypt.

View all of their comments in the above video.