Yesterday freelance multimedia journalist Jason Motlagh and the literary journal the Virginia Quarterly Review (VQR) won the National Magazine Awards for Digital Media (also known as the Digital Ellies). They won the News Reporting category with a long essay on the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
On a special encore edition of the Morning Media Menu, Motlagh introduced his 19,000-word essay on the attacks for VQR. In the interview, he pondered the future of long-form international reporting during this print recession. Motlagh delivered advice for surviving as a freelance writer in this new world where newspapers have shuttered foreign desks and in-depth reporting is replaced by the manic pace of Internet news.
Here’s an excerpt from the interview: “I would encourage young journalists to look for the offbeat destinations, but also look at the places that are saturated–where the coverage has not been as diversified as it could be. Look for the counter-intuitive stories. To set yourself up–it’s important that you develop a body of work on a given area or issue, I think specialization is important now. In this hyper-inundated media climate, it’s important to single yourself out. It can pay to really stick to a topic. if you have a vision, find people who are like-minded who will support it. Think of online media as an opportunity, and not a compromise.”