CNN correspondent Christiane Amanapour ’83, Hon. ’95, addresses URI’s 2004 Honors Colloquium via satellite from London.
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A Virtual Visit
By John Pantalone ’71
CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour “returned” to her alma mater in virtual terms on September 20 when she addressed URI’s 2004 Honors Colloquium on world hunger via satellite from London.
Amanpour urged an audience of nearly 500 to demand government action to solve problems of hunger, conflict, and disease, but she added that western news media must “shine the spotlight” on these problems. “It’s impossible for us to cover every crisis, but we should do what we can,” Amanpour said. “We must make it clear to governments committing or allowing atrocities that they can’t do it in the shadows and the darkness. They must know the spotlight is on them, and the world will judge them.”
Media outlets such as CNN can focus public attention on world hunger, costly conflicts, and the AIDS crisis in Africa, she said, and the public can provoke government action. Western reporting on the 1980s famine in Ethiopia saved thousands of lives, Amanpour noted, but the flip side of that occurred in 1994 when western media ignored the genocide in Rwanda that cost an estimated 850,000 lives. “We (the media) were fearful of another Somalia, where American soldiers were placed in a very bad situation,” she said, “but we were also preoccupied with the O.J. Simpson story and similar tabloid stories.”
Finding fault with the growing trend of corporate media giving less attention to critical issues and more to sensationalized stories and celebrity news, Amanpour encouraged the audience to tell media outlets that they want more serious coverage. “We listen to what you say,” she said, referring to news executives and editors.
A 1983 graduate of URI’s Journalism Department, Amanpour received an invitation to speak at the Honors Colloquium because she has covered wars in Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia, as well as stories about famine, malnutrition, and disease in underdeveloped countries. She lamented the ominous AIDS epidemic in Africa, declaring that there are 11 million orphans in the world, most of them in Africa, whose parents have died of AIDS. “Estimates say there could be as many as 20 million orphans in a few more years,” she said.
On that note, she criticized the Bush administration for not fulfilling a pledge to provide $15 billion in AIDS assistance to African nations. “People were thrilled when they heard of the promise, but sadly, for many reasons, the bulk of that money has not been delivered.”
The Honors Colloquium, which takes place each fall, was titled “Food & Human Rights: Hunger & Social Policy” this year. In addition to weekly lectures and presentations, the program included an honors class in hunger issues for undergraduate students.
Kathleen Gorman, director of URI’s Feinstein Center for Hunger, who coordinated the colloquium with Dean W. Lynn McKinney of the College of Human Science and Services, said the colloquium’s focus is to help students and others realize that hunger is curable. “People often feel overwhelmed by hunger even if they are deeply concerned about it,” Gorman said. “We’re looking at economic issues, restructuring social conditions, politics; an assortment of issues and solutions to problems.”
John Pantalone is a lecturer in URI’s Department of Journalism
