Meet the Journalists: Reporting on the Middle East

Fractured Lands Issue

Fractured Lands New York Times Magazine Issue by Scott Anderson with Photos by Paolo Pellegrin

On Wednesday, October 19, New York Times reporter Scott Anderson, author of the landmark Times story Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Came Apart, (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/11/magazine/isis-middle-east-arab-spring-fractured-lands.html) will be visiting LaGuardia. We have two events scheduled that day: 10:30am-12pm in the Little Theater, and from 2:30-4pm (Club Hours) in the Poolside Café.

Mr. Anderson will be joined by Ben Solomon, an award-winning video journalist and filmmaker. Mr. Solomon is writer and director of “The Fight for Falluja”, an immersive, 360-degree “virtual reality” video that accompanied the online presentation of Fractured Lands and can be accessed on the New York Times web site here: www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/08/14/magazine/fight-for-falluja-vr.html. To film “The Fight for Falluja,” Solomon embedded with an Iraqi army unit as they invaded Falluja to drive ISIS out of that city this past June. Both men are experienced journalists with deep knowledge of the areas they have covered.

This is a rare opportunity to learn from print and media journalists at the top of their profession, and to learn about critically important global events from first-person observers. These presentations will be of strong interest to all who want to understand the contemporary world more deeply, and especially valuable to students learning about production and consumption of digital media, as well as politics, history (especially the modern history of the Middle East), sociology, religion, and of course journalism or non-fiction writing. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend, and please share this announcement with students and urge them to attend.