Throughout the year, The Feather’s writers are leaving the walls of Fresno Christian and investigating their community. Here, sophomore Nick Avery tells about his experience at a local journalism symposium.

California State University, Fresno (CSUF) held its annual Roger Tatarian Journalism Symposium at the Satellite Student Union on campus, Feb. 26. The symposium was titled Reporting on Conflict and dealt with how modern journalists collect information during wartime, as well as a history on journalism during war.

Now in its 10th year, the symposium offered two key speakers. The first was Gareth Porter, an investigative journalist with numerous awards, including being named on of the top 20 global media figures of 2009 by PULSE magazine.

Porter has writen numerous articles which have been picked up by Web sites, as well as four books related to Vietnam and the Vietnam War. Porter was issued a doctorate from Cornell University in Southeast Asian studies and international politics in 1976.

The second was Nancy Youssef, another award-winning journalist and chief Pentagon correspondent for McClatchy newspapers. Youssef spent four years covering the Iraq war as the former Baghdad bureau chief for McClatchy.

Her articles focused on the everyday Iraqi experience, civilian casualties and how the U.S. military strategy reshaped Iraq’s dynamics.

Youssef graduated from University of Virginia with a bachelor’s degree in economics and is now studying at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Porter spoke on the news media’s coverage conflict in the Middle East, as well as his experience working as an independent journalist. He says that being an independent gave him the upper hand when it came to writing. Editors, he says, cloud a writer’s judgment by either encouraging or discouraging a writer.

On the other end of the journalism spectrum stood Youssef, who works for a major newspaper organization. Youssef primarily avoided speaking about her relationship with her employers and instead spoke on her years in Iraq as well as giving a brief overview on the history of media in the warzone.

Youssef stressed the point of real time coverage, or in other words, coverage of an event where the viewer, reader or listener could engage on the subject while it was unfolding.

After Youssef and Porter gave their presentations, a quick question and answer session was begun. Members of the audience, whether they be students or community members, asked questions ranging anywhere from what the two considered their greatest ethical dilemma to why they thought John Stewart of The Daily Show is so popular.

In addition to educating young journalists, the event honored Tatarian, a Fresno native who graduated from California State University, Fresno in 1938. He then began a career at a global news-gathering service called United Press International (UPI).

Throughout the years, Tatarian climbed the ranks of UPI until 1967 when he became vice president and editor-in-chief. Tatarian later retired in 1972 and returned to Fresno where he taught at CSUF for 15 years. Tatarian passed away on June 25, 1995.

Although she could not attend, Feather writer Dana King, ’12, regretted her inability to join in the symposium.

“It would be such a great opportunity just to listen to some of these people’s stories,” King said. “Both Youssef and Porter have lived through so many situations. It’s a shame I wasn’t able to go to the symposium.”

For more information visit The Collegian’s Feb. 4 article International reporters are Tatarian Symposium headliners.