The Foreign Service Journal, October 2006

O C T O B E R 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 83 Look Who’s Telling Our Story… Through Their Eyes: Foreign Correspondents in the United States Stephen Hess, Brookings Institution Press, 2005, $18.95, paperback, 195 pages. R EVIEWED BY C HRISTOPHER L. T EAL Through Their Eyes: Foreign Correspondents in the United States addresses a topic I was interested in well before I began working at the Foreign Press Center in Washington this summer. The center is an excel- lent resource that countless foreign reporters have used over the past six decades. By describing its workings, Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Stephen Hess continues his decades- long project to lay out how the gov- ernment and media interact, begin- ning with his seminal earlier works: The Washington Reporters (1981) and The Government/Press Connection (1984). This latest installment in that series centers on a crucial but over- looked actor in this interplay: the for- eign press based in the U.S. Hess prepared questionnaires for the more than 2,000 foreign journal- ists residing here. Almost a quarter of them responded, and he conducted over 100 supplemental interviews to add more detail. What he gives us is a snapshot of the reporters who help feed the information machine, pro- viding a unique and enlightening glimpse into their minds, expectations and work. Not surprisingly, Hess’ research confirms what we’ve known all along: the U.S. media often set the agenda internationally. Whether a correspon- dent picks up what The New York Times , Washington Post or the major wire services have already run, or their editors overseas read those same articles online, it exponentially ex- tends the axiom that foreign reporters are “only as good as the local press.” In fact, in the age of instant access across the globe via television and the Internet, foreign editors who were once much more dependent on their eyes and ears in America are now not so reliant. Now that reporters no longer file their stories by mail, their expertise can seem diminished by the constant needs and biases of the “home office.” However, the advan- tage a reporter in the U.S. offers is context, not simply immediate re- packaging. U.S.-based journalists can sort out which stories or sources are credible, something very difficult to do from 12 time zones away. In the post-9/11 world, it is crucial to better understand the vantage point of this influential group, one that tries to explain for their audience of billions what makes the United States tick. Hess also provides a brief history of foreign journalists, examines their changing demographics (now less dominated by European men), and focuses on their issues (long hours, odd deadlines and the struggle for access being perennial concerns). As he notes, their numbers only continue to grow. From just over 200 regis- tered in the aftermath of the Second World War, to over 10 times that today, they constitute a resource too important for the American public and government to miss in shaping foreign public opinion. Hess and his research team do a tremendous job of gathering and presenting the data on this unique breed. For a wider audience, this book may lack the kind of easy flow that his earlier works exemplified. But for practitioners of public diplo- macy, Through Their Eyes will cer- tainly be a resource to turn to again and again. Christopher Teal, an FSO since 1999, has served in Santo Domingo, Lima and the European Bureau; he now works in the Foreign Press Center in Washington, D.C. He has been a member of the FSJ Editorial Board since 2004. The opinions expressed herein are his own, not those of the Journal or the State Department. Hess helps us see how foreign correspondents explain for their audience of billions what makes the United States tick. B OOKS