Challenges in Foreign Policy - and a Changing Media World

Every day, the world is getting more complex and interconnected. The election of a U.S. president with global popularity and the draw-down of U.S. troops from Iraq have done nothing to change that.

Twitter helps angry Iranians protest an election. Drug violence, the H1N1 virus and carbon emissions cross borders, challenging governments. President Obama has brought a new tone to U.S. foreign policy, but still faces a raft of challenges: nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea, a struggling war in Afghanistan and from new issues with rising powers like China and India.

The seminar will include a day of instruction on using social networks and digital techniques to reach online readers.

Senior government officials and leading foreign policy thinkers will update Knight Center fellows on the latest global trends, and how they could impact you, your communities and your readers. Applications are invited from opinion writers for print, broadcast and online media. This includes editorial writers, columnists, editorial page editors and bloggers.

The seminar is free. Participants' media organizations pay travel costs. Participants will gain valuable sources and engage in thought-provoking discussions with other opinion writers from around the country. Speakers will be experts from top research institutions, government and the media, including:

• Marvin Weinbaum, scholar-in-residence of the Middle East Institute, on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
• Qubad Talabani, representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq to the United States, on Iraq.
• Marine Col. Dave Lapan, director of Defense Press Operations, on Iraq.
• Clyde Prestowitz, president of the Economic Strategy Institute, on emerging powers.

Other foreign policy topics include:

• Iran and its region
• Soft/smart power
• The role of women
• Transnational issues: Climate change and energy; the financial crisis; pandemics

Digital training topics include:

• News as a conversation
• How blogs differ
• Engaging the Audience: Cultivating Two-Way Relationships
• Everyone is a Publisher

Senior government officials and leading foreign policy thinkers will update Knight Center fellows on the latest global trends, and how they could impact you, your communities and your readers. Applications are invited from opinion writers for print, broadcast and online media. This includes editorial writers, columnists, editorial page editors and bloggers.

Fellowships cover all seminar costs including meals and lodging. Applications are invited from journalists who work for independent news organizations, independent freelancers, digital journalists, citizen journalists and bloggers. The Knight Center seeks diversity among participants.

Possible digital training topics include:

• News as a conversation
• How blogs differ from traditional medi
• Engaging the audience: Cultivating two-way relationships
• Everyone is a publisher

The application period has closed.

At Knight Center seminars print, broadcast and online journalists receive in-depth training, meet like-minded colleagues, get grounded in a new assignment or rekindle enthusiasm for a long-time beat. Knight Center fellowships cover all seminar costs, including reference materials, hotel lodging and meals.

The Knight Center is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and is a professional program of the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Participants stay in a hotel on the University of Maryland campus, located near Washington, D.C.

The Knight Center seeks diversity among participants.

Contact the Knight Center at 301/405-4817, or e-mail us at knight AT umd.edu.