Press Corps - Harvard Model United Nations

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Press Corps not be an appropriate thesis, while, “The Security Council passed an unfair resolution that imposes unreasonable economic sanctions on Iran,” is a much more interesting thesis, and one would expect that the rest of a column with that thesis would go on to argue exactly why the economic sanctions imposed on Iran are unfair. In many cases, it will be necessary for reporters writing opinion pieces to interview delegates for background information and quotations, but keep in mind that the primary purpose of an opinion column is to argue a position, not to inform readers, so only information and quotations relevant to a reporter’s argument should be included in an opinion piece. As reporters will be operating under deadlines, opinion columns need not be longer than 400 words, but reporters should feel flexible to write as much or as little as they choose, depending on the subject matter and time constraints. Beats Simply put, a beat is a topic or region that a reporter is responsible for covering. News agencies assign their reporters to beats so that no story gets too much or too little coverage. For the purposes of this conference, there are three beats that a reporter may be assigned to: General Assembly, Economic and Social Council & Regional Bodies, and the Specialized Agencies. As discussed in the “Committee Procedures” section below, reporters will rotate beats throughout the conference, so that all reporters will have the opportunity of covering all three substantive organs. Within each beat are eight or nine different committees. Reporters are encouraged to visit the HMUN website to learn more about each committee (harvardmun.org). General Assembly Disarmament and International Security Committee World Health Organization Economic and Financial Committee Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Committee Special Political and Decolonization Committee Legal Committee Futuristic General Assembly World Trade Organization United Nations Special Summit on Peacekeeping Economic and Social Council and Regional Bodies UN Human Rights Council UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UN High Commissioner for Refugees Organization of American States Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation African Union European Union Historical League of Nations Commission on Population and Development, 2100 Non-Governmental Organizations Specialized Agencies A quick note on Specialized Agencies committees: In real life, the Security Council often has closed-door meetings at which the press is not allowed, and for various historical and practical reasons, it does not really make sense for members of the press to be present at many of the other Specialized Agencies’ meetings. Therefore, there will be strict rules about when reporters are permitted to enter certain Specialized Agencies committees. That does not mean, however, that reporters covering the Specialized Agencies will not have much to do. Quite to the contrary, this year at HMUN, reporters will play an integral role in the crisis simulation. Reporters will often be leaked sensitive information that they must turn into a story to be published online in minutes, and reporters might even be called upon to broadcast breaking news live to delegates. Just as the Specialized Agencies brings real-time crises to delegates at HMUN, reporters covering the Specialized Agencies will find themselves very much immersed in these crises. Security Council African Court on Human and People’s Rights Ad-Hoc Summit on the Aftermath of the Japanese Earthquake General People’s Committee of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, 2011 Council of Ministers of Colombia, 2010 Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, 1853 Council of Pompey the Great 88 Innovation Specialized and Technology Agencies
JCC: Supreme Defense Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1980 JCC: Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council, 1980 Committee Procedures For obvious reasons, Press Corps will not operate like any of the other committees at HMUN. Though the press room will serve as our committee’s headquarters, reporters can expect to spend most of the conference visiting committee rooms, conducting interviews throughout the hotel, and writing stories. This section will explain how this unique committee will be run during the conference. Represented News Agencies Just as delegates in committee take on the role of a particular nation, reporters will be representing a news agency for the duration of the conference. Unlike in most committees where a delegate is expected to express the policy of his nation, however, reporters should not feel obligated to report the news as their agency might like them to. That is to say, a reporter working for FOX News would not be expected to include conservative spin in his story, and a reporter working for The Times of India Group should not write stories only about India. Reporters are assigned to an agency to enrich the simulation—and they should do some background research on their assigned agency—but reporters should feel free to be independent journalists at the conference. News agencies represented at HMUN 2011 will be: Agence France-Presse Al-Jazeera Baltic News Service BBC News Bloomberg L.P. BNO News Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CNN Deutsche Presse-Agentur El Pais Folha de S. Paulo Komsomolskaya Pravda Le Figaro Le Monde New York Times Reuters Sky News Straits Times The Daily Beast The Daily Nation The Huffington Post Innovation and Technology The Times of India Group Washington Post Xinhua News Agency Yomiuri Shimbun Press Corps How Beats and Media Will Be Covered and Assigned At the beginning of every committee session, reporters will meet in the press room with the Press Corps staff. When committee meets for the first time on Thursday evening, after brief introductions, staff will ask reporters for their preferences as to what types of content they are interested in producing over the course of the conference. Specifically, staff will ask if reporters are interested in (1) taking photographs or producing visual graphics, (2) writing for the blog, (3) producing video content, or (4) going to committees to produce news-based or opinion pieces. Generally, every reporter will spend most of the conference doing option (4), a fair bit of time doing option (3), and positions (1) and (2) will be rotated to accommodate as many reporters who wish to blog and take photographs/ produce graphics as possible. Based on these preferences, reporters will be entered into a live algorithm that takes into account your preferences. Based on the outcomes of the lottery, for each committee session Press Corps staff will assign two or three reporters to be photographers and one or two reporters to be videographers who will go to different committee rooms taking pictures and video. Reporters should not hesitate to call or text a photographer or cameraman throughout the session to make sure that there is a photograph or video to go with their news pieces (see a note on cell phone usage in “Rules and Policies for Reporters”). For each committee session, staff will also designate two or three bloggers, who will write posts for The Unmoderated Caucus. The rest of the Press Corps will be assigned to a beat: General Assembly, Economic and Social Council & Regional Bodies, or Specialized Agencies. Beats will be rotated throughout the conference, so that every reporter can expect to cover each beat at least once. After these assignments are made, each beat will meet with a member of the Press Corps staff to devise a plan for which reporters are responsible for covering which specific committees. Reporters will then be released to cover their committees. By about an hour into each committee session, every reporter (except those assigned to be photographers, cameramen, and bloggers) should have come to the press room with an update about what type of content (s)he would like to produce. As described in the “Media and Content” section, there are three main options: (1) a short-form news piece, (2) an opinion piece, or (3) a video broadcast. The majority of content should fall into category (1), but at various points 9
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Press Corps - Harvard Model United Nations

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