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A group of SIUC students learned all about the differences between Brazilian and American journalism Wednesday afternoon.
Brazilian journalist Ana Cristina Flor spoke to a group of students in the Dean's Conference Room in the Communications Building. Flor is one of nearly a dozen journalists to receive the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowship.
William Recktenwald, journalist-in-residence, is on a committee to bring diverse speakers to the University.
"Being in Southern Illinois is not like being at a university in the city of Chicago or the city of New York or even in St. Louis," Recktenwald said. "This is a pretty out-of-the-way place. People have to make an effort to come here, so we're trying to get as many speakers as we can to come down here."
The fellowship program takes journalists from developing democracies and places them with a major metropolitan newspaper in the United States. While this is not Flor?s first time in the America, she had never been to the Midwest.
"It's bigger than I thought," Flor said. "I was really impressed by the University. You have a big environment and infrastructure here and a big number of international students."
"One of the problems that I find in the Midwest, generally St. Louis, is that people are not exposed to people from other countries, so an accent is something strange."
She said in Carbondale there is a larger international population and students are exposed to a greater diversity than in St. Louis.
Flor said a difference in quality of newspapers in America versus Brazil is the level of accuracy. She said the expectation of editors in America is to write corrections and clarifications to correct problems and inaccuracies immediately. She said the attitude in Brazil is to not repeat a mistake that has been pointed out by a reader without printing a correction.
In Brazil, the government must license journalists. Flor said journalists can graduate from any university in the world as long as they major in journalism and are approved by the education ministry.
Brazilian newspapers often write about America, and when the war began, her newspaper ran front-page stories about American troops being sent overseas. Flor said America rarely reports on Brazil unless there is an environmental problem or natural disaster.
"We have environmental problems with the Amazon and the rain forest, but the problem is that the reporters write only about this all the time," Flor said. "Once a year, you have a story about the rain forest in Brazil, so you think it's a huge problem."
Nick Miller, a junior in journalism from Fairview Heights, attended the lecture.
"I thought it was interesting to find out about the differences in foreign press versus U.S. press," Miller said. "The coverage of South America I feel like could be a little bit better. It sounds like there's not that many big differences other than that."
Flor leaves America for Brazil at the end of November.
"I'm going to miss a few things here like NPR or like Starbucks or people that I met here," Flor said, "but I have my family in Brasilia."
Ana Cristina Flor will be speaking at 2 p.m. today in Room105 of Wham during international media systems class
