Clarissa Ward on hard work, humanity, and the inner-conflicts of conflict reporting
CNN’s chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward speaks with student reporter Hannah Truby about her career as journalist and conflict reporter.
As CNN’s chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward boasts years of frontline reporting experience from all around the world, stories she shares more deeply in her 2020 book On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist. Ward speaks to student reporter Hannah Truby, and shares the passions that pushed her to become a journalist, the internal conflicts of conflict reporting, and the “very strong current of humanity” that she sees flowing through all people and places.
1. Can you tell me a little about your background in journalism — what made you want to become a journalist?
I decided to become a journalist in my senior year of college. I had always loved travel and storytelling and languages, but it was only after the 9/11 attacks that I understood immediately that this was what I wanted to do with my life, that I wanted to travel to the farthest corners of the Earth, and somehow act as a communicator between different worlds. At that stage I was pretty vague on what that would look and feel like, but I just had this strong sense of calling.
2. In the first chapter of your book “On All Fronts” you mention feeling the need to comfort a grieving father and “be a human being” but knowing that the only true way to help was by continuing to report. Is this feeling a recurring theme in your field? How do you reckon with it?
I think there is often a sort of tension that you feel as a journalist between the need to be a human being in the way you would behave in a normal situation and then the need to do your job…Sometimes that means letting an uncomfortable moment play out without interruptions, sometimes that means having to approach a person in a time of grief when normally you might want to give them space…There are all sorts of different situations and I think you have to understand that as a journalist, there is a sort of professional protocol for how you need to behave and and what you need to do in order to get your stories.
3. When it comes to cross-cultural reporting, and the ethics surrounding that, what are some of the most important things to keep in mind?
Well, keep an open mind; your culture, your values, those are important to you, and no one is saying that you should compromise them, but you also need to leave them at the door when you go into a new place. You need to try to go in with an open mind, you need to go in with the intention of listening and trying to do the best job you can telling the stories that you see around you, not trying to turn those stories into what you think your audience might want them to be, and that can be challenging. Again, it’s a mark of strength and not a weakness to be confident enough in your own beliefs and your own values to sit down with people who have a very different worldview from you, and be able to hear them out and give them a fair shake, and not judge or shape the stories through the lens of your background.
4. What is something people might not know about reporting from conflict zones?
What people don’t expect is how much kindness and resilience and bravery and real courage and even heroism you see when you’re on the frontlines. Yes you see the worst of humanity, but you also see the best of humanity. That may not make it onto the evening news all the time but it’s a really big part of this job.
5. In today’s day and age, reporters see some of the most beautiful and heartbreaking things around the world: how does this affect you as a human being, your view on the world?
It’s challenging. And it’s definitely one of the parts of the job that I think people don’t talk about enough. You have to be very vigilant and proactive about self-care and you cannot go into this assuming that you won’t be affected by the things that you see — you will be affected…I would just say that it really depends on whether you choose to focus on the dark or the light. For me, personally, I focus on the very strong sense of humanity that I see weaving through the world and different people in different places with different cultures and religions, and very different conflicts, and I still see this very strong current of humanity that I think is sad because it’s not always a beautiful thing, but I think it’s pretty thrilling to see how it really does touch all of us and it’s very exciting as well and from a storytelling point of view.
6. Do you find this worldview affects you the way you will raise your kids, what you will or will not share with them about the world?
I mean, at this stage, my children are still very young, so I don’t share much with them at all. There will come a time, of course, when I will. I really want them to have this period of innocence, and I think it’s easy to put too much on children …, but the most important things that I will try to instill into my children is a sense of: “There but for the Grace of God, go I” and an understanding that it is pure randomness that they have been born into the life of privilege that they have, that they have the passports that they have, that they have the opportunities for education… that they are not entitled to any of these things. So I hope to raise them as compassionate and caring young men.
7. Lastly, do you have any words of advice for aspiring journalists?
I usually just advise journalists who want to do this kind of work that you have to be a little bit patient, it can take a while. There isn’t a straightforward path to get to this line of work, but if you really feel that level of passion and commitment and you have that sense of your gut that this is what you’re meant to do then it will happen for you…and on a personal level, there’s probably some sacrifice entailed. I can’t think of how many weddings and funerals and best friends’ parties and all sorts of fun, lovely things that I missed out on because I was living overseas or traveling for work and I don’t regret any of it for a minute. But I think you really have to want it. If you do want it and you do fight for it, then it’s the greatest job there is, I believe.
