Americans often forget that, just as they watch the world through the U.S. media, they are also being watched. Foreign correspondents based in the U.S. report news and provide context to events that are often infamiliar or confusing to their readers back home. This book is an examination of the foreign press in America and its role in the world media.
Stephen Hess is senior fellow emeritus in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and Distinguished Research Professor of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. He has been engaged in presidential transitions since he was a young speechwriter in the EisenhowerWhite House. He returned to the White House with President Richard Nixon, helped Jimmy Carter reorganize the Executive Office and advised the presidential transition teams of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and GeorgeW. Bush. His numerous books include Through Their Eyes: Foreign Correspondents in the United States (Brookings, 2005) and Organizing the Presidency (Brookings, 3rd ed in 2002 with James Pfiffner).
"This timely analysis aims to understand the ways that foreign journalists in the United States cover this country for the rest of the world." -Scott L. Althaus, Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics |"Hess and his research team do a tremendous job of gathering and presenting the data on this unique breed....for practitioners of public diplomacy, Through Their Eyes will certainly be a resource to turn to again and again." -Christopher L. Teal, Foreign Service Journal, 10/1/2006 |"This book is truly distinctive -the only work of its kind to my knowledge and one of a very few efforts to look at foreign/international correspondents in the U.S. who cover America like a foreign country. The book includes a major empirical study, but is mostly a narrative that captures the 'feeling tone' of foreign correspondents and their work." -Everette Dennis, Fordham University |"An important contribution... Through Their Eyes, in addition to being written in an easily accessible style for all readers, focuses on a rarely addressed section of the media world -namely how foreign correspondents, based largely in Washington and New York, cover the U.S." -Marvin Kalb, Harvard University |"Nobody knows this material as well as Hess, and his continuing series (there is a volume yet to come) provides the published basis for most of what the rest of us know as well." -Chris Sterling, George Washington University, Communication Booknotes Quarterly, 4/1/2005 |"The latest installment, Through Their Eyes: Foreign Correspondents in the United States, distills the responses of nearly 600 foriegn journalists working in the United States. The result is a compact monograph that manages to convey the diversity of the ever-growing foreign press corps while drawing out some recurring themes..." -Mike DeBonis, The Washington City Paper, 1/29/2006 |"Now and then along comes a book that is worth reading. Through Their Eyes by Stephen Hess is one of them. What makes this book so valuable is the fact that it allows us a rare glimpse at the work of foreign correspondents in the United States--a small but important group of journalists responsible for the perceived image of America abroad." -Lars Willnat, George Washington University, American Journalism, 6/1/2006 |"A 'must' for any college-level student in either political studies or communications" - California Bookwatch
