Philippa Thomas




What Nieman Did For Me

When you get a Nieman Fellowship, it's an honor and a thrill. You can't wait to meet new people, learn new skills, tick off new experiences. You know this is an adventure that's going to look great on your resume. You hope it will pave the way to higher, better, bigger things as a journalist.

Did the Nieman do that for me? Well, yes and no. Like many of my peers, I came back to a company that is cutting jobs and cutting corners – yes, even the BBC, which I believe still produces some of the best journalism in the world, and to which I will be eternally grateful for funding my Nieman year.

This summer, I landed back on the reporter "taxi rank": on a domestic news rotation, churning out stories in an atmosphere where morale was sinking and strike action was threatened. Friends were eager to know what Harvard had been like. Managers wanted to know whether I'd work Christmas.

So when I was asked to write a few words about how the Nieman has enriched my career, frankly I was stopped in my tracks.  "Has it?"

Not obviously. On the surface, I'm currently right back where I was before.  But under the surface, I'm completely different.  

I've spent years living up to my label. For 23 years I've been a "BBC news correspondent" and for the past decade a presenter/anchor too. Objectively, these are great jobs. But it took the Nieman year to make me realize that what defines you can constrain you.

In career terms, the fellowship is an open door. It's an unbeatable opportunity to step out of the life you've been leading, and perhaps walk away from the hand you've been dealt: Experiment with your writing. Look for mentors. Ask for advice. Play different roles.

I came to Harvard to focus on social media, applying in December 2009 to study "how social media can be used to empower citizen journalists in developing democracies".

At the Kennedy School, in Nicco Mele's "Media Power Politics" class, I learned the skills of building a brand and reaching out online. In a dizzying first few weeks, Nicco had us joining LinkedIn, buying Google Ads, purchasing a Web address, and setting up a personal blog. Plus getting the inside track from other strategists who've advised presidential campaigns.

In Nicco's class, in Nieman Journalism Lab director Josh Benton's "Shoptalk" sessions at Lippmann House, and at the Shorenstein Center's "brown bag" lunches, I picked up a wealth of ideas about citizen journalism, hyper-local news, crowd-sourcing, and online news curation. 

By the second semester, as we all shared our discoveries, I was inspired by new people and places every week.  Some I just wish I'd found earlier – like the MIT Center for Civic Media, and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

As the "Arab Spring" took off, I found myself not only learning but facilitating. I chaired a couple of lively Lippmann House events with social media evangelist Clay Shirky and with the State Department's Innovations Advisor Alec Ross. I took part in a podcast forum on the Libyan uprising for the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research at the Harvard School of Public Health. I joined a panel debating the role of global broadcasters at the Hauser Center. And I chaired a session at the Oslo Freedom Forum bringing together activists from Tunisia, Libya, Bahrain and the Sudan. 

I was given some extraordinary opportunities to contribute ideas and to steer public conversations and all because I was a Nieman Fellow. 

I even had a brief burst of notoriety when one of my student blogposts went viral, leading to an embarrassing public exchange for President Obama and the resignation of US State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley

For this and other reasons, I definitely suffered growing pains. I had stumbles. I had nerves. I had sleepless nights. But I had the time of my life.

Today I tweet as @PhilippaNews – where I used to be @BBCPhilippaT. I am proud to be a BBC journalist. But I no longer feel defined by my employer. I may be stuck on a rotation, but in my spare time, I'm presenting some of the BBC’s international news shows. It may not be my "job" but I'm pursuing interests online in such different fields as hyper-local UK news, Arab media and the political fallout of the Eurozone crisis.

So when I look back up at the moan with which I began this article, I realize that the glass is not half empty but half full – and more.

I am living in a miserable media climate. But the Nieman experience is helping me to make my own weather.  

Philippa Thomas
2011 Nieman Fellow