Q&A With Mohamad Rimawi
Mohamad Rimawi is a student in NYU's Global Journalism and Near Eastern Studies program. His writing has been published in The Nation, Foreign Policy, Amwaj and PassBlue, and his audio work has been featured in Bloomberg's radio and podcast programs.
A: The idea came from reading news on Lebanon that made me curious to learn more. I read an article from BBC Monitoring about the Lebanese government's reboot of Télé Liban, and it noted that the state was trying to portray the effort as part of a broader initiative to make public institutions more inclusive for Lebanese across politically rivalrous sects. The article also noted, though, that pro-Hezbollah outlets were critical of the new leadership appointed to revive Télé Liban, which they viewed as being anti-Shia. I became fascinated by the idea of how this stated attempt to rein in sectarianism was actually begetting more sectarianism. And given that this was all happening at the same as Western calls for Hezbollah's disarmament were accelerating, I wanted to learn more about how this media story ties into Lebanon's wider geopolitical context.
Q: How did the pitching process go for you?
A: The article came from an assignment I was doing for class, so the pitch came after it was already written. For me, writing the article first made writing the pitch so much easier, all I really had to do was summarize what I already wrote. The editor at Foreign Policy did not reply to my initial pitch email, but I followed up a week later and he got back to me within a couple of days.
Q: What did you learn during the editing process?
A: The major feedback I got from my editor was to give more context near the top of the article about the type of content Télé Liban is known for and how it fits into the wider Lebanese media ecosystem. He explained to me that this is a niche subject, and many Foreign Policy readers would have no idea what Télé Liban is or how tied up Lebanese news broadcasters are with sectarian affiliations. So it was a valuable lesson in the importance of properly setting up a story.
Q: What did you learn during the pitching and publishing process that you think would be helpful to other journalists looking to get their work published?
A: I learned that you shouldn't immediately worry if an editor doesn't respond to your pitch. I was dismayed when the editor didn't initially respond and was plotting on the next outlet to pitch to, but I'm glad that I decided to wait it out a bit more.
