Here’s a quick thought about a problem of international reporting: sources. Your viewers and readers are in your country, while your sources are largely not (there are exceptions such as CNN or the BBC, but humour me).

In order to make contact with the people and evidence who can help answer your questions, you have to rely far more on your personal network than, for example, a home affairs or education correspondent.

But the globalisation of modern news – and the ability of people to search on the internet for information related to their own experiences – has changed this. Now, if you report on an issue in another country, people in that country can see what you’ve written and contact you with further information.

In a nutshell this reflects the way that journalism has moved from a ‘push’ medium limited by transmission and distribution infrastructure, to a ‘pull’ (search) and ‘pass’ (social media) one.

Three particularly strong examples of this: Channel 4’s ongoing reporting on the civil war in Sri Lanka and evidence of war crimes. Video footage that was obtained as part of that journalism was, eventually, seen by someone who recognised one of the bodies. (A particularly good lesson for budding journalists is how photos of those bodies were dated using EXIF data, and correlated with documentary evidence from the Sri Lankan MOD – material that don’t lend themselves to broadcast, but can be put online)

Second, Paul Lewis’ investigation into the death of a man being deported to Angola. One of the passengers on the plane where he died was a US citizen who works in Angola. He contacted Lewis after coming across a tweet calling for witnesses.

Third, Paul Lewis again, and the death of Ian Tomlinson at G20 protests. This was again provided by a US citizen who happened to be in the UK at the time and came across the story after he returned home.

Curiously, of course, these two latter stories are not examples of international journalism in terms of their subject – but they do highlight how the web can make international newsgathering part of home affairs stories too.