Lara Setrakian
Hi! My name is Lara Setrakian, I'm a foreign correspondent specializing in the Middle East and US foreign policy. For the past five years I've covered the region for ABC News and Bloomberg Television, while writing for publications like the International Herald Tribune, Monocle Magazine, and the Business Insider. My journey started in 2007, when ABC News sent me to cover Iran and Arab world, part of their first deployment of Digital Reporters around the globe. We were sent out with a camera, a backpack, and marching orders to file for television, radio, and digital platforms. In this age of network news, it was becoming standard practice: find a good story and tell it in any format.
In the downtime, when I wasn't filing on ABC News, I was tinkering with technology. I blogged for ABC News and jumped on Twitter relatively early on. What I found online was a round of voices and perspectives across the Middle East, suddenly connecting on social media. Those voices were sending a powerful message: it was time for change in the Middle East, and they would be the catalysts. During the Iran election crisis of 2009, I as able to put original reporting on Twitter, as sources inside the country conveyed what was happening in real time. In 2010 I chronicled what I called the "Arab Digital Vanguard," a set of Arab bloggers who had the potential to reshape practically every area of life in the Middle East. Months later, that online community coalesced in the "Arab Spring," enabling revolutions that have reshaped the region's political order.
In September 2012 I founded Syria Deeply, a platform to innovate storytelling around the crisis in Syria. It was inspired by a sense of responsibility and service, to help more people understand what's happening in the world. What we learn can help us better explain a range of global issues. That's why I call Syria Deeply a 'creative news experiment;' it's basically R&D for a new media model.
When I'm not in reporter mode I spend my time with family and friends. I also put a lot of time into practicing yoga, absorbing nature, and experimenting with vegetarian cuisine. I have a weakness for dark chocolate, which I inherit from my great late Grandpa Setrakian.
My personal motto is an Armenian proverb, 'partzratzeer, partzratzoor.' It means rise up, and raise up others with you. My journalism, my craft, is how I answer that call.