Performer (Interviewee)
Megha Rajagopalan
Interviewer
Dr. You Li
Geographic Location
United Kingdom
Biography
Megha Rajagopalan is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative correspondent for the New York Times based in London, the United Kingdom. Previously, Megha was the China bureau chief and Asia correspondent for BuzzFeed News and a political correspondent at Reuters News Agency in Beijing, China. She has reported from 23 countries in Asia and the Middle East on stories ranging from the North Korean nuclear crisis to the peace process in Afghanistan. In 2021, Megha and her colleagues won a Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting for “a series of clear and compelling stories that used satellite imagery and architectural expertise and interviews with two dozen former prisoners to identify a vast new infrastructure built by the Chinese government for the mass detention of Muslims.” (according to the Pulitzer website). When the pandemic hit in 2020, Megha was a senior international correspondent for BuzzFeed News.
In this interview, she recounted the reporting and production of the project that won her team the Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting in 2021. She revealed how her team combined investigative reporting, data mapping, and architecture into journalistic storytelling, and how they collaborated remotely when travel was restricted. She also reflected on her experiences corresponding in China and working for Buzzfeed News.
Interview Date
6-5-2023
Subject
U.K., foreign correspondent, China, Pulitzer Prize, international reporting, investigative journalism, BuzzFeed News, censorship, newsroom retrenchment, business model, structural issue, gender stereotype, women in journalism, journalism, pandemic, Eastern Michigan University Archives
Publisher
Eastern Michigan University Archives
Digital Object File Type
mp3
Run Time
0:52:08
Rights
Copyright to the audio resource and its transcript, headshot, and stories is held by the content creator, author, artist, or other entity, and is provided here for educational purposes only. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any other format without written permission of the copyright owner, Eastern Michigan University Archives (lib_archives@emich.edu).
Recommended Citation
Li, You, "Megha Rajagopalan, Oral History Interview, 2023" (2023). Collective Memory of Women Journalists in COVID-19. 27.
https://commons.emich.edu/cmwj/27
Author Page
https://www.nytimes.com/by/megha-rajagopalan