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Foreign Correspondent

Real-Life Activities

Real-Life Communication -- Solution

These are the facts of the story, as Hartsock saw them. He says the "who, what, where, when, why and how model" of journalism is pretty old school, but is often a handy tool when looking at the facts in any story.

What: Evidence of gulag labor camps.

Where: Norilsk city -- Krasnoyarsk region -- Central Siberia, a huge area between Mongolia and the Arctic Sea.

When: Evidence of camps found five years ago. History of labor camps in this area date to czarist Russia, but the prisoners found were brought to the camps in 1940.

Who: Slave laborers -- arrested Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian military officers.

Why: Labor camps were built in this region because it was isolated.

"Communication skills are super-important, says Maria Trombly, a self-employed correspondent living in Shanghai.

You must be able to connect to people of very different backgrounds and personal styles. You must express yourself verbally and in print, learn new languages and often, speak before groups.

"These are all great skills to have," she adds. "Some people are naturally better than others but all can be improved with practice."