[media-credit name=’RAY PFEIFFER/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Dozens of students and faculty members packed Vilas Hall Thursday evening to hear the University of Wisconsin alum and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anthony Shadid speak about his career as a correspondent in Iraq.

Since graduating from UW in 1990, Shadid, who is a writer for The Washington Post, has gained notoriety for his reporting on Islamic affairs in Israel, Lebanon, Afghanistan and a number of other Middle Eastern countries. In 1994, Shadid was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in Iraq.

Although the places of his assignments may seem abstract to many Americans, Shadid said, the people behind the war zones step to the forefront as the memorable part of his reporting.

"After a while, you really can't write too much more about the bombing," he said. "You find the human story."

UW journalism professor Jo Ellen Fair, who attended the lecture along with a number of other journalism colleagues, said this effort to "challenge our complacency" with the Iraq War has set Shadid's work apart.

"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography," Fair said, referring to the famous words of 19th century journalist Ambrose Bierce. "I once thought that statement pretty accurate, but now I think it is only accurate for wars that Americans care about in places they can already find on maps. … The Iraq War is not one of those wars."

In his award-winning book "Night Draws Near," Shadid said he aimed to report on the Iraq War by "treating the war as a backdrop" and putting the focus on "ordinary people [who] live in times that aren't ordinary."

Shadid acknowledged that such an approach can sometimes create the ethical conflict of becoming too sentimentally attached to sources, and he added that a journalist is still a person. In Iraq, Shadid said he gave people car rides and would have given them money had they asked.

"You don't lose your humanity when you become a reporter," he said, adding that the personal story always forms the most meaningful article to readers.

According to Shadid, he sees it as his responsibility to engage readers by using the real-life hopes and tragedies of people to shape his reporting. The most important part of reporting, he added, is not knowing which questions to ask but taking the time to listen to the answers.

"You don't let the reporting dictate the story, you let the story dictate the reporting," he said.

During the hour-long talk, Shadid shared other words of advice and answered career-related inquiries from the congenial audience that ranged from journalism students just beginning their careers to seasoned veterans well-studied in the field.

Although Shadid has covered both domestic and foreign affairs for more than 15 years at news organizations like the Associated Press and the Boston Globe, he admitted even he is still learning the art of effective reporting.

"I think you spend the first 10 years as a journalist learning the rules and then the next 10, 20, 30 years learning how to break those rules," Shadid said.

A number of journalism students who attended the event found Shadid's lecture to be engaging and helpful, calling the journalist an inspiration.

"I thought that it was … interesting to hear his perspective and what he was able to do with a degree from here," UW junior Nicole Frame said.

Shadid also praised his UW education, citing his time at Madison as the most formative of his journalistic career.

"I feel lucky to have spent my years here," Shadid said.