Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Help you, Help me... a young journalist's helpful textbook findings...

Please be aware the following blog content will be formatted in a "Quote" then "Genius Comment" sort of way... look forward to the latter of the two parts. (Is that the correct spelling of "latter"?)

1. "I developed the journalist's belief that people made events more than events made people."

Why in the world is reporting and journalism set up in this fashion? What does some guy have to say that's so life-changing that he now defines the event? I think we've lost focus on what the real newsworthy story is, and begun focusing on the absurdity of mixing a feature story with an informational news article. Now, some sources/individual interviews are vital to a story and prove to be quite relevent, however, this idea that the person makes the event is a major problem with a lot of reporting today. In this instance, my suggestion to beginner reporters is disregard the book.

2. "Reporters are grown-ups who never stop asking why. And each answer leads to another question."

If reporters are supposed to write at a 6th grade level, I feel the book is dead-on by suggesting we need to think at a 2nd grade level.

3. "The reader needed a line that ran through the story that the reader could hold onto."

I reflect now on a class I took my sophomore year in which an oh-so-wise professor stated, "Tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em, tell 'em, then tell what you told 'em."

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