JOURNALISTICWRITING

An Introduction

Quick Activity: Observation

◦How many things can you remember from today’s flag-raising? Write down in your journals all details of things you saw/heard/remember. You only have three minutes to do this.

Observation Activity

◦Look through your observations. Which ones are facts? Which ones are opinions or impressions? How can you distinguish between the two?

◦Look at the observations of a person sitting next to you. Did you note down the same things? Did you use the same words to describe them?

◦Is a journalist’s job to note facts or impressions? How might the words you use as a journalist affect your writing?

◦Do you think you would have done a better job at this activity if I warned you in advance to pay attention during flag-raising? Why?

Things to think about…

◦What is ‘journalism’? What is ‘news’?

◦How might journalistic writing – i.e. writing a news article – be similar and/or different from expository and narrative writing?

◦What are some of the skills that you think a journalist should possess?

From the American Press Institute:

◦Asking who is a journalist is the wrong question, because journalism can be produced by anyone.

◦At the same time, merely engaging in journalistic-like activity – snapping a cell-phone picture at the scene of a fire or creating a blog site for news and comment – does not by itself produce a journalistic product

Why?

◦Gil Thelen, the former publisher and president of The Tampa Tribune, believes the journalist has a very specific role in society. He calls it the “committed observer.”

Is journalism just listing facts?

◦No – journalism, even when it purports to be “neutral”, inevitably reveals something of the writer’s bias. A truly “neutral” piece of writing is near-impossible. Different journalists will focus on different aspects of the facts, or interpret them in different ways – even if they’re trying to be ‘neutral’ or ‘objective’!

◦Journalism is also about good writing: it involves stringing facts together coherently and in a way that supports the general theme or argument of an article; and writing in a way that engages readers and doesn’t just bore them with a list of facts.

So how can I make facts interesting?

◦Researching for different perspectives –anecdotes and stories that might make the subject more personal or interesting to the reader

◦Avoiding cliched, hackneyed phrases that you’ve read a thousand times before (how many tributes to Mr Lee Kuan Yew used the exact same phrase about ‘from a fishing village to a first-world country’?!)

◦Looking for facts that support ideas that we’ve all come to accept as fact (i.e. ‘The US is a global superpower’, ‘racism is a controversial topic’)

How do I cite my sources?

◦X newspaper quotes Y as saying…

◦X was quoted in an interview as saying…

◦In an interview with X, Y mentioned…

◦X newspaper states that…

◦A commonly-reported anecdote is that of…

◦X’s article on Y describes an incident where…

◦X famously declared…

Bias and Objectivity◦Singapore and the death penalty – are these ‘harsh punishments’ or ‘just

laws’?

◦Abortion – is it ‘the murder of innocents’ or ‘giving women the right to choose’?

Different newspapers and journalists will describe the same thing in different ways; this can depend on a variety of factors – where they come from; gender; political views, and so on.

While the choice of words is your decision, you also need to learn to match your tone/register (how you say things, and the specific words/phrases you use to say them) to the requirements.

HCI / ELL / 2015 / J. Phay

WHAT’S IN A PICTURE?

Bias and objectivity

HCI / ELL / 2015 / J. Phay

Instructions◦ For every picture you see, quickly jot down your impressions of the person in the

picture.

◦ Also jot down WHAT IN THE PICTURE gives you this impression.

HCI / ELL / 2015 / J. Phay

http://www.notcoming.com/images/reviews/l/nowvoyager.png

HCI / ELL / 2015 / J. Phay

http://www.notcoming.com/images/reviews/l/now-voyager.png

HCI / ELL / 2015 / J. Phay

What if I told you they’re the same character?

HCI / ELL / 2015 / J. Phay

Instructions◦ Now compare how the same person is presented differently in the following

pictures

HCI / ELL / 2015 / J. Phay

Case 1

HCI / ELL / 2015 / J. Phay

Case 2

HCI / ELL / 2015 / J. Phay

Wrap Up◦ Bias is often present in media reports

◦ Bias can even be present in pictures

◦ The presentation or re-presentation of something/someone is rarely neutral

HCI / ELL / 2015 / J. Phay

Credits◦ http://time.com/3100975/iftheygunnedmedown-ferguson-missouri-michael-brown/