J4450: Find One Person

I wanted to add a little bit to my last post, Reporting and Idealism. Katherine sent us one of Nicholas Kristof’s columns, “Save the Darfur Puppy,” at the beginning of the week to read for lecture. In it, Kristof cites a study that states people are more willing to donate to one suffering person than they are to many.

He continues:

Advocates for the poor often note that 30,000 children die daily of the consequences of poverty — presuming that this number will shock people into action. But the opposite is true: the more victims, the less compassion.

People are more willing to donate money when they read a story about an individual who is suffering than they are when they read statistics. In the article I linked to in the last post, “North Korea Won’t Be Liberated in a Day,” writer Mike Deri Smith retells what Sokeel Park, an analyst for Liberty in North Korea, a group that helps get refugees out of the country, told him when he asked what he could do to help sufferers in North Korean concentration camps:

Sokeel Park had told me to find one person and help them.

(Emphasis mine.) I think reporters tend to use this strategy when writing stories. At the Missourian, we publish a lot of ledes that focus on one person’s particular story before we get into the bigger theme, the multiple perspectives and the numbers.

So, hopefully, by using this technique we hold people’s attention to keep them interested in the things we report on.

J4450: Reporting and Idealism

This post is about idealism, which tends to be a pretty negative word. “Realists” always make fun of the “idealists.” We don’t understand how the world works, they say. But at least we believe in something, I say.

We watched the documentary Reporter in lecture this week. A camera crew follows New York Times columnist Nick Kristof as he ventures into one of the most poverty- and disease-stricken parts of Africa. While hundreds of people suffer around him at each place he visits, Kristof continues to look for the saddest sad story to make the suffering hit home to more privileged readers.

In the film, he listens with almost no emotion as starving Africans tell him their stories, and keeps asking them where the sickest person is. It’s a strange thing to see because he fills his columns with such emotion and outrage about the suffering in the world.

This practice of not showing emotion doesn’t mean he doesn’t care though. I think he has to shield his emotions to be able to deal with the stuff he sees. I blinked back tears just watching the documentary! I can’t even imagine having to experience it and report back on it coherently. Personally, I’ve only really faced this dilemma of staying emotionless or wearing them on your sleeve once, and I wrote about that here.

Now, I would say Kristof’s an idealist. He wouldn’t keep writing columns if he thought they couldn’t make some difference, as the narrator of Reporter says near the end of the film. From what I gather, he’s one of a few reporters who covers the “beat” of human tragedy in undeveloped or developing countries, who’s constantly reporting on it.

And I think a lot of journalists (me included) think what he’s doing is noble but at the same time would have a hard time doing what he does. I think part of it is the potential to become desensitized to what you’re reporting on, to appear like you don’t care. Also, though, I think part of it is that it’s incredibly hard.

I found this article a while back about one reporter’s struggle with his idealism and his realism. (I highly recommend it.) Mike Deri Smith, an editor at The Morning News, writes that he wanted to help people who were suffering in North Korean concentration camps. He wanted to do something immediately, to feel like he was, indeed, doing something to help.

So, he goes to the North Korean embassy in London (where he lives) and inquires about visas to the country so he “can come and help the people of North Korea.” He also “wanted to stick it to the North Korean Man” during this visit. To do that, he hopes to get one of the diplomats to admit, in some form, to the suffering of their people.

He doesn’t get very far, so he “slinks” back home.

Smith is an idealist — he admits as much — and he seems sincere in his feelings towards the suffering of people in concentration camps. But he only goes to the embassy in his hometown…Kristof goes to Congo! It’s just incredible what Kristof does and what he experiences.

That’s not meant to disparage Smith — that’s meant to praise Kristof. I don’t really need to praise him, I guess, his work speaks for itself. In his article, Smith writes a “Manifesto for the Modern Idealist;” here’s his fifth line:

V. Watching a documentary does not an expert make thee.

Being there probably does, though. And through it all, I think Kristof has maintained his idealism in the face of intense reality.

J4450: Media Mogul

I can’t say I flirted with, but I’ve definitely fantasized about, the job Kellie Kotraba has at ColumbiaFAVS.com.

She’s the editor at the religious media outlet. Now, I’m not interested in religion reporting, but part of me is interested in what she does for Columbia Faith and Values. A few weeks ago in lecture, she showed us some of her efforts. She covers events, writes stories, takes pictures, creates audio pieces for KBIA (Mizzou’s NPR affiliate), and manages the website.

I tend to think of myself mostly as a writer and reporter — someone who finds information and puts it in print/online. But I think being an editor of a small outlet like the one Kotraba runs could be cool.

She said she had a lot to do because the staff for the site is small. Part of me likes small staffs, though. When I worked at the Chieftain this past summer, I was one of four reporters (two full-times, another intern and me) that covered everything in Socorro, Magdalena and the surrounding area. And a quite a bit of shenanigans happened in that part of the country, let me tell you.

(It was quite the shock coming from that newsroom to the Missourian newsroom that has, what, about 100 reporters this semester. Plus, there’s more than 20 on my beat alone.)

Anyway, the point is I think her job is cool and part of me thinks being the main content producer for a small media outlet would be cool.

J4450: Back in the Saddle Again

Wow, it’s been a while.

It’s been nine days since I was last in the Missourian newsroom, and I got right back into the swing of things this morning when I had to work the very first GA shift after Thanksgiving break. When the day began, though, I was a little worried I’d sleepwalk through it.

I had to be in the newsroom by 8 a.m. — no small feat after an eight-hour drive, a week of napping, eating, drinking and being merry, and another eight-hour drive.

Quick side story: my grandparents, god bless ’em, don’t have WiFi.¹ They do have the Internet, but it’s slow and reminds me of when my dad had dial-up in his home office…in the 1990s.

The screen is separate from the computer, and the computer made a terrible whirring sound whenever I tried to open a new browser tab, go to a website, or click on links. I also had time to brew a pot of coffee between each of these digital activities.

I managed to get one post done when I promised myself I’d write one everyday except for Thanksgiving. Maybe I’m just being a spoiled-WiFi brat, but it was not the best working conditions.

Because of this, this blog has not been updated in a while, but I will try to change that. Yes, I missed my laptop and I missed my wireless. It was fun to get away from it all without any “distractions,” but I may or may not have suffered from withdrawals when I couldn’t check my email everyday.² I might have imagined that part, though.

Anyway, back to the Missourian newsroom. Part of me hoped the day would pass by in a hurry, with me getting away from doing anything, to give me an extra day of recovery. Then the student editor asked me to do a life story…

I guess the appropriate metaphor would be riding a bike — you go from standing still to super fast even if you haven’t rode one in a while (because you never really forget). And I like riding my bike.

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1. A friend told me a story once where his grandparents’ friends pronounced this word, after seeing it on a sign for a motel, “Wee-Fee” and asked what it was.

2. I had 70 emails to check when I got back to my wireless.

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J4450: Shoutout to ASME

For the past few weeks, I’ve been reading my 2011 collection of the American Society of Magazine Editors’ The Best American Magazine Writing.

A few of my favorites:

Michael Paterniti‘s “The Suicide Catcher” for GQ. The piece, about a man who spends his days talking people down from the edge of a four-mile bridge, was a finalist in the feature writing division, and it’s easy to see why:

Nanjing was now just another one of your typical 6-million-person Chinese metropolises, one of the famous “Three Furnaces” of China because of its unremitting summer heat. Daytime temperatures regularly topped ninety degrees here – due to hot air being trapped by the mountains at the lower end of the Yangtze River valley…and, oh yeah, because all the trees had been chopped down – and the sun rarely shone.

I don’t know if it gets better than that. The style is conversational but also authoritative. Paterniti’s piece includes vivid descriptions of the bridge as well.

John Donovan and Caren Zucker‘s “Autism’s First Child” for The Atlantic. The piece, focused on the very first diagnosed case of autism (it didn’t have a name before then) and how that first diagnosed kid grew up to be a functioning adult, was a finalist in the profile writing division. The best bit of writing (to me anyway) is the following:

This section opens with a rather long description by autism researcher Dr. Peter Gerhardt on how to hold a credit card so a person swipes it the right way every time. Then,

The people standing in the back of a long supermarket checkout line aren’t always going to say or do the nice thing when some odd-looking man in front is holding the whole place up because he can’t figure out the credit-card swipe. It’s in that moment, Gerhardt says, that the thumb-on-the-logo trick is a matter of “social survival.” If the man with autism can navigate this situation successfully – and, just as important, be seen doing so – Gerhardt argues that our collective acceptance of people with autism autism in “our” spaces will tick up a notch. If the man fails, it will go the other way.

The section starts out with a description of a formality, something everyone knows how to do – swipe a credit card. Then seamlessly transitions into how that’s not the case for everyone and how this seemingly simple act can have major social implications.

Also, I never thought of adults having autism before reading this piece. I know that sounds stupid since, you know, kids grow up to be adults, but everything I’ve ever read about autism (not a lot, I’ll confess) focused on children. Donovan and Zucker bring attention to adults with autism with a moving piece.

Scott Horton‘s “The Guantanamo ‘Suicides'” for Harper’s Magazine. This piece, yes, is about the incident at Guantanamo Bay in which three prisoners died in the summer of 2006. It was the winner of the reporting division.

The following is from the section titled “‘Yasser Couldn’t Even Make a Sandwich!'” Horton interviewed one of the deceased’s fathers and got his reaction:

“Yasser wasn’t guilty of anything,” (his father) Al-Zahrani said. “He knew that. He firmly believed he would be heading home soon. Why would he commit suicide?” The evidence supports this argument. Hyperbolic U.S. government statements at the time of Yasser Al-Zahrani’s death masked the fact that his case had been reviewed and that he was, in fact, on a list of prisoners to be sent home. I had shown Al-Zahrani the letter that the government says was Yasser’s suicide note and asked him whether he recognized his son’s handwriting. He had never seen the note before, he answered, and no U.S. official had ever asked him about it. After studying the note carefully, he said, “This is a forgery.”

Horton makes a pretty convincing case that something fishy happened at the prison that summer. Regardless of your feelings about the situation, he clearly did his homework. And the fact that he interviewed a relative of one of the “suicides” gets me – I don’t think I would have thought of that.

Anyway, those are my three favorite pieces from the 2011 edition. I look forward to obtaining this year’s.

J4450: Endings

Endings.

Writing endings is one of the hardest things to do. When done correctly, they perfectly wrap up a story and leave readers feeling satisfied. When done incorrectly, they come off as sappy and leave readers with an incomplete feeling. Also, they can be nonexistent (which is the worst).

I have some experience with this last one. I wrote a story earlier this semester that won’t be published until Monday, but the important part about it for this post is the ending. Well, there really isn’t one. It just kind of peters out. I mean, it’s a good story (if I do say so myself), but a good ending wouldn’t have hurt.

To achieve that good ending, a lot of strategery must go into it. Planning is a must so it doesn’t come off as sappy or cliche. One of the best examples was Seth Davis’ recent profile on Indiana Hoosier Cody Zeller for Sports Illustrated.

The profile starts out with Zeller’s nickname (Big Simple) and how he got it (he’s a fundamentally sound basketball player — he keeps things simple). The profile ends, you guessed it, with Zeller’s nickname (“Keep it simple, Big Simple”). Nice.

One of the nicest endings I’ve ever read was from the book Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard. I don’t remember it exactly, but I’ll do my best. The main character, Chili Palmer, a member of the mob, goes to Hollywood to do some business and write a script.

Dark comedy ensues. At the end, Chili is having a conversation with the his producer about the script and says something to the effect of “Who knew this ending thing was so hard?” or “How the hell are you supposed to end it?” Clever, Elmore, clever.

The line perfectly wraps up the plot of the novel while also ending the novel itself on a high note. That’s what great endings can do — leave a reader satisfied with your work.

The end.

J4450: The Decision

The following events actually both fell through, but, at the time I made this decision this morning, both were very much in play:

Last night, my roommates and I made plans to grab dinner tonight after I was done with work at 6:00. It was going to be a special occasion, kind of like a last supper before we parted for a week or more for Thanksgiving. I woke up Tuesday prepared to go out to dinner.

Around 9:00 this morning, I saw my editor’s Facebook post:

Cool opportunity to do a straightforward story this evening about Head Start holding a health literacy event for parents from several counties. Starts at 6:30 at Stoney Creek. You go, come back, write a short feature. Photo is assigned. WHO WANTS THIS?

Well, I had a decision to make. Hang with my roommates before Thanksgiving OR work on my craft…

I emailed Liz and told her I’d do the story. I debated it for about 10 seconds. I’d just tell my roommates I had to do it, I thought. The truth is, I wanted to do it. Not because I don’t like hanging out with my roommates, but because I wanted to cover an event and write a story.

Of course, like I wrote above, both of these plans fell through. When she saw me in the newsroom, Liz said a fellow reporter also wanted to cover the event and it was my decision if I still wanted it. Thinking about the dinner with my roommates, whom I hadn’t told yet about me bailing, I told her the other reporter could take it.

I regret not taking it now and not because our dinner plans fell through. But this post isn’t about that, it’s about my decision. When faced with a decision between my career and my friends, I chose my career. And, hopefully, I’ll have to make that decision a few more times during my lifetime, for better or worse.

But I’m OK with that.

J4450: My Dream Job

I hope my professors don’t see this post.

I’ve had somewhat of a personality crisis the last several weeks. I’ve always been the kid who liked school. Since an early age, I committed myself to caring about homework. And, even though high school popularity depended on the indifference, or perceived indifference, of school work, I continued to care about it. For better or worse, I tended to define myself by this fact.

However, I don’t really look forward to sitting in lecture halls anymore. I don’t really look forward to reading academic papers anymore. And I don’t look forward to writing essays anymore.

I just want to read and write news.

Really! I’m kind of fed up with school work at this point. I don’t want to do it anymore — OK, I’m going to backtrack a bit: I still am going to sit in lecture halls, read academic papers and write essays. I’m just really only looking forward to being in the Missourian newsroom, interviewing people and writing stories.

This weekend, I signed up for a newsletter from Conor Friedersdorf, a staff writer at The Atlantic, called The Best of Journalism. Superlatives aside, it’s pretty cool. Friedersdorf sends you six stories a week that he thinks are some of the best examples of journalism on the web.

Maybe you’re thinking, “Why can’t you find those on your own?” Well, he’s already found me two pieces I loved that I wouldn’t have found otherwise:

• Graeme Wood’s “Outrageous Freedom” at aeonmagazine.com, and
• Vanessa Veselka’s “The Truck Stop Killer” at gq.com.

I think that would be an awesome job: writing for one media outlet and reading the content of others.

J4450: Soda Fountain Advice

I was standing by the soda fountain in the downtown Which ‘Wich, waiting for my sandwich, when fellow reporter Stephanie Ebbs dropped this piece of advice on me: when she’s writing a story, she’ll write parts of it as she gathers information.

When you’re done with an interview, start turning your notes into your story, she said. This way, you have an idea of where your story is headed. Also, the amount of information in front of you is more easily digestible and not so daunting when you sit down to write. This obviously helps with longer, more complex stories.

I wrote about this a little bit in this post, but to recap: writing and rewriting the nutgraf throughout the reporting process helps hone your thinking. Having a mess of notes (if you’re like me) already in paragraph form probably helps with that, too.

J4450: Mr. Smooth

I was going to write separate posts about the following three anecdotes. Then I realized they all had a common theme so I decided to condense¹ them into one:

I’m starting to get more comfortable interacting with sources. This may not have been a problem for many reporters, but I’ve always been a quiet and non-nosy person. I usually kept to myself and my circle of friends. Rarely would I strike up a conversation with a stranger about anything (not even the weather). In fact, I can’t recall doing anything like that until I got into college and realized part of my intended profession meant I had to leave my comfort zone and meet new people.

Recently, though, I think I’ve made some real progress. I’ve learned to be more comfortable with people I’ve just met. I’ve started talking to people about things not related to the story I’m working on. So, instead of being just a gatherer of information, I’m more of a person. And, probably, more personable.

I can cite three examples.

First, for this story about a fourth-grader who rides quarter horses², I met the dad and son at their house. It was the first sit-down interview I’ve done for the Missourian all semester and I was a bit nervous. Part of that was because I had to interview a 9-year-old (how are you supposed to do that?), but the dad was helpful.³

Mostly, though, I was nervous because interviewing someone in person is different than doing it in person. You have to watch your facial expressions, for one thing. Well, the interview went fine — we spoke for about half an hour. Then it was time to leave. On my way out, since both father and son were wearing Mizzou shirts, I asked if the dad and I had the same Alma Mater.

That question led to us talking about Mizzou basketball for a solid five minutes in his doorway before we said our goodbyes. They’re nice people and probably would have talked to me anyway, but I think having another connection helped me write a better story because I understood my subjects a little more.

Second, I wrote a story about an unearthed monument at the Boone County Courthouse and, well…this anecdote needs a little explaining. I had originally wrote the story about two weeks before it was published. It had just taken a while for me to get the accuracy check for one source done.

Eventually, after a few messages that were not returned, Liz told me to go by the source’s office. Well, once there, I was able to talk to her immediately. Her office’s phones and computers had gone down so she hadn’t received any of my messages.

After she read a copy of the completed story and verified all the facts, we got to talking about her computer troubles, which led to her talking about her personal feelings of the monument. She said some really great stuff that didn’t make it into the article because, at least to me, it seemed like that stuff was just between the two of us. She probably would not have minded having what she told me in the paper, but I kind of like that it’s not.

Third, for the reporting I did yesterday for the Missourian’s election coverage, I struck up a conversation with the volunteer I did the vignette on about an hour and a half before I asked to interview her. We started talking about why she was there and what her plans for voting were. Again, some of the stuff we talked about didn’t make it into the vignette.

When I first started talking to her, I had no plans to do the vignette on her. I slowly realized her story was a pretty good one, though. Hopefully, she didn’t think I started the conversation with the endgame of a story in mind. Maybe since I didn’t she opened up more and was more open to talking to me? Maybe.

Also, I should mention, while talking to voters exiting the polls, I managed to gain some insight into my beat. When I asked what someone’s job was and they answered teacher, I told them I wrote for the education beat at the Missourian. I then probed for their feelings on some issues facing the district, their particular schools and teachers.

I put my notebook and mechanical pencil down for those conversations and I think that paid off: I got some non-PC reactions to some burning questions I had.

In summary, one of the biggest challenges I personally had to overcome in order to be a competent reporter was being comfortable talking to people whom I had just met and from whom I was just trying to gather information. I’m still not great at it because conversing with others doesn’t come naturally to me — it’s a skill that I’ve had to work on.

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1. Read: “longer.”

2. I just want to say the photographs on that story are incredible. Better than I had pictured.

3. The interactions between those two are where all those great dialogue parts come from.

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