This week, we had the immense pleasure of getting to hear from Don Meyers in our class. Meyers explained that journalists have a different worldview – that they are storytellers at hear, historians with a sense of justice, and they try to understand how government works and point it out when it isn’t. I particularly appreciated his comparison of journalists to storytellers, because this is how I see myself. To me, the world is a big picture book, waiting to be explored, have all the little flaps lift up, and the stories behind each color, shape, and person uncovered. The world is a fascinating place and my goal is to uncover it and tell everyone about what I find. Also, journalists are historians both in that they have to be informed on history to make a point, and in the fact that they are making history with each word they write.
Meyers also said that journalists are forced to ask the hard questions of how and why. This can be a pain – it would often be so much easier to leave a story at the simple facts, and most readers would not think anything of it. It is so important, however, to figure out why the story really matters and to report it to the public so that they can be free and self-governing. I found these two journalists practices of interviewing highly interesting: http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=676 (refer particularly to the 2nd paragraph) and http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2006/05/why_journalists_1.html. This second article made a point that I had never before considered. This author said that journalists should act ignorant when conducting interviews because the person they are interviewing most likely knows more than they do. I raise the question, however, would interviewees be more apt to give information to someone that seems less able than they or to someone that seems like an intellectual equal who would appreciate the information they share? Any thoughts?
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