Journalism 101

Let's start at the very beginning: What is journalism?

You'd think journalism would be a relatively simple concept. It's the stuff you put in newspapers and on CNN. It's non-fiction (or it's supposed to be anyway). It's meant to inform and entertain. It's an incredibly complex entity and you have to go through an incredibly long and complex process to produce good journalism.

That's why I get so mad, when I try to cajole someone into taking journalism next year (It never works, but you can't blame me for trying), and they just look at me and say, "Gee, Diana, I would but I already have English class, and I don't have room for another writing class."

Journalism is NOT a WRITING class! (Neither is high school English, but that's another rant for another day.)

It's true that you do write a lot in journalism, but it's not the point of the class. What distinguishes journalism from other forms of writing is the subject. In poetry, you usually writing about your own feelings. In fiction, you usually write about imaginary people, whose thoughts and feelings echo your own. In journalism, you write about REAL PEOPLE and the things they did. It has nothing to do with you.

As the reporter, you are supposed to be the invisible recorder of events. Your medium in a newspaper is either words and/or pictures. You do get a byline, but the focus of the newspaper isn't on you. It's like movie credits. Everyone who contributes to a movie gets their name in the credits, but while you're watching the movie, you're not supposed to be thinking about all the cameramen and the editors who had to sift through months of footage and all the guy in charge of getting the stars' water bottles. You're supposed to be focused on the story and characters onscreen.

That's the way it is with reporters and their articles. You're the cameraman. Frame your subject to the best of your ability and don't you dare call attention to yourself.

Journalism at its most basic level is telling the story of the real world, which is full of things that are dramatic, weird, and wonderful. To be a journalist, you don't have to be a writer. You have to be a human being who's interested in what's going on in the world around you

Because in journalism, empathy and observational skills are worth a lot more than being skilled at stringing words together.