While I understand the importance of remaining objective, I love being an advocate. It can be really hard for me to simply report sometimes. That's why I love Op-Ed news. If I could, I'd just write reviews and columns my whole life. That way nobody can blame me for being biased. I'm supposed to be! But getting there takes time. So I'll learn reporting first and make my way up.
We learned in our reading this week that "trying to silence a journalist's own felt emotions at the scene of a tragedy is an exercise no only in denial but also in futility: it does not work." I first watched the Walter Cronkite report of JFK's assassination in my high school U.S. History class. Here is a link to the best part: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBMs8JlYcgQ
Reporting the hard facts was his job; and he almost got through it before choking up. Don't you think that five seconds of emotion was worth it though? The country had just lost a beloved president. It was an event that called for passion. At that moment, hundreds of thousands of people were feeling the same despair he was. It brought an increased depth to the story that I believe, did not sway the audiences personal opinions.
While being an advocate in news writing is almost never appropriate, being fueled by passion can be. Our text says, "Devotion to the story can be heightened by the passion a reporter feels about that story." This devotion causes the writer to feel a desire to attain more facts about the story, and can ultimately make a story that much more truth-telling.
We learned in our reading this week that "trying to silence a journalist's own felt emotions at the scene of a tragedy is an exercise no only in denial but also in futility: it does not work." I first watched the Walter Cronkite report of JFK's assassination in my high school U.S. History class. Here is a link to the best part: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBMs8JlYcgQ
Reporting the hard facts was his job; and he almost got through it before choking up. Don't you think that five seconds of emotion was worth it though? The country had just lost a beloved president. It was an event that called for passion. At that moment, hundreds of thousands of people were feeling the same despair he was. It brought an increased depth to the story that I believe, did not sway the audiences personal opinions.
While being an advocate in news writing is almost never appropriate, being fueled by passion can be. Our text says, "Devotion to the story can be heightened by the passion a reporter feels about that story." This devotion causes the writer to feel a desire to attain more facts about the story, and can ultimately make a story that much more truth-telling.
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