Storytellers

The most important tool a journalist has is their brain. How we think about the world we cover determines whose work will make a difference in people lives. We have to know something about everything. That takes drive and curiosity. We have to be skeptical and question everything. Why are things happening? Objective and fair decisions often have to be made under deadline pressure. That requires clear thinking which is essential to clear writing.

Since the beginning of time, people have been writing and telling stories. It’s how we communicate ideas, issues, and history. I think that’s why all good journalist have to be relentless readers. Reporting is all about finding out something your audience doesn’t know, and telling them about it in the form of an engaging story. This is what must excite you as a journalist. The challenge is grabbing your audience’s attention with words and pictures. It’s like when a friend says, “Hey, wait ’til you hear this.” The story must build on itself with a beginning, middle, and end. People have short attention spans and don’t want their time wasted. They will want to know what’s in it for them. Did I learn something important? Did I feel happy, or angry? Did it make me feel empathy for someone? Do I feel better informed after hearing the story?

Journalists have a critical role in society. Gil Thelen, the former publisher and president of The Tampa Tribune, described a reporter as a “committed observer.” Thelen explains while reporters are part of the community, they can have a different perspective. A journalist gathers facts, and background and puts information in context. But, I think the responsibility goes further. Reporting the obvious is the sign of a lazy reporter. Why is something happening? Who stands to gain? And stands to lose? Real news is telling your audience what they can’t find out on their own. Journalists should want their audience to depend on them to dig for the information that would otherwise be hidden.

Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, in “The Elements of Journalism” say “The purpose of journalism is not defined by technology, not by journalists or the techniques they employ.” Rather, “the principals and purpose of journalism are defined by something more basic: the function news plays in the lives of people.” This is the mission. To get people to pay attention and understand the issues and developments in their community, their country, and the world. There is nothing more frustrating to me then when people are unaware of stories that effect their world, or worse, don’t care. Journalism should inform good citizenship.

Journalists report the history of the present for the future. It is critical to a free society, but it’s often taken for granted. While the tools and methods have changed and will continue to change, the truth will never change. It’s up to the storytellers to never give up the desire to tell us what we need to know in a way we can understand. John Steinbeck, in “The Winter of Our Discount” wrote: “A man who tells secrets or stories must think of who is hearing or reading, for a story has as many versions as it has readers. Everyone takes what he wants from it and thus changes it to his measure. Some pick out parts and reject the rest, some strain the story through their mesh of prejudice, some paint it with their own delight. A story must have some points of contact with the reader to make him feel at home in it. Only then can he accept wonders.”

Making just one viewer or reader feel that wonder should be a great reward for the storytellers.