JOURNALISTIC WRITING An Introduction

Quick Activity: Observation ◦ How many things can you remember from today’s flag-raising? Write down in your journals all details of things you saw/heard/remember. You only have three minutes to do this.

Observation Activity ◦ Look through your observations. Which ones are facts? Which ones are opinions or impressions? How can you distinguish between the two? ◦ Look at the observations of a person sitting next to you. Did you note down the same things? Did you use the same words to describe them? ◦ Is a journalist’s job to note facts or impressions? How might the words you use as a journalist affect your writing? ◦ Do you think you would have done a better job at this activity if I warned you in advance to pay attention during flag-raising? Why?

Things to think about… ◦ What is ‘journalism’? What is ‘news’? ◦ How might journalistic writing – i.e. writing a news article – be similar and/or different from expository and narrative writing? ◦ What are some of the skills that you think a journalist should possess?

From the American Press Institute: ◦ Asking who is a journalist is the wrong question, because journalism can be produced by anyone. ◦ At the same time, merely engaging in journalistic-like activity – snapping a cell-phone picture at the scene of a fire or creating a blog site for news and comment – does not by itself produce a journalistic product Why? ◦ Gil Thelen, the former publisher and president of The Tampa Tribune, believes the journalist has a very specific role in society. He calls it the “committed observer.”

Is journalism just listing facts? ◦ No – journalism, even when it purports to be “neutral”, inevitably reveals something of the writer’s bias. A truly “neutral” piece of writing is near-impossible. Different journalists will focus on different aspects of the facts, or interpret them in different ways – even if they’re trying to be ‘neutral’ or ‘objective’! ◦ Journalism is also about good writing: it involves stringing facts together coherently and in a way that supports the general theme or argument of an article; and writing in a way that engages readers and doesn’t just bore them with a list of facts.

So how can I make facts interesting? ◦ Researching for different perspectives –anecdotes and stories that might make the subject more personal or interesting to the reader ◦ Avoiding cliched, hackneyed phrases that you’ve read a thousand times before (how many tributes to Mr Lee Kuan Yew used the exact same phrase about ‘from a fishing village to a first-world country’?!) ◦ Looking for facts that support ideas that we’ve all come to accept as fact (i.e. ‘The US is a global superpower’, ‘racism is a controversial topic’)

How do I cite my sources? ◦ X newspaper quotes Y as saying… ◦ X was quoted in an interview as saying… ◦ In an interview with X, Y mentioned… ◦ X newspaper states that… ◦ A commonly-reported anecdote is that of… ◦ X’s article on Y describes an incident where… ◦ X famously declared…

Bias and Objectivity ◦ Singapore and the death penalty – are these ‘harsh punishments’ or ‘just laws’? ◦ Abortion – is it ‘the murder of innocents’ or ‘giving women the right to choose’? Different newspapers and journalists will describe the same thing in different ways; this can depend on a variety of factors – where they come from; gender; political views, and so on. While the choice of words is your decision, you also need to learn to match your tone/register (how you say things, and the specific words/phrases you use to say them) to the requirements.

WHAT’S IN A PICTURE? Bias and objectivity HCI / ELL / 2015 / J. Phay

Instructions ◦ For every picture you see, quickly jot down your impressions of the person in the picture. ◦ Also jot down WHAT IN THE PICTURE gives you this impression. HCI / ELL / 2015 / J. Phay

/images/reviews/l/nowvoya ger.png HCI / ELL / 2015 / J. Phay

/images/reviews/l/now- voyager.png HCI / ELL / 2015 / J. Phay

What if I told you they’re the same character? HCI / ELL / 2015 / J. Phay

Instructions ◦ Now compare how the same person is presented differently in the following pictures HCI / ELL / 2015 / J. Phay

Case 1 HCI / ELL / 2015 / J. Phay

Case 2 HCI / ELL / 2015 / J. Phay

Wrap Up ◦ Bias is often present in media reports ◦ Bias can even be present in pictures ◦ The presentation or re-presentation of something/someone is rarely neutral HCI / ELL / 2015 / J. Phay

Credits ◦ HCI / ELL / 2015 / J. Phay