print this articleYou say you want a revolution?
At another point in the discussion with the group of young journalists, I was talking about an example of how my newspaper allowed its investigative reporter to take an unorthodox approach in covering the identity theft of his friend – for the newspaper. Backstory here.
A couple of young journalists were clearly troubled by the presence of the reporter in the story and his use of first-person. One said, “but in journalism school, we were taught that it is wrong to use first person.”
“Does that make it right?” I countered, pointing out that it was fair, accurate (we asked another reporter to check the facts), and transparent.
Somewhat flustered, she said, “But you’re asking us to revolutionize journalism?”
Exactly.
Great magazines like Rolling Stone, the New Yorker, Vanity Fair and the New York Times Sunday Magazine routinely allow writers to use first person and insert themselves in the stories they report. Why should newspapers act differently?
Someone asked if any of our readers expressed dismay at this practice. We heard from lots of readers about the series but, to my knowledge, not one took issue with the fact that the reporter wrote about himself in the story or used first-person. I had a couple readers actually ask me how come the rest of the news articles weren’t written like this, in a conversational style that isn’t so … well, boring.
I don’t know. Probably because that’s what they taught us in journalism school.
That doesn’t make it right, of course. We’re fighting for readers now. Not good grades.
Posted by MarkBriggs on Thursday, August 16, 2007
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