Facts and figures do not compel readers,
stories do. The new media-users want more than the information rich. They need
story-skimpy new media outlets!
The terms journalism and
reporting are often used interchangeably. Maybe the two just can't be separated
in practice, but the rise of new media demands a distinction.
As
newspapers, magazines, publications and newsletters creep on to the Web, the
demand for reporters, who can keystroke simple sentences and strings of numbers,
swell.
I'd
define reporting as nuts-and-bolts, no-nonsense information-gathering and
packaging.
Reporting wants just the facts. Journalism entails investigation,
explanation and a point of view.
Journalists
are story-tellers, fascinated with the human experience, alert to the drama of
conflict and struggle, infinitely curious about the motives and meanings behind
events. Reporters use nouns and verbs as blunt utility instruments.
Journalists
indulge in figures of speech; they use words as symbols, to evoke empathy, pity
or anger. Most of what appears in Indian Express and TOI is journalism. Most of
Economic Times is reporting.
Journalism
inherently requires that stories be told in-depth. Many newspapers have cut out
long articles, even before the Internet. They've followed the example set by
television news. They've been hit by the rising price of printing, and the
renewed spotlight on cost-cutting. They're convinced readers are pressed for
time, impatient with detail, and conditioned to ingest the news in pellets.
Of
course, the same readers are not so pressed for time that they can't watch the
T20 and reruns of very bad movies. People who choose not to read are not cut
off from the news. The movies, radio, and later television have deepened the public's
acquaintance with the wider world - at least with its memorable horrors and
tragedies.
The bigger
bulk of broadcast is reporting, in the sense that I used it earlier, rather
than journalism. It is epitomized by the two-minute wire service radio bulletin
on the hour, already a fast disappearing format. "Russian armies marched
into China today from five directions." "President Banerjee was shot
and killed today in Red Fort." Just the facts.
Information
isn't knowledge, and facts don't add up to wisdom.
Are
we entering an age of universal access to massive amounts of raw, unbundled
information, anyone can take or leave as much as they want?
In
electronic databases, the public has (at its disposal) an incredible reference
facility. But it's not going to make journalism an obsolete skill.
You
can put "War and Peace" on a Web site, but who's going to read it all
the way through? When people read for fun, they want to sit back in a relaxed
posture, not all keyed up at the keyboard. Computers lend themselves well to
the display financial tables or sports results, but they are far less
comfortable for communicating narrative.
Readers
savor both the content and style of a good story, and print lets them move back
and forth instantaneously from what they are reading to what they have read and
are about to read.
Mere
reporting is fine for the monitor. Story-telling is the job of journalism - and
of newspapers.
So if there are people out there wondering what to do with their
creativity being journalists/reporters, for they are told it is completely
useless in the industry; here’s your answer. Use it. It’s the next best thing.
-Parvati
Natarajan
