Is It Really Worth It?

AJ Davis
ad487710@ohio.edu

After reading the stories from "How the media treated me," it really made me sit down and think about my future career.  I want to go into broadcast, which was the antagonist in many of these stories, and I couldn't help feeling as though many reporters forget an important rule.  They are people first and journalists second.  True, we need to get the story out and that is the whole purpose of our job, but there is a time and place to be a pit bull and get the story.  Compassion is a greater tool for journalist than ambition in most cases.

Getting the Interview
Journalists seem to be so obsessed with getting the perfect interview.  In many of these stories it seemed as though the journalists cared more about getting their story than respecting the feelings and privacy of the people affected by these tragedies.  In a Forbes article, it stresses the importance of relationships and risk vs. reward.  Usually I rant about how we need find a delicate balance or be more aware.  However, this is a different case.  There is no balancing your work and being compassionate.  You are a human being.  They are human too.  You have to realize that when you are setting up a relationship with them.  If you are too aggressive simply to get that exclusive story or perspective, then you just lost their trust and patience.  Not to mention, you are putting more stress on a person who just went through a terrible ordeal.  That does not make you a good journalist.  It makes you a horrible person who cares more about work than the person who just lost their home or loved one.

There is a Line
I am not saying we have to give up on ambition or drive for stories.  We just have understand there is a line.  It is an art to get that perfect interview or scoop. In our attempt to get that perfect story, we lose our humanity.  Taking a picture of a grieving mother when her baby died is not necessary.  As a reader I don't want to see that and now you have upset a family who will spread by word of mouth that you or your station should not be trusted. Twistimage has a really good article on how to conduct a good journalistic interview.  It is not about the story you're writing, it is about the story they are telling.  Being aggressive will get you no where and will only make people upset with you.  What if you need something from that family again, or even someone who knows them? You have just lost a source and trust of someone all because you forgot how to use your manners.

Rock and a Hard Place

From the NYDailyNews.  Examples of respectively getting tragedy pictures.

As someone who works for a T.V. station, I understand how tough producers can be.  They want the story and don't really care how you get it.  The truth is sometimes you are going to upset them.  Yeah, you might get in trouble with your producer because you didn't bring back the story they wanted, but that is not the important part here.  Protecting someone's privacy or respecting that they are in mourning is more important than pleasing your editor.  I had a professor who told me that when he had to interview people who lost loved ones in a tornado, instead of interviewing the people who had been affected, he went to the funeral director and talked to him about what families were doing.  It gave the same perspective on the story as a grieving family member, and it was a creative alternative.

Final Word
In the end it is remembering your compassion.  The sad part is, I can think of several journalists who will ignore that because to them, getting the story means more than what the interviewee is going through.  After all, they are just a story right? Wrong! They are going through an extremely difficult situation.  You have no idea what they are going through, and how dare you try and take advantage of it?  Getting that story will get you what? A "good job" from your producer? An award?  Is that really worth it?

For me it is not.  For me I am committed to treating people as people and not just a means to get my exclusive story.  And in my mind, that makes me a good journalist.  True, I won't have that top story, but at least I can go to sleep at night and look myself in the mirror and know that what I am doing for journalism is healthy and constructive.  I feel sorry for journalists who don't agree with that and who feel that I am being too soft or not driven enough, as they have let the job overtake them as a human. That might be worse than not having a story at all.