No.16 for May 2003
With the warm weather upon us, it’s time to think about those summer reading lists, and I have three books to recommend.
Unlike some of the recent diatribes about our business, you might not have heard about them. But each gives some valuable insight into the practice and philosophy of what we do as journalists. Taken in small doses on a lazy summer day, I think you’ll find they invigorate and enrich your journalism.
Creative Interviewing:
The Writer’s Guide to Gathering Information by Asking Questions. By Ken
Metzler. Allyn & Bacon, 1997 (3rd Edition).
American journalism, with its core values of objectivity and fairness, is built around interviewing, and in a little more than 200 pages, Metzler looks at every facet of the process and how to improve your skills.
This is a classic how-to guide that should be read at least once by everyone in the field. Metzler has spent years studying and testing what makes a good interview. Far from a dry research tome, however, he packs this with reasoned explanations and helpful suggestions.
You’ll find something to identify with beginning in the first chapter, “What’s Your Interviewing Problem?” There’s also a chapter on broadcast interviews – not a bad thing to scan given our industry’s move into multimedia – and one on how to keep your interviews fresh on even the mundane newsbeat.
As Metzler says in his introduction: “Interviewing is just people talking, sometimes barefooted people. I hope the experiences will introduce you to the wonderful world of – well, to the wonderful world, period. Journalism is the last ‘cool’ profession.”
Journalism Ethics: Philosophical Foundations for News Media. By John C. Merrill. St. Martin’s Press, 1997.
OK, this one is heavier, but not dense. It’s another book of a bit more than 200 pages that has been around for a few years and deserves a look.
I like Merrill’s work because it’s not filled with ethics case studies. There are enough books out there like that. Instead, he takes us down a different path that looks at the ethical foundations of journalism, from Machiavelli to Locke to Korzybski (the father of general semantics).
And Merrill does it in language that doesn’t require the Oxford English Dictionary as a reading companion. This is a book about the philosophy of journalism ethics written for journalists.
Are you a libertarian? A communitarian? Or are you of the pragmatic ilk – maybe a little Machiavellian? You might be surprised what you discover.
Merrill’s chapter on propaganda and journalism is especially relevant given the debate about the “beat the drums” orientation of some news outlets during the Iraqi war.
You’re probably not going to sit down and read this cover to cover, but when you do finish, I expect you will have thought a lot more about journalism and your role in it – and without being screamed at as some other current books do.
Shop Talk & War Stories: American Journalists Examine Their Profession. Compiled by Jan Winburn. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.
This is my most favorite journalism book of the year – a year in which anyone with a word processor seems to want to throw the book at journalism.
Were I still running a newsroom, I’d want a copy to hand out to every reporter and editor down in the dumps about whatever daily crisis had erupted.
Winburn, of The Baltimore Sun, has compiled the essential reader for modern journalism. There are Rick Bragg’s and Garrick Utley’s pointed – and humorous – essays on their travails as cub reporters. Or try Ken Fuson’s delightful piece on using the wisdom of Yogi Berra to improve your writing in “What Would Yogi Do?”
It includes tips from this year’s Pulitzer Prize winner Diana Sugg, an alumna of the Herald-Journal in Spartanburg, about how to conquer a beat “instead of letting it rule you.” Edna Buchanan has a poignant recounting of her days chasing fires in Miami.
Steve Woodward’s dissection of covering the U.S. Bancorp-First Bank Systems merger for The Oregonian should be required reading for every reporter.
Jonathan Dube chimes in with tips for writing news online, Jack Hart on “The Art of the Interview“ and Robert Krulwich, long one of my favorite broadcast reporters, on “Sticky Storytelling.”
There is Joseph Lelyveld’s call to arms for journalism as both an outrageously fun job and as “a life of service.” And there is John Hersey’s provocative essay on the sometimes excesses of literary journalism.
There are 41 previously published essays, stories and other pieces in this book. If you can’t find one that inspires you, you aren’t looking very hard. I feel like one of those late-night hucksters as I write this, but if there’s only one journalism book you buy this year, I’d strongly consider this one.
An additional note ...
I recently reviewed the galleys of an updated edition of “Math Tools for Journalists” by Kathleen Woodruff Wickham, which I have mentioned previously, and this edition is far better than the first.
Wickham comes as close as anybody to combining the nuts-and-bolts formulas that journalists need with guidance on how to use them and then how to turn the resulting numbers into words. The original edition did not deal with the nuances of writing with numbers, but now I think this is a book that probably should be in every reporter’s and editor’s library. It should be available from Marion Street Press this summer.
As always, in the interest of full disclosure: I receive free copies of many books in hopes I will adopt them for a class or recommend them in a review. I don’t get any other benefit, and I recommend far fewer than I receive.
Have a relaxing summer – and happy reading!
Doug Fisher, a former AP news editor, teaches journalism at the University of South Carolina and can be reached at dfisher@sc.edu or 803-777-3315. Past issues of Common Sense Journalism can be found at http://www.sc.edu/cmcis/news/archive/comsenarchive.html