Where journalism fails
Doc Searls,
Doc Searls Weblog,
Jul 23, 2019
Two articles published at about the same time, yet not apparently related in any way, illustrate what's wrong with pushing something into the form of a 'story'. In one, a post from the Online Journalism Blog outlines the five phases of a longform story: anticipation, dream, frustration, nightmare, reconciliation. But of course (I thought as I read it) most news doesn't fit this form; making it into a story forces it to be something it isn't. Doc Searls makes a similar point in his article. He looks at three elements of a story: character, conflict, movement. But "most truths we need to know aren't deep, or even complicated. They just don't fit the story format, and therefore resist becoming news—or interesting to journalists. That's because stories are what journalism produces." And if we use stories to teach, we're making the same mistake.
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