Journalism Quotes - Page 16

• My reporting in Africa wouldn't be political per se, but it's certainly the point of my reporting - and of a lot of other reporters I know: Human suffering is bad, and if reporting stories about it brings it to light and someone does something, that's part of the point of journalism. And it's a thin line between that and activism, and you have to be careful about that.

  Sebastian Junger

  Political, Suffering, Activism

  "A Few Good Men". Interview With Adam Weinstein, www.motherjones.com. September/October 2010.

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• There are certain realities about the world we live in. Syria and Iraq are just not going to get on air every day. For us as journalists, we're still trying to navigate this world. Journalism is changing. How do we tell our stories - especially with the wars that have continued for so long? How do we keep it relevant?

  Arwa Damon

  War, Reality, Long

  Source: wwd.com

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• A big part of my book deals with the caliber of journalism. Our journalism in general is deplorable, and on elections in particular it's very ineffectual. There are a lot of problems, a lot of them having to do with to problems within the professional code of journalism, which defines its role as the regurgitation of what people in power say. Another big problem is that we allow people with money to basically buy what's talked about in campaigns through running TV ads.

  Robert Waterman McChesney

  Running, Book, People

  "The Problem of the Media". Interview With Anthony Ha, www.motherjones.com. October 4, 2004.

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• Very rarely are you going to see the large shareholder or CEO of a corporation march into a newsroom and say, "Cover this story, don't cover that." It's a much more subtle process. The professional code adapts, but what we try to see, is how commercial and corporate pressure shape both the professional code and the sorts of things that are considered legitimate journalism and illegitimate journalism.

  Robert Waterman McChesney

  Trying, March, Ceo

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• Mexico just needs more journalists, and especially more good places to publish and exhibit. There are all kinds of censorship practiced in Mexico, not just violent repression. Perhaps the biggest threat to good journalism here is the massive power of the country's media monoliths - Televisa and TV Azteca - who have 80% of the market. They endlessly saturate the country with propaganda and inanity.

  Francisco Goldman

  Country, Censorship, Kind

  Source: therumpus.net

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• I've written one book-length piece of journalism. The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed Bishop Gerardi? That book had an impact. Eight years after it was published it's still having an impact in Guatemala. I remember when I wrote it, a surprising number of people said things to me like, "That is such an amazing story; why didn't you turn it into a novel?"

  Francisco Goldman

  Art, Book, People

  Source: therumpus.net

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• Wrapping rubber bands around a watermelon is not journalism. It is entertainment. But the key to success in media has always been a broad mix of serious reporting and entertainment. The New York Times does not make its money on reports about Iraq and Syria. It makes money on its gardening section, food and, yes, stories about cats. "The Today Show" is a very successful program because it is a mix of the celebrity chef and the crazy pet who does the rolls and serious news and interviews.

  Henry Blodget

  Crazy, Cat, Successful

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• Successful publication is all about the mix. What Buzzfeed discovered was that people like cat pictures. We can pretend to be embarrassed about that as a species, but it is actually a truth. So Buzzfeed publishes a lot of cat pictures. But they use the money from cat pictures to build an exceptional newsroom that publishes stories that far fewer people want to read, but it is very important journalism.

  Henry Blodget

  Cat, Successful, People

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• When I broke into music journalism it wasn't easy but there was more of an established path. I wanted and was able to have a grown-up person's job with a real salary writing for a fairly sizable audience about stuff I cared about. When you're starting out, you try to get as much experience as you can so people will see your work, and maybe start giving you the assignments you want, and paying you (hopefully both). And if you're lucky you land someplace where you can stay for a while. But today that's a trickier trajectory to envision.

  Anthony DeCurtis

  Real, Writing, People

  Source: therumpus.net

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• I've always been a writer. I started getting paid for writing in college. Where it transitioned from commentary to journalism was in that shift - not wanting to write personal stories because people are hungry in not necessarily great ways for the sexy, sexy, sex work story. I was trying to shift the focus, and journalism was the tool I needed to write about people outside my own life and range of experience.

  Melissa Gira Grant

  Sexy, Writing, College

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Almost everything I've learned about journalism has been from other friends who are journalists, taking advantage of the money I hope they don't think they threw away at j-school. I studied comparative literature, but the professional vagaries of journalism I've learned through other people's trial and error, and my own.

  Melissa Gira Grant

  Thinking, Literature, Journalist

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• What narrative journalism does is create a language or open up a space where someone can say, "Oh, this happened to me, too."

  Sarah Stillman

  Language

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• There is a danger in our modern practice of using embedded journalism. As there is less and less money available for journalism to uphold its independence, there is a temptation for people to take short cuts. If this army or that army or this corporation is willing to pay for your flight or your accommodation, then it's much more difficult to tell what the real story might be. I do have a concern about that.

  Stuart Franklin

  Real, Army, Cutting

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• I've always liked elliptical writing, whether it's Kafka or Paula Fox, and I'm often bored by writers who explain too much. I think that becomes journalism. Mostly I don't try to explain to readers who somebody is - I just write about the somebody. I'm thinking through ideas. And I have the sense that, if you're reading this, you have some interest.

  Lynne Tillman

  Reading, Writing, Thinking

  Interview with James Yeh, believermag.com. January 1, 2018.

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• I have a computational quality to my mind, I suppose. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with video games. I reprogrammed games, and this eventually landed me a column in a magazine. That's how I got into print journalism: writing about video games.

  David Mccandless

  Writing, Kids, Mind

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• I started moving into online work, and that exposed me to design and the impact it has on the flow, shape, and narrative of the story. This got me thinking that maybe this is a way of doing journalism, a way of telling stories and revealing patterns.

  David Mccandless

  Moving, Thinking, Design

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• Simplification seems to be the removal of objects for the goal of making a graphic as clean and uncluttered as possible. Whereas, with optimization, it feels like there's more intelligence in that. It maintains the usability, but tries to distill something down to its essence. But with some data-sets you have to be careful because, as with linear, print journalism, it's easy to shave off facts that don't quite fit the flow.

  David Mccandless

  Goal, Trying, Fit

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• As for journalism education, there are some terrifically exciting things going on in some schools. Others are struggling to adapt. Curriculum changes can be slow, by design. Yet there are arguably more dynamic minds, old and young, gravitating to teaching than ever before, both on the research and scholarly side and on the side of what is called "professional practice," a term that usually refers to experienced journalists without Ph.D's moving to the academy.

  Tom Rosenstiel

  Struggle, Moving, Teaching

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• I think what is happening is that Houthis and the Iranians have common interests, but there's very little good journalism that's been done to uncover the true extent of that relationship between the Houthis and Iran. But, obviously, I do think that they - they benefit from the rhetoric of the Houthis on the ground. But, also, they do have a connection, but not to the extent that is being covered in the media at the moment by describing them as a Shia militia backed by Iran. I think that's an overstatement.

  Safa Al Ahmad

  Thinking, Done, Common

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• I think the style Plimpton popularized - the dive-in, try-it-yourself journalism - is appealing and useful for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the value of an outsider's view into a little-known or misunderstood subculture. I tried to do the same thing with my book - tap into a pocket of American life that few people have any idea about, and tell the real, unvarnished truth about it in a way that was open-minded and authentic.

  Kevin Roose

  Real, Book, Thinking

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• Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is a form of service journalism. To be successful, I think it has to be a combination of a good story, it has to be funny, and it also needs to be packed with useful information.

  Ted Allen

  Eye, Successful, Thinking

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• It is the role of good journalism to take on powerful abusers, and when powerful abusers are taken on, there's always a bad reaction. So we see that controversy, and we believe that is a good thing to engage in.

  Julian Assange

  Powerful, Taken, Believe

  "Julian Assange: The man who played with fire". "Background Briefing" with Wendy Carlisle, www.abc.net.au. February 6, 2011.

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• You will always have partial points of view, and you'll always have the story behind the story that hasn't come out yet. And any form of journalism you're involved with is going to be up against a biased viewpoint and partial knowledge.

  Margaret Atwood

  Views, Stories, Viewpoints

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• Except for politics, no business is scrutinized more exhaustively than journalism.

  Russell Baker

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• Journalism was being whittled away by a Wall Street theory that profits can be maximized by minimizing the product.

  Russell Baker

  Wall, Profit, Theory

  "Goodbye to Newspapers?". Article by Russell Baker, www.nybooks.com. August 16, 2007.

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