Death by Buffet
I personally really enjoy this personal style of writing. I especially enjoy it from someone who is obviously trying to get themselves established in an industry that I myself hope at some time to be in. More generally though I like the ‘real’ nature of this type of writing, the fact that it’s not framed in expert language or written in a way that says ‘I’m just saying what my media adviser has recommended’.
As I pointed out in class, I still believe that this is ‘Journalism’ though. I feel that the main role of journalism is to inform and educate its audience. By all means have aspects of entertainment in there but in my opinion the entertainment has to be a means by which to engage the audience in the process of informing and educating. Harley has, in this chapter, sought to paint an entertaining and informative picture of life in India as well as the life of a budding young foreign correspondent.
The other similar style of journalism that I listen to a lot is This American Life This program, to some extent, works on this first person premise. The whole idea of the program is story telling about topics that matter to Americans. The whole program revolves each week around a particular topic and a number of stories that in one way or another address that topic. The difference here is that the stories are told by someone who is effected by or was involved somehow in the issue. Although they are a guest, not the journalist, the story is told in their first person, there is no attribution, no expert opinion etc simply the guests understanding and opinion. The personal nature of the telling of these stories again raises that issue of first person opinion.
to be continued
