Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Techniques of internet journalism

By Evan Whitton - posted Wednesday, 4 January 2012


Who's doing the jokes?

My old master, Sol Chandler, observed that the first task of the reporter is to interest the customer. Lord Francis Williams put it this way: 'Newspapers exist to be read. If they fail in that essential, their failure is absolute, whatever other merits they may abundantly possess... The journalist is traditionally an entertainer; he must entertain or find another trade.'

Editorial conferences can thus be quite depressing. A few items on the menu will be inherently interesting, but there is never enough fun, either in life or the newspapers, and many events, or non-events, that must be covered offer little more than paralysing boredom. Still, the motions have to be gone through. For, say. a summit conference, the heavy artillery is wheeled up to take care of the implications for foreign policy, economics. trade, etc.

The editor knows in his heart that such matters are calculated to induce terminal catatonia in his non-specialist customer. So, peering gloomily through his binoculars at the serried ranks of reptiles in the news room, he will ask, if he is prudent: 'Who's doing the jokes?'

Advertisement

The term, it should be noted, is a catchall. It includes, certainly, jokes in the literal sense, if any such are happily available. but a good deal more. There are the insignificant details Chandler was always talking about, and you have to try to be the eyes, ears, nose etc. - for the interested customer who can't be present himself. The task in fact is impossible and one is thus usually uneasy about the product, not to mention the circumstances, and the logistics of getting the stuff into print.

In the way of things, the job occasionally fell to your correspondent, and most of the pieces in these pages are more or less in that vein. In spite of the problems of working in this mode, I still find it difficult to forgive Mr Richard Nixon for his failure, by throwing in the towel on 8 August 1974, to submit himself to the impeachment process; Max Suich had just assigned me to do the jokes at what promised to be quite a jolly event.

The earnest reporter saddled with the jokes job will naturally take some care with the first and last paragraphs: they may be all anyone reads. Alas, I felt quite pleased with only a couple. One was the echo - theft if you insist - of Grahame Greene's Le Troisieme Homme in the 'go first' to the Ryan piece.

'One Friday in February 1967, 1 got a letter from the man I saw hanged a week before. A fortnight later, the quinella got up: the hangman sent a carping letter.'
And the 'go last' to 'The Night of the Hearse':
'What does it say?' Peggy asked innocently.
'"WE PAID OFF THE COPS', Jack said, `by Evan Whitton,' "fucking mongrel bastard.".'

The art of the reptile

No one, except possibly Sol Chandler, has learned all there is to know about journalism, but the great thing is: anyone can play. No qualifications of any kind are needed: the basic mechanics of reporting can be learned in five minutes, of sub-editing in a day or two. Here are some technical notes on the pieces in this collection.

1. Neo-journalism.

Advertisement

American magazine reporters of the 1960s called it the new journalism, but since, so far as we know, it was invented by Caius Suetonius Tranquillus in about 120 AD neo-journalism seems more appropriate.

The method is simply to apply the techniques of fiction to works of non-fiction. As set out on pages 46 and 47 of Tom Wolfe's book on the subject, they are: scene-by-scene construction, lots of dialogue, and yards of description in the style of BaIzac or, come to that, Raymond Chandler.

Wolfe had a fourth technique: the third person point of view. You went back and interviewed the other people as to what they were thinking at the time. I never got round to this, but it ought to be possible with people who are not too uptight.

The methods can also be applied to a reconstruction of an event at which the reporter was not present.

2. Contextual (pattern) journalism.

There are two kinds of disclosure journalism: disclosure of a fact, and disclosure of a pattern. The method used in the latter was summed up by The Philadelphia Inquirer's Jim Steele: 'The challenge is to gather, marshal, and organise vast amounts of data already in the public domain, and see what it adds up to.'

Putting the data into a strict chronology of events seems to be the key. Due allowance has to be made for the post hoc fallacy: the first event does not necessarily cause the second. Even so, a pattern of sorts may emerge. As V. J. Carroll noted: 'Once you get the chronology right, everything falls into place.'

A straight chronology also permits a narrative, which is a kindness to the reader, and, so long as a joke is inserted every thirty paragraphs or so, he may be persuaded to struggle on through quite a long piece.

Scrabbling through all those yellowing files, mastering and marshalling all that material, and checking all those facts, requires a high threshold of boredom and some stamina, but the work should amount to a useful public service. If the art of journalism is getting it in, the art of politics is brazening it out: it is easier to brazen out one fact than a dozen. Dubious politicians are thus much encouraged by newspapers that meticulously report a new fact but never go back and put it into the context of previous facts.

This may lead to solipsism in the citizen: he may come to think he is the only one who vaguely remembers previous vilenesses. This feeling of being cut off, unsupported by a shared view, can lead to alienation, a condition notably present in some thoughtful Queensland citizens in the Bjelke-Petersen era.

If however the context is supplied, the citizen may perceive that thousands share the data, and this may happily cause a declension in his alienation, and an increase in the politician's terror, and this may even occasionally persuade him to do the right thing.

The contextual approach also allows the reporter to be quite late on a story: in the present writer's case, a couple of hundred years on Macarthur, sixty on Blamey, and, in a rare burst of almost up-to-datedness, only ten on Vietnam.

3. The Sketch.

In Fleet Street, this term usually refers to a jocular view of parliamentary proceedings, but the form can be extended to almost anything the reporter observes, and this is what the editor is looking for when he asks: 'Who's doing the jokes?'

The ideal length is about 750 words. Under relentless press of deadline, even the stone-cutter can manage this in a couple of hours.

The techniques available are elements of neo-journalism: a bit of description, dialogue, mood, atmosphere, analysis, comment, an insight if possible, and a joke or two. In seeking to match the tone with the material, the earnest sketchist will of course diligently study the great master of tone in the English language, G. Chaucer.

As opposed to pattern journalism, where the work seems to stretch on endlessly forever, the sketch thus supplies in its purest form what is supposed to be the charm, or drug, of journalism: every day new and bright, a fresh page, and amazing scenes about to happen before your very eyes...

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. All

Evan Whitton's most recent book is Our Corrupt Legal System: Why Everyone Is a Victim (Except Rich Criminals) (Bookpal 2010) Paperback: The Book Depository, Amazon; ebook: books.google.com.au/ebooks



Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

2 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Evan Whitton is a former reporter who became a legal historian after seeing how two systems dealt with the same criminal, Queensland police chief Sir (as he then was) Terry Lewis.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Evan Whitton

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Article Tools
Comment 2 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy