Journalism 101: Good writing minus ego works best

Among a handful of people who helped me understand true meaning of putting pen to paper and dimensions of enquiry were professor H.Y Shara Pras at Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) in New Delhi (India), professor Elie Abel at Stanford University in California (USA) and a Swiss officer working with International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva. former were intellectual giants – first was a civil servant, journalist and media viser to Indian Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and Abel was a veteran American journalist who h served as Dean of Columbia School or journalism, worked with NBC and New York Times and shared a Pulitzer that ded to his many accomplishments.

first two were very different kinds of people but y h one striking thing in common. It was ir remarkable capacity to mentor and encour curious with rigour and a light hand. Judgment was rare (Abel was stern at times) and even more rare was any reference to ir work as examples or needless display of full strength of ir kwledge and experience.

Re everything, everything you can lay your hands on, even telephone books, flyers that land in your post box, Shara Pras would say. Your story is good when you can re it in print and own it next day, Abel told me once. Look beyond obvious – imagine what is and what is being told third told me. It also meant could I call my source back with conviction that I h t fiddled with trust.

third gentleman who must remain anymous shared an interesting piece of information with me 30 years ago. Whenever ICRC conducted prison visits, he said, team would always include an architect. Countries always hid prisoners during international visits and architects could tell which parts remained hidden. Most countries did t kw this ruse and subsequent visits would help ICRC to prod in directions that remained out of bounds. In or words, imagine dimensions and don’t settle for what is shown.

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Today techlogy and search engines have me all of above obsolete – or have y? Do we as journalists comprehend issues faster and write better? Does our kwledge grow because it’s all re at end of a ? answer is and problem is two-fold. One is pressure of techlogy that pushes newsrooms to work at speed of lighting. We in media live under illusion that if we submit data to techlogy companies y will tell us truth in areas as varied as ecomics to public health or even ro transport. Such is dependence on search engines that we have turned uncritical.

second has to do with incomprehension and shabby work wrapped in a by-line from word go. When your first story carries your name, second, third and all ors, sense of entitlement overtakes requirement of duty. Often, only fall back to cross check is techlogy. Sources, as required by good journalism fall by wayside – machine, is smarter than human being. In fact, simple principle of at least two independent sources per fact seems like a ridiculous exercise. I learnt recently that young journalists today do t re ir copy before sending it off to desk. y expect desk to do ir job. desk, in turn, looks to search engines for verifications and circle of illusion is complete.

As I look back on how words of Shara Pras, Abel, and ICRC officer helped me first as a journalist, n as a diplomat and later as he of my own company in Switzerland, one thing is clear. y were all rigorous, but rigour sprung t from a spot called ego but from a commitment, to be honest, to mselves and ir metier.

It is my view that if you cant imagine, your thinking capacity can be predictable. If you cant think, your creative and enquiry capacity is dented. If you cant imagine, think, create and enquire, chances are that when you write you risk being neir concise r crisp and certainly t cohesive. I have written often that langu matters because it influences thinking. If you don’t listen to yourself for a start and apply basic ethics to your work, how can you hope to reach out to ors?

se issues come up regularly as oxymoron that is “fake news” struts about as a giant that must be slayed diverting valuable time from journalists – time that can be put to better use by say, reing. In a recent conversation with Keshav who is a cartoonist for Hindu by profession and a painter by choice, we found ourselves heing back to same spot that is basic journalism training. That simply means capacity to re and write well in any langu. Yes, search engines are important tools but y cant give you your les, anchor and recall paragraphs (both journalist and machine fail here) and certainly t cohesion and clarity. Just like an artist imagines, enquires, creates and relentlessly pursues perfection, so do good journalists who refine mselves with words y string toger with relentless discipline so it becomes second nature. Wher it is investigation journalism, a commentary, prose or an editorial, standards are standards.

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Media is a many-splendored beauty if you understand craft and langu, yours for a start. Journalists, wher y are with print, rio, television or with web-based entities, are storytellers. In telling is conviction and cour. In cour is force of enquiry. And in enquiry is duty and respect towards audience, t a wild goose chase towards some imagined sense of power. Journalism is an excellent profession – keep ego out.