Romano goes on to explain that series articles win prizes while stand-alone articles do not (Romano, 1986). This leads into the question posed in the title of this blog; does the press report the news or tell stories?
In looking back at articles that have won the Pulitzer Prize in journalism it is clear that the winning articles read more like a story rather than merely report the facts. The best of the best in journalism were the articles that spanned several pages, and dug deep into the human characteristics of the story.
One article in particular that stands out to me was Barry Siegel’s 2001 article called A Father's Pain, a Judge's Duty, and a Justice Beyond Their Reach (Siegel, 2001). I read this article over 6 years ago shortly after it won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in feature writing.
The article covers the story of a man named Paul who left his sleeping two-year old son in his running pickup in the mountains of Utah in October while he goes to scout the area for an upcoming hunting trip. Paul is gone for 45 minutes and when he returns his son is gone (Siegel, 2001).
The boy had apparently woken up and opened the door to the pickup and wandered off. Paul called the police and a six-day search for the missing child followed. During those 6 days temperatures in the mountains reached as low as 27 degrees Fahrenheit (JAMA, 2002). When the boy was found after the six-day search it was determined that he had died from exposure to the cold (Siegel, 2001). Paul stood trial for neglect and was convicted to serve only 30 days in jail because it was clear he had already suffered enough from the loss of his son. However Paul never served his jail time because he drove to the mountains near where his son had gone missing and shot and killed himself with his hunting rifle (Siegel, 2001).
Barry Siegel’s article does much more than cover the facts of the story that I have listed here. For starters the article is over 7,900 words long and reads like an emotional murder mystery. It begins the day Paul is supposed to start his jail time when the judge who sentenced him learns that Paul is nowhere to be found (Siegel, 2001).The judge’s first thoughts are that Paul has killed himself over the internal anguish of being responsible for his son’s death. The judge’s thoughts than turn to the memory of his own father’s death and how closely related the two incidents are (Siegel, 2001).
From here the article jumps backward in time to beginning of the story in October 2000, then jumps to a story from the judges background, and then back to the present, and then back into the past in elaborate interweaving of the tale (Siegel, 2001).
When I finished reading the article/story I wished that I could write like Barry Siegel. I was truly moved by his coverage of the complexity of the issues and the internal struggle of all parties involved and how masterfully the story was woven. The Pulitzer Prize website accurately describes the story as a “humane and haunting portrait of a man tried for negligence in the death of his son” (Pulitzer, 2002).
However, after reading Romano and Chomsky and watching Manufacturing Consent I now view the article in a different light. Why would a paper give 7,900 words to cover a story about the death of a child and his father? Is this the most newsworthy story, or is this just the story that will sell the most papers and win the best prizes?
Chomsky would argue that the article is a distraction from the real news going on in the world that the mass media simply wants to divert our attention (Achbar, Symansky, & Wintonick, 1992). Romano would say that the article is an effort for the newspaper to win prizes and gain prestige so that readers think that its stories are of greater value.
I agree with both Chomsky and Romano in this instance. The press is offering this story up because it knows that people like a good drama. The story will get lots of readers, and it will win the paper prizes making the paper appear to be a credible source for news even though the article that won the prize isn’t necessarily a newsworthy article.
I also think that none of this is the medias fault.
It is my fault and the millions of others who read the article and felt the same way I initially did. It was a compelling story. So compelling that I remember it 6 years after first reading it. I can’t say that for any other news article.
It is my fault that the newspaper printed the article because I am the one who liked it, and in order for the newspaper to survive it has to print articles people like to read. Only when I and the millions like me change our preference for what we want to read in a newspaper will the newspaper follow suit and change what it prints.
I believe this is the call from both Romano and Chomsky. It is a wake up call to the masses to shake off the drama laden and emotionally charged stories and instead demand real reporting of real issues from the news media.
Lets keep the drama out of the news and leave it to those who know drama best.
References
Achbar, Mark, Symansky, Adam, & Wintonick, Peter (Producers), &Achbar, Mark & Wintonick, Peter (Directors) (1992). Manufacturing Consent Noam Chomsky and the media [Motion picture]. Canada: Necessary Illusions Productions, Inc.
JAMA (2002). Hypothermia-Related Deaths—Utah, 2000, and United States, 1979-1998. Retrived November 21, 2008 from: http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/287/8/981.
Romano, Carlin (1986). What? The grizzly truth about bare facts. In Manoff and Schudson.
Siegel, Barry (2001, December 30). A Father's Pain, a Judge's Duty, and a Justice Beyond Their Reach [Electronic Version]. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 21, 2008 from: http://articles.latimes.com/2001/dec/30/news/mn-18995.
The Pulitzer Prizes (2002). The 2002 Pulitzer Prize Winners Feature Writing. Retrieved November 21, 2008 from: http://www.pulitzer.org/works/2002,Feature+Writing.
