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NIEMAN REPORTS THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY VOL.56 NO.1 SPRING 2002 Five Dollars Nieman Narrative Journalism Conference of arc the narrative patience time curiosity thinking cinematically structure immersion read out loud authenticity sensory reporting metaphor facts what happens next ? seductive un folding wing walking butter of detail revealing moment pace mountain of information Women and Journalism: A United States Perspective “…to promote and elevate the standards of journalism” —Agnes Wahl Nieman, the benefactor of the Nieman Foundation. Vol. 56 No. 1 NIEMAN REPORTS Spring 2002 THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY Publisher Bob Giles Editor Melissa Ludtke Assistant Editor Lois Fiore Editorial Assistant Paul Wirth Design Editor Deborah Smiley Business Manager Cheryl Scantlebury Nieman Reports (USPS #430-650) is published Please address all subscription correspondence to in March, June, September and December One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2098 by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, and change of address information to One Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2098. P.O. Box 4951, Manchester, NH 03108. ISSN Number 0028-9817 Telephone: (617) 495-2237 Internet Address (Business): Second-class postage paid [email protected] at Boston, Massachusetts, and additional entries. Internet Address (Editorial): [email protected] POSTMASTER: Send address changes to WWW address: Nieman Reports, http://www.Nieman.Harvard.edu P.O. Box 4951, Manchester, NH 03108. Copyright 2002 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Subcription $20 a year, $35 for two years; add $10 per year for foreign airmail. Single copies $5. Back copies are available from the Nieman office. Vol. 56 No. 1 NIEMAN REPORTS Spring 2002 THE NIEMAN FOUNDATION FOR JOURNALISM AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY 4 Nieman Narrative Journalism Conference 6 Conference Introduction MARK KRAMER 7 Sharing the Secrets of Fine Narrative Journalism PANEL DISCUSSION 10 Conference Patricipants Whose Words Appear in This Issue 11 Writing About Ordinary Lives GAY TALESE 13 Reporting Differently MARK KRAMER 16 Interviewing Sources ISABEL WILKERSON 17 Finding Time to Write STEWART O’NAN Tips for 18 Editors and Reporters JACQUI BANASZYNSKI Reporters 20 ‘Reporting is the key to good journalism.’ STEVEN A. HOLMES and Editors 21 ‘Very few writers understand that a story has an arc, not just a beginning, a middle, and an end.’ JIM COLLINS 24 ‘Writing is all about rewriting, which means you’ve got to get something down.’ CHIP SCANLAN 25 ‘Don’t try to squeeze the dress of narrative over the wrong form.’ JACQUI BANASZYNSKI 26 A Bunch of Tips for Reporters 27 Tips for Editors 29 Reporters Read From Their Narrative Articles STEVEN A. HOLMES, ISABEL WILKERSON, TOM FRENCH, STAN GROSSFELD, RICK BRAGG 36 A Love Fest on Narrative Elements BRUCE DESILVA, CHIP SCANLAN, JON FRANKLIN 38 Writing in a Personal Voice EMILY HIESTAND 41 Why We Need Stories JACQUI BANASZYNSKI 43 Structuring Stories for Meaning JON FRANKLIN 45 Scenes, Suspense and Character ADAM HOCHSCHILD 47 Endings BRUCE DESILVA 48 Serial Narratives TOM FRENCH 51 Historical Writing and the Revival of Narrative JILL LEPORE 53 Conference Diary 59 Women and Journalism 60 A Pioneering Generation Marked the Path for Women Journalists BY CHRISTY C. BULKELEY 63 The Value of Women Journalists BY SUSAN E. REED 65 ‘The Girls in the Van’ BY BETH J. HARPAZ 67 Women Journalists See Progress, but Not Nearly Enough BY JODI ENDA 69 Redefining the ‘Private Lives’ of Public Officials BY FLORENCE GEORGE GRAVES 72 An Internet News Service Reports News and Views of Women BY RITA HENLEY JENSEN 75 Women Journalists Spurred Coverage of Children and Families BY JANE DAUGHERTY 78 Words & Reflections 79 What Does ‘Good Work’ in Journalism Look Like? BY JIM CAREY 81 Telling Stories on Radio, Just to Tell Them BY ANDREW SUSSMAN 83 Dangers Lie Beneath the Promise of the Internet BY KATIE KING 85 Examining the Vanishing Standards in Reporting BY ROBERT SHERRILL 87 Bias Among the Media BY PETER A. BROWN 89 ‘Monstrous Passions at the Core of the Human Soul…’ BY WILSON WANENE 91 Examining Religious Paths Into and Out of the Middle East BY DAVID B. GREEN 3 Curator’s Corner Threats to Press Freedom in Russia BY BOB GILES 93 Nieman Notes COMPILED BY LOIS FIORE 93 Documenting the Rhythms of Cuba BY DAVID TURNLEY 97 Class Notes 100 End Note A Nieman Year During Difficult Times BY RAMI G. KHOURI 2 Nieman Reports / Spring 2002 Curator’s Corner Threats to Press Freedom in Russia At a first-of-its-kind conference in Moscow, problems are exposed. By Bob Giles n Vladimir Putin’s Russia, a fear unknown since Soviet trolled by politicians. His point was reinforced by stories rule collapsed a decade ago has cast a chill over the from regional representatives. One editor told how four of Ifederation’s news media. his staffers were assassinated for stories critical of local It represents a stark reversal of the freedoms that began governments or the business community. A television execu- with the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev and the radical tive described a local campaign by the mayor of Yekaterinburg, changes in the early years of Boris Yeltsin’s presidency, when a city of 1.4 million, to take control of delivery of local a liberated press represented the brightest aspirations of the newspapers as a tactic to ensure sympathetic coverage. Russian people. Businessmen who possess wealth and power, and are Evidence of Putin’s desire to control the ownership of known as “oligarchs,” arrange publication of commissioned Russian media and the content of its independent news articles or “black PR.” An under-the-table fee goes to the organizations echoed through a two-day conference in Mos- journalist—and is sometimes shared with editor/owners— cow in early February. High on the agenda was the decision for an article praising a candidate for office or smearing a of state authorities to shut down TV6, an independent public figure. These stories typically are based on compro- network, and a move by a state-owned gas monopoly to take mising material that is obtained illegally and provided to over the board of an independent radio station, Echo of journalists. Moscow, that had given employment to the journalists who President Putin’s assurances that he favors freedom of the lost their jobs when TV6 was closed. press are increasingly discounted by evidence that an intol- These were coalescing influences that brought more than erance of criticism is driving his steely resolve to control the 300 newspaper editors, state television directors, indepen- media. This emerging reality had a powerful effect on the dent journalists, representatives of the regional Russian participants, prompting Vladimir Posner, a popular figure in press, and U.S. experts on Russia together in Moscow for a Russian television, to remark that the system may be demo- candid discussion of the threats to media freedom. It was the cratic but “the brains are still Soviet.” And the respected first time people in journalism from across the broad reaches television anchor, Yevgeni Kiselyov, said, “Fear has returned.” of this huge country had come together to discuss the hard The conference attracted extensive news coverage inside nature of their work and the growing recognition that the Russia and in the outside world, suggesting that the message regional press is now facing the same coercive powers of the will get through to Putin. The presence of U.S. Ambassador state as the media in Moscow. Alexander Vershbow on the program raised hopes that the The sponsors of the conference included the Davis Center issue of a free press in Russia will be on the agenda when for Russian Studies at Harvard, the Nieman Foundation, the Putin meets with President Bush in May. journalism faculty at Moscow State University, and a small, Marshall Goldman, associate director of the Davis Center liberal Russian political party, the Union of Right Forces and an inspirational force behind the conference, had been (SPS). The core partners were unsure about collaborating unsure what the meeting would yield. In its closing mo- with SPS because of its overtly political nature, explained ments he was enthusiastic. “Quite remarkable,” he said. “We Timothy Colton, director of the Davis Center, but “we came have never experienced this in Russia before. At least people to feel it was our best bet because the party truly cared about came together to talk about the issues. We heard how the issue, and they were willing to open the event to all.” difficult it is to be a journalist in the regions. This discussion Several villains of contemporary Russian journalism may not generate a free press but at least it will move us in showed up, including Minister of Mass Media, Mikhail Lesin; that direction.” Boris Jordan, director general of the independent network Goldman left the audience with two ideas he thought NTV, and television commentators who exposed themselves might provide something positive for the press. He urged to criticism from the podium and the audience for distorted the journalism department at Moscow State University to set reporting. up “substantial prizes to award and encourage good journal- Boris Nemtsov, head of SPS, a deputy prime minister ism in Russia, and to establish a national journal of commen- under Yeltsin and a man thought to have his own presiden- tary and criticism of the press.” tial ambitions, said the state of the regional press in Russia “Russia needs something to reward the press rather than is “acute” because the majority of publications are con- punish it,” he said. ■ Nieman Reports / Spring 2002 3 Nieman Narrative Journalism Conference On a late fall weekend in 2001, the Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism convened its first conference.