THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS Literary jourNAl i s m
VOL 2 NO 2 INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR LITERARY JOURNALISM STUDIES SPRING 2008
MONEY WHAT WE HAVE ALL “thanks” to Alice Trindade and Isabel Santos, MATTERS this year’s conference organizers, for their hard IALJS members are gently reminded ACCOMPLISHED work, and to everyone at the Instituto Superior that, if you have not already done so, de Ciências Sociais e Políticas, Universidade your annual dues for 2008 are now Looking back on two years Técnica de Lisboa for agreeing to host us this due. If needed please see Page 23 for of sustained success. May. our membership form. Moreover, for On another professional note, the Lisbon attendees, the pre-registration By John Bak, Nancy 2 (France) IALJS-sponsored panel, “Literary Journalism deadline is 31 March 2008. Please see and the Canon,” which will be held at the Ninth Page 3 for the registration form. t is with great joy and a little bit of sadness International Conference of the European that I write this latest “President’s Letter.” Society for the Study of English in Denmark at First, though, the joy. the University of Aarhus (22-26 August 2008), is FUTURE SITES Lisbon is fast approaching, and the pro- taking shape nicely. Norm Sims and John FOR ANNUAL Iposals for IALJS 3 have surpassed everyone’s Hartsock have agreed to participate, and there hopes and expectations. IALJS is now, officially, a is still room for other speakers. If you’d like to TheCONFERENCES following future IALJS convention six-continent (and a twenty-something-country) participate in the panel, please contact David venues have been confirmed or are association, with new members and conference Abrahamson and myself as soon as possible. under consideration. For more info, proposals reaching You can find out more about the conference and please see
PAGE 1 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
IALJS ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN LISBON An ambitious program and celebrated speakers. By Alice Donat Trindade, TU-Lisbon (Portugal)
he 2008 IALJS Conference “Literary good news is that they originate from sciences such as Journalism: Theory, Practice, various countries, and so promise a Media Studies. Pedagogy,” scheduled for 15, 16 variety of approaches, subject matter Thursday will and 17 May at ISCSP, Lisbon, will be the and national specificities. also have other TThird International Conference for The convention program morning sessions, Literary Journalism Studies. Western cul- would not be complete if there wasn’t a followed by Prof. ture tends to view the number “3” as a keynote speaker, and this year, in fact, Connery’s keynote figure of symbolic meaning, often sug- Professor Thomas Connery has agreed speech at noon. gesting things that are complete. In our to honour us with his presence. He is an The institute has case that is not authority in literary journalism and its own cafeteria JOÃO BILHIM altogether true, edited one of the early and seminal that serves lunch at as our third con- works on American literary journalism: affordable prices (about 5 Euros) and ference still A Sourcebook of American Literary light meals and snacks throughout the finds IALJS in Journalism: Representative Writers in an day. Apart from sessions taking place in building mode, Emerging Genre (Greenwood, 1992). A the mornings and afternoons, some time with this event senior faculty member of the will be devoted to informal, social meet- representing but ings. There will be a conference dinner on another piece in Friday, May 16 and a tram tour through our efforts to We hope old Lisbon on afternoon of Saturday, May create a strong the conference will 17. Please be sure international meet the to confirm your society. expectations of all the reservation for CONVENTION The organi- these events when UPDATE zational model participants you register. adopted in We hope Sciences Po in the conference will Paris last year meet the expecta- will be retained, as it proved to be able to tions of all the par- encompass both researchers and practi- Department of Comunication and ticipants, those tioners’ interests in one single event. Journalism at the University of St. who were at previ- Thus, there will be three different types of Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, he ous meetings of the TOM CONNERY sessions: panels, research papers and teaches Literary Journalism, Mass association as well as works-in-progress/poster sessions. Two Communication and Society, and Media those who are now joining us. At a time of the panels focus on instructional mat- Ethics — and also served as Dean of his when instantaneous technology makes ters and will hopefully foster the ongoing university’s College of Arts and global communication possible, it is good debate on these issues that concern most Sciences from 1998 to 2006. His back- to remember that this type of conference members and attendants who, in many ground also includes working for vari- allows for sharing on a more personal cases, are involved in both the teaching ous newspapers, the Associated Press level. And it reminds us of the power— o and practice of literary journalism. A and writing for magazines and pleasure—of meeting eye to eye. third panel will address issues related to The official first day of the con- short-form literary journalism. ference, Thursday May 15, will open Participants have contributed a with a welcome speech by our Director, considerable number of abstracts and the Professor João Bilhim, whose support and enthusiasm enabled the association Literary Journalism to request that ISCSP-TULisbon host Spring 2008 Vol 2 No 2 this year’s meeting. Facilities, audio- Editors: Bill Reynolds and David Abrahamson visual equipment and overall support ISSN 1941-1030 (print) ISSN 1941-1049 (online) will be provided by the institute, which © 2008 The Newsletter of the International Association has several undergraduate and post- for Literary Journalism Studies. All rights reserved. graduate programs in areas of the social
PAGE 2 LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
2008 IALJS CONVENTION REGISTRATION FORM 15-17 May 2008 Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
Please indicate 1.a. PRE-REGISTRATION FEES (MUST BE POSTMARKED ON OR BEFORE 31 MARCH 2008) the applicable amounts: IALJS Member – $100 / 70 Euros IALJS Member Retired – $80 / 55 E Student with research paper on program – free Student without paper on program – $50 / 35 E (Includes a one-year IALJS membership) Non-IALJS member – $140 / 100 E (Includes a one-year IALJS membership) Spouse – $35 / 25E (This fee is required only if a spouse will be attending scheduled research sessions and/or panels)
1.b. REGISTRATION FEES POSTMARKED AFTER 31 MARCH 2008 (Note: Meals & special events may not be available to those who register after 31 March 2008)
IALJS Member – $130 / 90 Euros IALJS Member retired – $110 / 75 E Student with research paper on program – $30 / 20 E Student without paper on program – $80 / 55 E (Includes a one-year IALJS membership) Non-IALJS member – $170 / 115 E (Includes a one-year IALJS membership) Spouse – $65 / 45E (This fee is required only if a spouse will be attending scheduled research sessions and/or panels)
1.c. ON-SITE REGISTRATION – $155 / 105 Euros (Note: Meals & special events may not be available to those who register on site)
2. SPECIAL EVENTS: Please indicate the number of meals required next to each item below Number of meals needed: Regular Vegetarian Scholars Breakfast (Friday) Number attending x $15 / 10 E Conference Banquet (Friday) Number attending x $45 / 30 Euros Sightseeing Tour (Saturday, 14.15 to 17.15) Number attending x $45 / 30 E Make registration checks payable to “IALJS” TOTAL ENCLOSED:
Please return completed form BILL REYNOLDS, IALJS Treasurer For a reservation at with a check or bank transfer School of Journalism, Ryerson University the convention hotel in Lisbon, payable to “IALJS” to 350 Victoria St. contact: Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3 CANADA HOTEL TIVOLI TEJO Payments may also be made via 01-416-979-5000 x6294 IALJS Confirmation No. 74.383, Room rate: 105 Euros PayPal. Please see "IALJS [email protected] Phone: +351-218-915-100, Fax: +315-218-915-345 Payments" at www.ialjs.org E-mail: [email protected]
3. REGISTRATION INFO Name: Address/Department School City, State, Zip Country E-mail Address Name of Spouse (if attending)
LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 PAGE 3
Continued on next page THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
THE HUNDRED YEARS OF SUCCESS OF OUR HOST SCHOOL Like the UT-Lisbon, the ISCSP institute has a speical mission. By Isabel Soares Santos, TU-Lisbon (Portugal)
he Technical University of Lisbon (TUL) is one of the largest and most prestigious public higher education institutions in Portugal. With an annual Tbudget of 170 million euros, we have about 18,800 students in graduate pro- grams attend-
ing our seven ABOVE, THE MAIN BUILDING OF THE colleges: ISCSP INSTITUTO SUPERIOR DE CIÊNCIAS SOCIAS E (Institute for in most pedagogic, scholarly and POLÍTICAS WAS OPENED IN 2001. Social and administrative matters, while the Political Reitoria, located at the beautiful ing of its own, the first lectures were held Sciences), IST Centeno Palace dating from the late 17th at the Geographical Society, and then (Institute of century, acts as our common representa- later the school was given more adequate HOST Engineering), tive body. premises at the Burnay Palace. In 1948, FA (Faculty of Recently a modern campus together with the courses in Colonial COMMITTEE Architecture), was built in the lovely Monsanto Administration and Colonial Studies, the FMV (Faculty woods, facing the mouth of the Tejo and institute pioneered the study of of Veterinary Sociology, Political Science and Medicine), FMH (Faculty of Human International Relations in Portugal. In the Kinetics), ISA (Institute of Agricultural 1960s, renowned names in the social sci- Sciences) and ISEG (Institute of After the ences such as Pierre Bourdieu and Economics and Management). We also 1974 Revolution, the institute Adriano Moreira supervised the courses provide postgraduate programs in all the set aside its colonial taught at the faculty. In addition, scientific fields offered by the university’s designation and adopted its Anthropology was established as another faculties and gladly host numerous acade- of the fields of research and teaching. mic conventions and conferences such as current name After the Revolution in 1974, the the one which is being held by the institute set aside its former colonial des- International Association for Literary ignation and adopted the current name: Journalism Studies. Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Founded in 1930, the Technical Políticas. In the 2001-2002 school year we University of Lisbon was created in order the National Palace of Ajuda. It houses left the old Burnay Palace to a more spa- to join together four disperse institutes in ISCSP, FA, FMV and other infrastruc- the fields of Veterinary Medicine, tures such as the university’s restaurant, Continued on next page Agronomy, Engineering and Economics. the canteen and a gym. Our state-of-the- In 1961 it was enlarged a first time to art facilities are among the best in the include ISCSP. In 1976 we were joined by country and are perfectly equipped for Human Kinetics, and in 1979 the universi- teaching and research activities, as well ty got its present configuration when as for the holding of international con- Architecture ventions and other related events. was added ISCSP recently had its centen- to our nial, and it is the oldest of all of the ranks. Technical University’s colleges. Because Despite our Portugal was once an imperial nation university with vast overseas territories in Africa status, each and South America, ISCSP was initially faculty created in 1906 as the Colonial School to enjoys great train top administrative public officials autonomy to serve in the colonies. Without a build-
PAGE 4 LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
HOST SCHOOL Continued from previous page A number of cycle” doctorate degrees in areas such as CONFERENCE SCHEDULE SUMMARY IALJS members Political Science, History of Social Facts, WORK OF and friends Wednesday, 14 May 2008 Public Administration, Social and INTEREST Economic Development, and Cultural have interesting Session 0 15.00 – 17.00 Executive Committee Meeting work that is 19.00 – ? Informal drinks and dinner Anthropology. In addition, ISCSP has a long either recently published or in press. A Thursday, 15 May 2008 tradition in postgraduate programs that modest but heartfelt celebration of their Session 1 9.00 – 9.30 Welcome and Introduction include Regional and Local Administra- scholarly accomplishments follows. Session 2 9.30 – 10.30 Poster/Work-in-Progress Session I tion, Urban and Environmental Planning Kathy Roberts Forde (Minnesota, U.S.A.) Session 3 10.45 – 11.45 Research Paper Session I Law, Communication and Political • Session 4 12.00 – 12.45 Keynote Speech had a journal article, "Discovering the Marketing, Islamic Studies and Television Lunch 12.45 – 14.15 Explanatory Report in American Session 5 14.15 – 15.15 Panel I Production. To help faculty, students and Newspapers," published in Journalism Session 6 15.30 – 16.30 Poster/Work-in-Progress Session II researchers, ISCSP has a Language Session 7 16.45 – 17.45 Research Paper Session II Center, an IT Center, an IT Training Practice (1:2, June 2007). Session 8 18.00 – 19.00 Executive Committee Meeting Richard Keeble (Lincoln, UK) has an 19.00 – ? Informal drinks and dinner • introductory essay, “On Journalism, Friday, 16 May 2008 Our new Creativity and the Imagination,” in a schol- Breakfast 8.00 – 8.45 Scholars’ Breakfast (optional) modern building is set arly anthology entitled The Journalistic Session 9 9.00 – 10.00 Panel II Imagination: Literary Journalists from Session 10 10.15 – 11.15 Poster/Work-in-Progress Session III in the quiet Session 11 11.30 – 12.30 Research Paper Session III Defoe to Capote to Carter, he has edited Lunch 12.30 – 14.15 of the beautiful Monsanto with Sharon Wheeler (Routledge, Session 12 14.15 – 15.15 Poster/Work-in-Progress Session IV Session 13 15.30 – 16.30 President’s Address and woods September 2007), $33.95. Annual Business Meeting Jan Whitt (Colorado, U.S.A.) has a jour- • Party 16.45 – 18.00 Conference Reception nal article, "From The Jungle to Food Lion: Dinner 19.00 – ? Conference Banquet The History Lessons of Investigative Saturday, 17 May 2008 Center and a multi-thousand volume Journalism," in press at Journalism History Session 14 9.00 – 10.00 Panel III library. Research aggregators such as (34:2, August 2008). It is part of a celebra- Session 15 10.15 – 11.15 Research Paper Session IV JStor are also available. tion of the 100th anniversary of the publi- Session 16 11.30 – 12.30 Closing Convocation This May we will be hosting the Lunch 12.30 – 14.15 cation of Upton Sinclair’s masterpiece enti- Tour 14.15 – 17.15 Lisbon Tour annual meeting of the International tled "The Jungle at 100: A Century of the 19.00 – ? Informal drinks and dinner Association for Literary Journalism Journalism of Reform.” Studies in the quiet atmosphere of the Tom Connery (St. Thomas, U.S.A.) has a Monsanto woods while the bustle of • scholarly article, ""Fiction/Nonfiction and semester activities are still in progress. Sinclair's The Jungle: Drinking from the cious and modern building at the new We hope to see you very soon and hope Same Well," that is also forthcoming in campus in Monsanto, where we now are you enjoy your coming visit to ISCSP. o able to welcome our more than 2,000 stu- Benvindos! Journalism History (34:2, August 2008). Jim Boylan (Massachusetts, Amherst, dents. • ISCSP specialises in the social U.S.A.) has a research article, "The Long and political sciences, and currently we and the Short of The Jungle," which will offer seven “first-cycle”graduate courses: also be published in Journalism History International Relations, Political Science, (34:2, August 2008). Sociology, Communication Studies, David Abrahamson, (Northwestern, • Anthropology, Public Administration U.S.A.) also has a contribution. "An and Social Service. We also offer “sec- Inconvenient Legacy: The Jungle and the ond-cycle”master’s degrees in Public Immigrant Imperative," that will also Policy and Management, Sociology of appear in Journalism History (34:2, August Organizations and Work, Media Studies, African Studies and International 2008). Relations. And we also confer “third-
LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 PAGE 5 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
International Association for Literary Journalism Studies IALJS 3 CONFERENCE PROGRAM
“Literary Journalism: Theory, Practice, Pedagogy” The Third International Conference for Literary Journalism Studies
Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (TULisbon) Lisbon, Portugal 15–17 May 2008
Thursday, 15th May 2008
Session 1 9.00 – 9:30 Introduction and Welcome
John S. Bak (I.D.E.A., Nancy-Université, France) João Bilhim, Director, ISCSP (Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Portugal)
Session 2 9.30 – 10.30 Poster/Work-in-Progress Session I
Session Title: “Literary Journalism: Process and Prospect”
(NOTE: Poster Presentations are 10 minutes each)
Moderator: Sam G. Riley (Virginia Tech, University U.S.A.)
1. David Abrahamson (Northwestern University, U.S.A.), “Memento Vivere: Lessons” 2. Douglas Whynott (Emerson College, U.S.A.), “Observations on Nonfiction Book Structures” 3. Mike Doherty (Post-doctoral fellow, The London Consortium, U.K.), “‘Being in the World’: Fiction Writers and Literary Journalism after 9/11” 4. Nathalie Collé (I.D.E.A., Nancy-Université, France), “Literary Journalism and the French Concours” 5. Sharon Norris (Roehampton University, U.K.), “Schindler’s Ark or Schindler’s List: Fact, Fiction or Both”
Q&A – 10 minutes total
Session 3 10.45 – 11.45 Research Paper Session I
Session Title: “Literary Journalism’s Role in Contemporary National Traditions”
(NOTE: Research Paper Presentations are 15 minutes each)
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Moderator: Isabel Santos (Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Portugal)
1. Beate Josephi (Edith Cowan University, Australia), Christine Müller (BiTS, Germany), “Eyewitness or Foreign Eyes? Differences Between German and Australian Literary Journalism” 2. Jane Johnston (Griffith University, Australia), “Inside ‘Inside Story’: Literary Journalism Meets Investigative Reporting — A Case Study” 3. Bill Reynolds (Ryerson University Canada), “Like a Novella: The Golden Age of Canadian Literary Journalism”
Q&A – 15 minutes total
Session 4 12.00 – 12.45 Keynote Speech
Introduction: David Abrahamson (Northwestern University, U.S.A.)
Keynote: Tom Connery (University of St. Thomas, U.S.A.),
“Literary Journalism's Critique of Conventional Journalism: Historical Origins and Contemporary Issues”
Q&A – 15 minutes total
Lunch 12.45 – 14.15
Session 5 14.15 – 15.15 Panel I
Panel Title: “Teaching Literary Journalism: As Writing”
Moderator: Alice Trindade (Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Portugal)
Susan Greenberg (Roehampton University, U.K.) Paulo Moura (Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, Portugal) Bill Reynolds (Ryerson University, Canada) Patsy Sims (Goucher College, U.S.A.)
Q&A – 15 minutes total
Session 6 15.30 – 16.30 Poster/Work-in-Progress Session II
Session Title: “Literary Journalism’s Sustaining National Themes”
Moderator: Edvaldo Lima (Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil)
1. Douglas O. Cumming (Washington and Lee University, U.S.A.), “Desperate Southern Gentlemen: Expatriates of the South in New Journalism of the 1960s” 2. Chen Peiqin (Shanghai International Studies University, China), “Social Movements and Chinese Literary Reportage” 3. Ömer Özer (Anadolu University, Turkey), “An Analysis of the Importance of
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LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 PAGE 7 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
Interviews regarding the Interviews of Augusto Pinochet and Cengiz Israfil” 4. Leonora Flis (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia), “Louis Adamic – Slovenian- American Journalistic Voice of a New, Democratic Post-WW II Europe”
Q&A – 20 minutes total
Session 7 16.45 – 17.45 Research Paper Session II
Session Title: “The Political Dimensions of Literary Journalism”
Moderator: Viviane Serfaty (Université de Marne-la-Vallée, France)
1. Steve Guo (Hong Kong Baptist University, China), Ye Lu (Fudan University, China), “Between the Lines: Literary Reporting and the Margin of Legitimacy in China” 2. Isabelle Meuret (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium), “On the Campaign Trail: Five Characters in Search of Change” 3. Anthony Lake (Fatih University, Turkey), “E. M. Foster’s Wartime Journalism and Death of Liberal Humanist England”
Q&A – 15 minutes total
Session 8 18.00 – 19.00 Executive Committee Meeting (if needed)
19.00 – ? Informal drinks and dinner
Friday, 16th May 2008
Breakfast 8.00 – 8.45 Scholar’s Breakfast (per reservation)
Session 9 9.00 – 10.00 Panel II
Panel Title: “Teaching Literary Journalism: As Literature”
Moderator: David Abrahamson (Northwestern University, U.S.A.)
John Kenny (National University of Ireland – Galway, Ireland) Jenny McKay (University of Stirling, U.K.) Norman Sims (University of Massachusetts – Amherst, U.S.A.) Alice Trindade (Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Portugal)
Q&A – 15 minutes total
Session 10 10.15 – 11.15 Poster/Work-in-Progress Session III
Session Title: “The Historical Origins in Literary Journalism”
Moderator: Patsy Sims (Goucher College, U.S.A.)
1. Hasan Baktir (Erciyes University, Turkey), “Interpreting the Development of
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Periodical-Persona of The Spectator (1711) in 18th-Century English Literature in the Context of East-West Interaction” 2. Maria Leonor Sousa (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal), “The Diffusion of British Culture Through Portuguese Periodicals” 3. Maria do Céu Marques (Universidade Aberta, Portugal), “John dos Passos: A Chronicler of the Twentieth Century” 4. Marius-Adrian Hazaparu (University of Iasi, Romania), “Entertainment Elements in the Romanian Literary Reportage of the Inter-War Period”
Q&A – 20 minutes total
Session 11 11.30 – 12.30 Research Paper Session III
Session Title: “Biographical Interpretations of Literary Journalism”
Moderator: Norman Sims (University of Massachusetts – Amherst, U.S.A.)
1. Ginger Carter Miller (Georgia College & State University, U.S.A.), Randy Miller, (University of South Florida, U.S.A.), “More than a Curious Footnote: The Literary Journalism Odyssey of Ralph Ginzburg and Eros Magazine” 2. Gonzalo Saavedra (Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile), “Quote That Voice! Quotations and the Making of a Narrator in Literary Nonfiction”
Q&A – 15 minutes total
Lunch 12.30 – 14.15
Session 12 14.15 – 15.15 Poster/Work-in-Progress Session IV
Session Title: “Types and Genres of Literary Journalism”
a. Moderator: John Kenny (National University of Ireland – Galway, Ireland)
1. Sharon Norris, Melanie McGrath (Roehampton University, U.K.), “‘Unreliable Memoirs?’ The Rewards and Challenges of Teaching Memoir in an Aacademic Context to Non-Specialists” 2. Joshua Roiland (Saint Louis University, U.S.A.), “Reclaiming Authority: Salvador’s Disillusion with Official Sources and Solutions” 3. Maria João Ferreira (Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Portugal), “It's Closure Time in the Gardens of the West: Politics of (In) Security and Risk. Politicization Discourse Through the Lenses of Susan Sontag’s Literary Journalism” 4. John S. Bak (I.D.E.A., Nancy-Université, France), “Sez Who? Sez Mike: Royko, Literary Journalism and Chicagoese”
Q&A – 20 minutes total
Session 13 15.30 – 16.30 President’s Address and Annual Business Meeting/Election
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LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 PAGE 9 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
Party 16.45 – 18.00 Conference Reception
Dinner 19.00 – ? Conference Banquet
Saturday, 17th May 2008
Session 14 9.00 – 10.00 Panel III
Session Title: “Short-Form Literary Journalism: Testing the Boundaries”
Moderator: Tom Connery (University of St. Thomas, U.S.A.)
John Hartsock (SUNY Cortland, U.S.A.) Sam G. Riley (Virginia Tech University, U.S.A.) Viviane Serfaty (Université Paris – Est, France) Jenny McKay (University of Stirling, U.K.)
Q&A – 15 minutes total
Session 15 10.15 – 11.15 Research Paper Session IV
Session Title: “Literary Journalism: Its Sources and Outcomes”
Moderator: John Hartsock, (SUNY Cortland, U.S.A.)
1. Isabel Santos (Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Portugal), “South: Where Travel Meets Literary Journalism” 2. William Dow (Université de Valenciennes and the American University of Paris, France), “Class Representation and the Politics of Impersonality in James Agee's ‘Saratoga’ and ‘Havana Cruise’” 3. Robert Alexander (Brock University, Canada), “Fabricators Atone: Michael Finkel’s True Story and the Literary Journalism of Repair”
Q&A – 15 minutes total
Session 16 11.30 – 12.30 Closing Convocation
David Abrahamson (Northwestern University, U.S.A.)
Lunch 12.30 – 14.15
Tour 14.15 – 17.15 Lisbon Tour
Farewell 19.00 – ? Informal drinks and dinner
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PAGE 10 LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
ADVENTURES IN EDITING FOR NARRATIVE Decision-making in the process of creating literary journalism. By Bill Reynolds, Ryerson (Canada)
n an episode of The Wire from last sea- fronted with a lengthy manuscript, an required research, but what she hadn’t son, Detective Shakima “Kima” Greggs editor is faced with numerous directions done is organize her work into discrete (Sonja Sohn) is transferred from Major the narrative can take. sections. As Fulford would say, in maga- Crimes Unit to homicide, where she’s First and foremost in an editor’s zine writing, get in, say it once, move to Inever worked before. In this much-lauded mind is structure. As our colleague Mark the next section. For example, don’t intro- HBO police drama, set in Baltimore, Massé mentioned last issue, getting the duce minor characters in one section, then Maryland, Kima was working wiretaps story’s narrative arc figured out makes abandon them, then reintroduce them until upper management shut down her the task of producing excellent literary later. Generally, don’t repeat yourself. special investigations. Her unit discov- journalism less formidable. One of struc- Now, to contradict myself slight- ered that some ture’s initial pitfalls is how to section off a ly, there might be situations where a of the mayor’s story into constituent parts. One of writer wants the reader to double back. powerful Canada’s most celebrated magazine jour- One is when the narrative is so complicat- friends had nalists, Robert Fulford, called this “the ed that the best way for the reader to engaged in ille- stray animals problem.” Think of each understand it is to tell it once, then go gal activity. section of a magazine piece—the lead back and tell it again, the second time in All the men scene, the theme set-up and theme state- much more detail and with much more in homicide scrutiny. The story would be written like give Kima a an aircraft making a second pass, or a sec- rough ride, haz- ond wave of surf crashing to shore. ing and intimi- An editor’s Another exception, in medias res, dating her upon first job is to corral all is more common: Beginning a film or arrival. Then the animals, piece of literary journalism in mid-story, THE CREATIVE she’s thrust onto returning each to their then retreating to the beginning, then PROCESS an important chronologically telling the story of how case involving a own cages we got to the lead scene, then moving murdered state beyond the lead scene to the end. This witness—the thinking being she’s too structure is regularly used to great effect much of a rookie to solve the crime. Told for the simple reason that it works. It not to go hard on solving the mystery, at ment, the background history, the current grabs the reader and pulls her in. least until after the civic election, she issue at hand, other telling scenes, the Here are five stories I’ve worked reluctantly complies. Eventually she will counter-theme, the concluding wrap-up on recently, either as an editor or a writer go hard, though. She visits the crime or final scene—as an animal in the zoo. (or both), which I’ll treat as case studies. scene and is able to reconstruct the mur- Often what happens in early drafts is the Each example, I hope, will show how edi- der in her mind by following the trajecto- lions get out of their pen and start min- tors make crucial decisions on narrative. ries of various bullet ricochets. She real- gling with the grizzly bears, and the For example, this year, in the senior level izes the fatal bullet might have come from tigers start visiting the giraffe pen. An course I’m teaching, I’ve acted as han- a different direction, a house down an editor’s first job is to corral all the ani- dling editor on a profile of a man named alley. She realizes someone had been mals, putting the lions back in the lion Fred Kuntz, who about a year ago took shooting bottles for target practice. A cages and the tigers back in the tiger the reins as editor-in-chief of the Toronto stray bullet felled the state witness. When cages. For example, background history is Star, Canada’s largest daily newspaper. Kima returns to the station with a slug not appropriate to a scene building My student’s profile, which was signed that matches the corpse’s, she says, “Soft toward a conclusion, or a scene showing off at 5,500 words, was designed to show- eyes.” proof of theme is not useful to a history case what all profiles must do—the While I make no claim to being section. Case in point: last year I was writer’s theory of the subject. as good a detective as Kima, the mental asked to take over a feature by one of my Profiles are almost always about make-up of her character, the kind of students. She was working on her fifth what makes a person tick. In Kuntz’s problem-solving techniques she uses to draft and was exceptionally frustrated. case, he was a 19-year veteran of the extrapolate and make leaps of judgment, One look over her 5,000-word draft and I Toronto Star before he was lured away to are not dissimilar to the kind of thinking could tell why. There were no discrete its cross-town rival, a nationally distrib- required by editors when editing long- sections. All the information she needed form magazine narratives. When con- was there. She obviously had done the Continued on next page
LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 PAGE 11 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
EDITING Continued from previous page
uted newspaper called The Globe and Mail. the integration of the Internet into the were well known in their own country, He made many changes in a short period newsroom. I saw this story not so much but never nearly as successful in the ten of time, then moved again, this time to as a profile of a man facing the perpetual times larger U.S. market. At the point of act as publisher at a smaller, regional crisis of our time in journalism—how to writing the story, 54•40 was no longer paper called The Record in Kitchener- deal with the World Wide Web—but as a signed to Sony, a major multinational Waterloo, Ontario. Finally, he returned to metaphor for the newspaper industry’s record corporation. Instead, it made do the Toronto Star as editor-in-chief. bewildered and often flailing response to releasing recordings on small, indepen- So, is this story the return of the the crisis. dent labels. prodigal son? Maybe, but how much can In this story I also turned to the Osborne’s group did have a new be made of this fact, and whether or not subject’s other passion—running. It turns recording to flog, but, to return to the Kuntz could actually be seen as a wan- out Cox is a long-distance runner. We sent boring-angle part, I didn’t want the story dering spirit is suspect. One thing became a photographer to shoot him in his bright to be about the new music. I wanted to clear though. Everywhere Kuntz went, red, winter tracksuit. With all the new ini- turn the theme of the story around, and change happened, and happened quickly. tiatives to integrate the Internet into his here’s why. I was talking to my editor So maybe Kuntz is the hit man, the guy news gathering operation, Cox hopes about Osborne. We both had fond memo- who comes in and shakes things up. he’s not simply running on a treadmill ries of 54•40 playing our university cam- Eventually, my writer found out but rather running to a destination. We pus in the early 1980s. We became fasci- that Kuntz loves to paint. His father had also wanted to thread in the notion that nated: What drives a man to do the same been a printer, and the whole family drew newspaper executives are running in fear thing he’s been doing for 25 years, to pictures together for relaxation. Then the diminishing returns? To put it another writer found out that Kuntz prefers way, Osborne’s two daughters were acrylic-based paint to oil-based paint. It couldn’t be almost university age. It was possible to Why? Because, he says, oil takes too long a profile because that would imagine 54•40 playing a freshmen week to dry. Acrylic has the advantage of dry- have been boring. concert with one of his daughters in the ing quickly. If you don’t like what you’ve audience. just painted, well, you can paint over it! I had to find a fresh way to So, why not write use the artist’s We began to see that Kuntz’s tell the story mid-life crisis for a theme? There is only managerial methods—his brash, bold, one problem: It is generally forbidden to outspoken style—was an extension of his discuss age in the entertainment industry. personality, and had been since he was a Osborne’s record company publicist flatly boy of six or seven having trouble hold- refused to sanction any interview about ing a paint brush. In the end we decided of irrelevance and will try just about any growing old, let alone allowing the to precede the opening scene of the story, outlandish initiative to stanch reader loss- “hanging out” time required to do such a which takes place in one of the Toronto es. So what seems like a profile of Cox is story. Instead, I went to Osborne directly. Star’s editorial meeting rooms, with actually a portrait of a newspaper. Cox is I told him I wanted to ask questions I Kuntz’s thoughts on painting. The way he certainly the emissary of change, but the didn’t know whether he or I had any moves paint turns out to be the way he newspaper becomes the symbol for an good answer to: Why do you play music moves people. entire industry being shaken to its foun- any more? What’s in it for you? You’ve Also, we decided to end the dations. done it all, why do you need more? Is it piece with the writer being taken for a Another example of a profile not possible to approach this job—particular- guided “art tour” of the Kuntz home. being a profile is a story I wrote a couple ly this job so associated with youth— Every room seemed to have at least one of years ago. It couldn’t be a profile, I from an older perspective and still find Kuntz painting in it. Then we end the decided, because that would have been satisfaction? Osborne, being a thoughtful piece with: “I don’t know what else to boring. In other words, I felt I had to find person, said, “These are all good ques- show you—that’s my art,” hoping the a fresh way to tell an old story. tions.” Osborne entrusted me with pri- reader picks up on the inference that for The tale hung on a man named vate information and said, “Use your dis- Kuntz handling paint and handling peo- Neil Osborne, who at the time was a 45- cretion.” ple are synonymous activities. year-old Canadian rock star based in the I was over the first hurdle, A second story I handled this Vancouver area. Osborne had led the which was access, when a second major year was about another senior newspaper same band, called 54•40, since his late stumbling block appeared. In the course executive, this time Bob Cox, publisher of high school years. In fact, the group was of our long, wide-ranging interview, I The Winnipeg Free Press. Cox had been celebrating its silver anniversary. They’d asked Osborne what had happened to his hired two years previously as editor-in- had much success in Canada, with gold lead guitarist of 23 years. Osborne went chief. He had been brought in specifically and platinum compact disc sales. They’d because of his experience in dealing with had an enviable run of radio hits. They Continued on next page
PAGE 12 LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
EDITING Continued from previous page into frank detail about his friend and Lefebvre’s life seemed to be tailor-made outlet is also an issue. With the Lefebvre comrade’s long descent into alcoholism, for the “Rise and Fall Of” arc. When he story, I leaned heavily on his Calgary, then crack cocaine addiction. He was arrested by the United States Alberta background because he was born described how the three other musicians Department of Justice for money launder- and raised there, and the magazine it was felt like dupes, but also guilty, as if they ing, he was in the process of getting out of written for was based in Calgary. In a had been enablers for failing to recognize the gambling business and becoming a story I edited last summer, the target how serious the problem was. philanthropist with an environmental audience was an issue as well. The story The pain was obvious, and so activist bent. He didn’t make his money was about another Calgarian, this time a was the effect on the long-term health of from gambling exactly; rather, he provid- wildlife biologist named Chris Shank, the band. But from the story’s point of ed a service that handled electronic who had been hired by the New York- view, from the editor’s chair, from the money transfers for people who liked to based Wildlife Conservation Society to long-form featuring writing standpoint, gamble online. survey a region called the Ajar in Bamiya now what is the writer to do? I’ve been Lefebvre was shocked when FBI province of Afghanistan. Shank’s job was handed on a platter the sensationalistic agents came to his door in Malibu on to try to convince the locals to consider lead scene of the guitarist being sent back January 15, 2007. He had no idea he was the idea of transforming the Ajar into a home after getting high on crack. In other being targeted. He was taken to down- sanctuary. words, I’ve been handed a reprise of the town Los Angeles in a squad car. He was The problem—which story to classic rock ’n’ roll tragedy story. flown with hardened criminals to tell?—arose because the writer had excel- But if I were to lead with this Oklahoma City, in leg irons. His Beverly lent political material as well as an section, the reader would think the story enthralling adventure story. He was writ- was yet another story of rock excess. The ing for a Canadian magazine called story of the lead guitarist’s demise would Beyond questions explore (our country’s equivalent to the simplistically explain away the band’s of structure, the kind of story American magazine, Outside), which as long, slow wane. And that was not my can be up for the title indicates leans heavily on the story. My editor and I decided to bury the adventure side. long, tragic story inside the piece. We grabs. What kind of story is it, I was tempted to edit the story stuck with the theme—an artist continues really? through the lens of the political turmoil, to be an artist in middle age, because he since Canadians would be all too familiar can—and instead used the fallen brother with their government’s decision to allow section as a depth charge. Just as the read- its soldiers to engage in fighting, not sim- er begins to understand the reality of life ply peacekeeping. However, explore editor after 40 in a rock band, she is confronted Hills lawyer finally caught up with him James Little did not agree and decided to with a wrenching tale of horror that and posted the $5 million bail to get him open with a scene overlooking the huge explains as much about life in middle age out of jail. So, yes, with a story this chock valley of the Upper Ajar, with a survey as it does about the band’s career. full of candy, why not let Lefebvre open party scoping for ibex. Ultimately, Little These sorts of decisions can the story, in medias res, talking of his decided to stick with what he knows his always go one way or another. My editor arrest? In fact, let Lefebvre tell the story readers want, which is armchair adven- could have overruled me. She could have himself, and let the writer edit the tran- ture. I would’ve preferred to push the said, No, I want to grab people right script for maximum effect. writer more in the direction of the culture away and hit them between the eyes. Beyond the basic structure, shock story, the idea of a Canadian hired Vanity Fair international correspondent though, the kind of story being edited is by an American organization to, in William Langewiesche once described this also up for grabs. Thematically, what kind essence, perform a diplomatic mission In kind of writing as “candy,” as in tossing of story are you editing? Lefebvre’s saga Afghanistan. Convincing town elders that the reader candy. I’m glad I didn’t suc- might be a political jurisdiction kind of it is in their best interest to convert the cumb to the temptation in this case. I story—a Canadian is arrested by the U.S. Ajar into a park and eco-tourism site is a wanted the reader, if she had stuck with Department of Justice over an Isle of Man- classic “soft power” move. This of course me that far, to be gob-smacked at the sur- based business being traded on the is not necessarily an explore story or an prise turn in the narrative. London Stock Exchange. It could also be Outside story, but rather a New Yorker or Sometimes, however, the sensa- an environmental story about a man who Harper’s story. tional lead scene, in medias res, sometimes tithes people dumb enough to gamble And, of course, Little won out seems to be the only alternative. In anoth- with their money and gives it back to vir- because he was the editor and I was the er story I wrote recently, this opposite sce- tuous organizations involved in environ- handling editor. But I happily deferred to nario turned out to be the case. The fea- mental struggles. It could be a rags to his better judgment. After all, one expects o ture revolved around an Internet multi- riches to rags again kind of story. an editor to know his publication. millionaire from Calgary, Alberta. John Telling the right story for the right
LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 PAGE 13 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
THE POINT OF PUBLICATION Cheap beer, garbage pizza and searching for the missing context. By John Hartsock, SUNY-Cortland (U.S.A.)
ecently, I’ve been reflecting on I think this experience discovery for me when I started the publication in Prose Studies prepared me to detect shortly after teaching in 1989. I knew nothing of my article “‘It Was a Dark the turn of the millennium that about it, probably because as a and Stormy Night’: Newspaper something was changing—that recently graduated politically correct Reporters Rediscover the Art of newspapers were increasingly literature major I was more interested Narrative Literary Journalism and open to story-journalism. I sensed in the epiphanies of Wordsworth and Their Own Epistemological Heritage” the change further when I attend- Shelley. I certainly never considered (okay, I ed the Nieman Narrative myself at that early stage of my grant the Conference at Harvard University newspaper career as a “literary jour- title is in 2002. What I was struck by was nalist.” pretty how many newspaper journalists So I asked Ralph why he windy). were there. And slowly the evi- thought I was trying to do that kind Its publi- dence accumulated. of writing back then. He reminded cation has Beyond those experi- me of a story I did for him, a kind of reminded ences, though, what was my moti- first-person-you-are-there story about me of vation? I’m not sure I entirely a canoe trip I took on a local river. “I what I understood until an incident a still tell my reporters about it as the have long kind of enterprise story they could suspected do,” he said. about I look back And then there were other RESEARCH scholarly stories, he said. on them now as reflecting PERSPECTIVES publish- As for myself, I cringed a bit ing: There my age at the memory, because the examples (THIRD IN A SERIES) is always a and expereicence at the were early me and I look back on personal time: jejeune them now as reflecting my age and journey experience at the time: jejune. But that accompanies the more formal I’ve thought about Ralph’s comments scholarly inquiry. After all, we are all since then and I realize that, yes, to to some extent the sum of our various some extent he was right. In my own experiences in life. couple of years ago. That’s when awkward way I was struggling to I have no doubt that what my first newspaper editor, the guy write a story-journalism. alerted me to the growing acceptance who gave me my first break as a If that’s the case, though, of narrative literary journalism in cub reporter on a small country why didn’t I continue? American newspapers was my own weekly, and I reunited after hav- And I realize now it’s experience in the newspaper busi- ing lost contact for more than because as I moved from paper to ness. I was always a bit of an odd twenty years. Now an editor at a paper and increasingly learned the duck in newspapers because my for- large metro, he came over for sup- professional skills that were pounded mal studies were in English and per one evening and we remi- into me in the mold of who-what- American literatures. And always my nisced about the past and talked when-where-how-and-why, I had no Russian babushka’s sacred incanta- about the present—our families models of literary journalism in my tion rang in my ears: “Dostoevsky is and our careers. Regarding the lat- education to which I could turn. Nor the Greatest Writer” (She was right, ter, I told him about my area of was I encouraged by editors. True, I you know, but then babushkas are research—literary journalism. tried to sneak in oblique literary ref- always right.) At the same time, my “Yes, I remember you erences, like the time I wrote a story decade-plus in newspapers was, I were trying to do that,” he volun- on an inept novice (me) learning how have no doubt, the most important teered. And he meant that I was to sail on the Chesapeake Bay. My education in life I could imagine trying to write story-journalism. lead: “Just don’t call me Ishmael.” It receiving. I was puzzled, because was an obvious parody on the first But there was one thing that literary journalism and the “new line in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. was always a given: Never could lit- journalism” chapter of the 1960s erature and journalism mix. was something of a much later Continued on next page
PAGE 14 LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
A number of our PUBLICATION Continued from previous page READING colleagues in the discipline have LIST particular favorites in the broad canon of literary journalism that they have found to have special meaning But overall such efforts were the rare there for models. (But Ralph and I both in and out of the classroom. Their exception in my reporting career made up for it on Monday nominees are the books and/or articles because I see now that I lacked a con- evenings—or were they Tuesday?— they find uniquely useful examples of the text into which this kind of work when we got a six pack of cheap craft. We asked a few for their choices, could be placed, the way an aspiring beer and a garbage pizza scattered and, for your reading pleasure and possi- poet has models to which he or she with lots of anchovies, and, thus ble classroom use, the results follow. can turn. It wouldn’t be until years fortified, we pasted up the paper. later that I would discover the book Sometimes, the results were inter- • Patsy Sims (Goucher, U.S.A.) suggests by Edward Estlin Cummings (better esting—and embarrassing. But if "Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across known as the orthographically lower- we couldn’t write gonzo, at least America With Einstein's Brain" by cased poet e.e. cummings) titled The we could live it. Rabelais would Michael Paterniti (Harper’s, October Enormous Room, in which he paro- have approved.) 1997) “for the deft way he weaves in died with a Rabelaisian humor John I think the lack of models information about Einstein, his theory of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. And and the larger context is the source relativity, the atomic bomb and much Cummings, as it turned out, was just of a regret I have looking back on more.” She also recommends Walt part of an irreverent and flippant tra- what otherwise is a time of my life Harrington’s "Against the Tide" from the dition that would include Ned Ward of which I am quite fond. For me, Washington Post Magazine (15 November I’m trying to correct my own mis- 1992) “to demonstrate to students the art of good reporting and the advantages of perceptions. The result is that I using a tape recorder and camera.” I would like would like these models and the critical context to be available to • Chuck Whitney (California-Riveside, these models and the critical young aspiring journalists today, U.S.A.) recommends joining three pieces context to be whether they formally study jour- in one class: the preface to Joan Didion's available to young aspiring nalism or English literature or his- Slouching toward Bethlehem (1968), as journalists today tory or political science or back- well as the first article in book, "Some packing. But for them to do so Dreamers of the Golden Dream." He there has to be a critical body of writes: “She ends the preface, famously, knowledge—a scholarship that pro- by observing, ‘People tend to forget that vides the all-important context. my presence runs counter to their best of the 1690s-1700s, some of the work And it needs to be institutionalized interests. And it always does. That is one of Mark Twain in the 19th century, in the academy just as much as last thing to remember: Writers are the later (and late) Hunter Thompson Shakespeare, Goethe, Moliere, always selling somebody out.’ The 'Some of the 1960s-1970s, and, one of my Pushkin and Whitman have long Deamers' piece is about a murder in San more recent discoveries, Gunter been institutionalized: It is some- Bernardino county, about 10 miles from Walraff of West Germany, also of the thing you read as part of getting a my seminar room. The first paragraph 1970s. It was a “gonzo” style with basic liberal arts education that sets up the delicious irony that, yeah, picaresque (albeit fictional) progeni- broadens your intellectual hori- California is the land of golden dreams, tors in Sterne, Rabelais, Cervantes zons. but San Berdoo is home to the Santa Ana and even Petronius. And it was a That, of course, is what winds, and when they blow ‘Every voice welcome relief from the primness makes doing the scholarship of lit- is a scream. lt is the season of suicide and propriety of “serious” literature erary journalism so exciting— and divorce and prickly dread, wherever (but Dostoevsky is still the recovering and explicating com- the wind blows.’ My students know “Greatest”—Muhammad Ali pelling and even profound literary exactly what she is saying, right down to notwithstanding—because babushka and cultural texts for too long the 'prickly dread.' The third piece is not told me so) that conveniently forgets ignored. exactly literary: Debra Miller, ‘A Mother's that the cosmic comedy is still, But, in all honesty, it’s only Crime’ (West, 2 April 2006). It's a mem- o besides being a tragedy, a comedy of one reason. oir by the daughter of the murderer that errors at the expense of our hubris. Didion profiles in ‘Some Dreamers.’ It must be read to the postscript, which So my problem back in those Author’s postcript: Despite the passage blows students away.” early days of my career was that I of years, I still like my cheap beer and simply didn’t know what was out garbage pizza (with anchovies). Continued on Page 18
LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 PAGE 15 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
A POSTMODERNIST PERSPECTIVE Media hyper-real subjective dominant micro-narratives. By Isabel Metello, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal)
new kind of hybrid and ambigu- anthropological dependence towards reality by naturalized, iconic and optimistic ous turbo-capitalistic paradigm mediation. simulacra which make the borders between which supports Western societies’ Through this reformulating reality and fiction disappear. These simu- consumer and media culture is character- process of the classical institutional lated media micro-narratives become Aized by a symbiotic and synchronic inter- sources of the oral tradition, a new rela- stronger than truth by reinventing every- penetration between productive and tionship between discourse, knowledge, day living reality, apparently shown as reproductive aspects. In this way, con- power and everyday living emerges, as transparent when electing resemblance as sumption does stand more as a symbolic well as a subversive redefinition of the the main source of pseudo happenings´ activity than a merely instrumental one as borders between the public and the pri- making off. Therefore, these hyper-real sto- it affirms itself as a medium through vate spheres, leading to a hybrid and ries, shaped by show business m.o. are which individ- ambiguous sociocommunicative symbolic taken by truth itself, however they are so ual identities space, as an expression of a new relation- fictionalized that they often dissociate structure and ship between power and visibility. themselves from truth, creating an express them- Consequently, media spectacular, simpli- autonomous non-living flux of images and selves. In fact, fied, naturalized, personalized and collo- oral speeches which are somehow close to this global quial common-sense micro-narratives reality and at the same time completely media and spread their influence within public away from it, spreading what it can be consumer cul- sphere as they affirm themselves as the called a partial truth as reality and fiction ture is based main enunciators and disseminators of are non-dissociated. In fact, as Baudrillard on paradoxical the audiovisual and audio-touchable (1991) points out, simulacra are true tensions American pop culture matrix. One wit- because they simulate a reality collectively between hyper nesses the replacement of the precedent perceived as authentic. individualism bourgeois’ expurgation of private subjects In addition, media´s social credi- ACADEMIC and a massive- within the public sphere by an invasion bility and self and hetero-legitimacy which ness process as of this dimension through the explicit enforce their social role of supreme collec- COUNTERPOINT modern forms exposure of the ego, as intimacy and the tive social memory shapers are now guar- of subjection. previous unspeakable matters impose anteed by their status of paradigmatic visi- Consequently, themselves as these dominant micro-nar- bility sources, powerful panoptic surveil- media modus operandi reveals this tensional ratives’ leitmotiv. Therefore, a new con- lance instruments which denounce social ambiguity when it comes to their institu- fessional spirit built on the changing rela- disruptions and turn hyper-reality visible tionalization, assuming a double status of tionship between secret and its own to the common eye. For that reason, the symbolic mediation mechanisms and cor- unique power within dominant speech media dominant, socio-communicative ten- porate organizations focused on profit. emerges, regarding escaping individual dency commonly known as infotainment Furthermore, the collective disen- possession by being collectively shared imposes itself nowadays as legitimate chantment towards large ideological pro- through public visibility. speech, leading to new forms of collective jects and narratives and the concomitant Accordingly, this personalized evasion like the circular spreading of these authority crisis of the traditional primary privatization of the public sphere devel- hyper real audiovisual common sense and secondary socializing territorial links, ops contradictory opening/closure micro-narratives. In fact, these new infor- of the sense structures and of the bour- dynamics as this reticular mediocratic mative subjective and full of discursive geois ideal of public sphere led to a grow- system enunciates its disciplinary power economy stories, leaning on seduction as a ing supremacy of a hyper-individualistic both through informative subjectivity and subliminal and efficient strategy of an emancipation, a dominant self-centered, objectivity procedures. In fact, a strongly objectified colonization, aiming at hedonist and psychologist culture. aesthetic and merchandized “integral impelling the audiences’ most basic emo- Moreover, in our daily and common lives, reality,” linking the muthos (the illusion), tions and instincts, take part of a paradoxi- media and advertisement are enthroned as as doxa, to the reification, leads to a cal sociocommunicative contract which main collective memory and individual reduction of the social language paradox- tries to conciliate two opposing purposes identity modellers and socializing tools ically attached to an enunciation of multi- regarding media’s dominant m.o.: sociocul- due to their omnipresent, ubiquitous and ple subjectivities’ proliferation. To this tural credibility and a panoptic enunciation extensive non-territorialized m.o. extent, media culture enthrones reality of reality through the diffusion of spectacu- Therefore, a reinforced individual autono- signs as the new collective utopia, lar oral common sense hyper-real stories o my cohabits paradoxically with a larger ambiguously transformed into hyper- commonly shaped by literary canons.
PAGE 16 LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
LITERARY JOURNALISM IN BRAZIL Helping to rediscover the voice of our nation. By Edvaldo Pereira Lima, São Paulo (Brazil)
modest but promising revival of Sadly however, the country launched a 370-hour program of study literary journalism is taking place was under a military regime at the (weekend classes twice a month) in 2005 in Brazil, partially due to the time, and the heavy hand of censor- in Campinas. The following year, we expansion of an effort previously cen- ship fell on the media from December spread our program to São Paulo, to the Atered at the University of São Paulo’s 1968 on. The result was a gradual federal capital city of Brasília and to the graduate journalism program. asphyxiating freedom of expres- southern metropolis of Porto Alegre. This Researchers, teachers and writers are sion—which, as we all know, is a nec- scheme suited our major clientele, spreading the word in increasing numbers essary condition for lasting literary because most were full-time working in different regions of this continental journalism work. For a number of journalists who otherwise would not be sized country, bringing up the obvious generations after, the mainstream able to attend a graduate program. Both but sometimes media forgot the shining example of the web site and the graduate program, difficult truths both publications and turned into the are the two initial projects of our organi- in the main- reductionist hard news side of the zation, the Brazilian Academy of Literary stream media: business. On a personal level, I con- Journalism (ABJL is our Portuguese lan- one of the prob- sidered this shame—and decided to guage acronym). able cures for do what little I could to keep the lit- Last October we succeeded in the growing implementing a third project—an anthol- readership crisis ogy book with the best stories written by is to implement our students—and the fourth: the first story-telling ini- Last October Literary Journalism Conference ever in tiatives rather we succeeded in implementing Brazil, bringing in internationally recog- than keeping the first-ever nized speakers such as Mark Kramer, newsrooms literary journalism conference founder of Nieman Foundation AROUND THE doomed to pro- Conferences on Narrative Journalism, in Brazil WORLD duce boring Anne Hull, a Washington Post reporter, lead-oriented and Paulo Moura, a teacher of literary hard news large- journalism in Portugal and an award- ly focused on celebrities, the dark side of winning reporter working for Público. society and on the self-destructive impuls- erary journalism flame alive. At the same time, the angels es of humankind. Years later academic and seem to be looking after our cause. For It all began very unpretentiously nonfiction narrative books began to example, through no direct effort on our in the late 1980s, and I have been proud to be published, and research papers part, the major Brazilian journalism take part in this unfolding history since were produced. Former graduate stu- award, the Prêmio Esso, was given in then. As a faculty member, I started offer- dents from our nutshell at the 2006 to Conceição Freitas, a reporter at ing graduate courses, developing University of São Paulo were spread- the Correio Braziliense daily. And the 2007 research projects and mentoring disserta- ing their professional wings across nonfiction top book prize, the Prêmio tions and theses which gradually helped the country, and a more welcoming Jabuti, was awarded to Eliane Brum, a literary journalism return to a place in our attitude was slowly growing out of reporter at the weekly magazine Época. academic environment. newsrooms. Three of us—a teacher, a Both are gifted writers who know what Brazil had experienced a golden writer and an undergraduate student readers really enjoy: reading human-cen- episode of literary journalism in the late of journalism—got together to estab- tered stories told in the same fascinating 1960s and the early 1970s, thanks to two lish the first web site dedicated way that story-tellers in every era and in publications that made history. Both the Brazilian literary journalism. every nation have always performed daily Jornal da Tarde and the monthly TextoVivo: Narrativas da Vida their craft. news magazine Realidade appeared in 1966 Real
LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 PAGE 17
Continued on Page 8 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
Continued from Page 15 PRESIDENT’S LETTER Continued from Page 1 • Sonia F. Parratt READING (Carlos III de Madrid, Spain) recommends International Literary Journalism Conference new book project would be more represen- LIST Manuel Rivas’s El to take place two years hence in the Spring of tative of IALJS’s mission statement. Today, 2008 in Paris (exact site still to be deter- (CONTINUED) Periodismo Es un the book proposal, Literary Journalism Across Cuento (Editions mined), at which point I will handover the the Globe—currently under consideration at Alfaguara, 1997). duties of the president to David Abrahamson. the University of Massachusetts Press in The book, the title of which title translates I pledged to do my best to fulfill Amherst—,boasts of 22 articles from 15 into Journalism Is a Story, is “probably the each of these five goals. Two years later, I can nations on five continents. A coup, I think, best compilation of literary journalism say that I have earnestly tried and for the for IALJS. texts—we call them grand reportages—ever most part succeeded in fulfilling them. Item five: If I failed at all as presi- published in Spain.” Item one: We are not only still here dent of IALJS, it was with this goal; but it is as an international association, but we are a failure of which I feel particularly proud. • Marie-Jeanne Colombani (Sciences Po, also growing stronger each year in spite of (or We did not, in fact, have IALJS 2 in Paris in "Cool Caledonia: Is France) suggests perhaps even because of) our cultural, philo- 2008. Instead, we had it in 2007 (at a venue Scotland on the Verge of a Renaissance?" by sophical, and academic differences. I sincerely in Paris kindly provided by Sciences Po). John Harris (The Guardian, November 2007) believe that our many differences is the There was such a demand for a second con- for its “conjunction of two criteria which are source of our strength. ference to follow immediately upon the suc- no longer thought to be contradictory: ‘artis- Item two: We have progressed from cess of IALJS 1 in Nancy, France, in 2006, tic’ purity and truth to life's 'impurities.’ The 14 founding members to over 60 in just under that our initial Constitution had to be mix of lyrical flights of the imagination and two years (most of whom are paying and amended—which it was, specifying a year- the naturalistic patches of dialogue is emi- contributing members). That says a lot about ly instead of a biennial conference. Start nently convincing.” the need for IALJS as an international entity making your plans to attend IALJS 4 in •Doug Whynott (Emerson, Boston, U.S.A.) and its board’s indefatigable efforts to make it Chicago in May 2009! recommends A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr a success. It has been an incredible two years for “the accuracy of reporting, artfulness of Item three: We had a difficult year in for me, and I want to thank everyone asso- the narrative and persistence.” Doug writes: trying to persuade Routledge to publish LJS; ciated with IALJS for having conferred “Harr went though five contract extensions, the fact that they took as long as they did to upon me their trust as the association’s first many delays, and a 1,000-page first draft on finally decide against taking us on demon- president. I have learned an incredible the way to getting his story right. For teach- strates how seriously our journal proposal amount from the many people involved in ers, this is also structurally an interesting was considered. Today, John Hartsock has the association about how to organize and story; Harr read Truman Capote (In Cold sent off our journal proposal to Sage run a successful international association; Blood) and others to keep his bearings while Publications, and we are awaiting news from how to draft and adopt a Constitution; how working on his story, and Harr's 12-part them. Another smaller commercial press to acquire non-profit status and obtain an structure similar to Capote's four parts (Marquette Books) has already agreed to pub- ISSN number for our newsletter; how to (crime, pursuit, capture, trial).” lish LJS, which we will consider if Sage produce a professional newsletter; how to • Barry Siegel (California-Irvine, U.S.A.) sug- should turn us down. We are also considering draft a journal/book proposal; and how to gests Calvin Trillin’s Killings and Pieces of publishing a paper and an electronic version mount and maintain a website. It has not the Frame by John McPhee because “both simultaneously so as to disseminate our always been easy, but it has been a pleasure. are graceful and compelling examples of research to a wider international audience. At Thank you, Bill Reynolds, Alice Trindade, how to write about America through the any rate, I feel confident that the first issue of Isabel Santos, John Hartsock, Norm Sims, study of microcosms—through the telling of LJS will appear in 2009. Jenny McKay, Susan Greenberg and, above particular tales.” Item four: After considerable delib- all, David Abrahamson for your endearing eration with various executive board mem- patience with me, your precious work and • Christophe Chambost (Bordeaux, France) bers of IALJS, it was decided that our original your thoughtful advice these last two years suggests Ambrose Bierce’s A Sole Survivor: book project, Literary Journalism Proceedings, in helping me to bring IALJS where it is Bits of Autobiography on his experiences in which was to have gathered selective essays today. I only hope that I will be able to con- the American Civil War, in which “facts, hor- from IALJS 1 and 2 in Nancy and in Paris, tinue working with you all in serving IALJS ror and outbursts of lyricism combine to cre- should be opened up to include essays from in the future. If there is one thing of which I ate some of the most powerful written work new IALJS members, as well as from literary am certain, however, it is that IALJS will be in American literature.” More recently, journalism practitioners, educators and schol- in the most competent of hands with David Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by ars outside of the organization. The reason for Abrahamson as its new president. John Berendt, with its rendering of a this was twofold: to increase IALJS’s visibility Best wishes to you all, and Vive Savannah murder case,“conveys the under- and to respond to an existing need for more l’AIEJL!—which, I believe, is what the IALJS o lying darkness of American society.” o scholarship on literary journalism within an acronym would be were it in French. international perspective. We believe that this
PAGE 18 LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
THE NEED FOR NARRATIVE Reaffirming our universal condition of co-existence. By Jacqueline Barba, New York University (U.S.A)
n August 7, two days after Boitumela McCallum was found always have, which happens to be the same version offered dead in her mother’s apartment in a New York University by broadcast and internet news, paper’s faster and more building in Greenwich Village, hours after word of the digest-friendly counterparts. woman’s death had spread, the Metro New York Daily newsroom This outdated approach is the very last stronghold O still pulsed with the promise of a heady of newspapers’ original intent. In its purest form the paper is lead. McCallum was a sophomore at meant to serve as a sort of city guardian. This status was Mills College in California and the borne out of the old paper’s contents—because it once broke daughter of two professors of education news. It informed, and it protected its constituency by at New York University. Her death had imparting necessary facts. Mark Kramer, former director of been violent and unexpected. “This is the Neiman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard big,” said one Metro editor. “We’re just University, points out that names like Bugle and Tribune and trying to stay on top of it.” Sentinel allude to this mission; they characterize “the paper” Staffers made calls to spokespeople as an active part of the civil society—both a bulletin board at NYU and to the police department’s and town crier for the community. press office, to acquaintances of Of course this isn’t print’s role any longer. And only McCallum’s, friends of her family, her the internet and 24-hour broadcast news channels, such as GUEST boyfriend’s sister. They trolled the side- CNN, really break news these days. They are faster, cheaper walk alongside the building where for the consumer. But leading newspapers have yet to adjust ESSAY McCallum’s body was discovered, and either their role or their voice to this shift. They continue to clicked onto her MySpace profile. The assume the obstinately objective, dispassionate voice of the 1 next morning, Metro’s front page story, “Tragedy at NYU,” was a news-breaker, and they continue to report facts that have 364-word summary of what would be pub- already been reported elsewhere. The lished in every other mainstream New York combined effect of print’s inability to daily that day—the same facts and details keep pace with today’s hard-news cycle that had been intoned in the prior night’s Analysis and its reluctance to abandon its official local broadcast news—the same facts and and comment and tone—despite the fact that it rarely details that had appeared on the web, at the opinion in all delivers fresh news, the latest Word, the New York Times site among others, almost a its forms already dominate breaking story—means disaster for rev- full day before Metro’s August 8 edition enues in subscription dailies. went to print. on the web In a January 2007 Columbia Metro is the world’s largest global Journalism Review article about the rele- paper, with publications in 88 major cities vancy of print media, titled “Beyond across 19 countries. It’s a commuter paper the News,” Mitchell Stephens wrote designed for a young, urban readership. that the morning paper is stale before it Metro has an Internet complement of little note: an online version hits the doorstep. Most of what we find in the morning daily of each city’s daily issue is available in PDF format, and a relative- has already been uploaded to a website, usually that particu- ly small collection of archived articles and AP newswires is avail- lar paper’s website, where one can view the very same text able for free viewing, arranged in reverse chronological order. at no cost. And, as Stephens points out, it is impossible to Without an online edition to beat its print to the punch, sell what’s available elsewhere for free, especially when your Metro can’t compete with any news source in terms of breaking product is already obsolete. news or revealing new information—at least, not if it maintains a Print news in its current state, says Stephens, daily’s schedule. Metro’s cover story on McCallum was made irrel- amounts to little more than a flagrant waste of resources. His evant by its redundancy. What was produced out of the staffers’ argument for a newly-useful print media calls for more and efforts was outdated and formulaic, and had little to do with either better news analysis in print, “wisdom,” as he loosely terms 3 news or writing. it, an “incisive attempt to divine the significance of events.” The argument could be made that Metro, as a commuter But while the notion of providing some sense of paper, is meant to impart only the abridged versions of the prior overarching significance is appealing, to expect this from an day’s bigger stories. But the Times, too, published an article on increase in punditry—which is what the professor proposes 2 McCallum’s death on August 8; the Times piece was a bit longer —seems optimistic. Analysis and comment and opinion in than Metro’s cover story, but otherwise virtually identical. One all its forms already dominate on the web: it’s the backbone wonders why all morning papers—even top-tier papers—continue to offer the same stiff-voiced digest version of a story that they Continued on next page
LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 PAGE 19 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
NARRATIVE Continued from previous page
of the blogosphere, and it reigns in the holding her 3-year-old in her arms, fell by Amy Waldman published on more respectable realm between amateur backward and was carried toward a near- December 27, 2004: blog and respected news source. In by paddy field. Then a big wave hit, “Television images showed bod- deeming expert analysis the main way to washing over them and easily pulling ies floating in muddied waters. Cars went contextualize news, Stephens ignores the mother and daughter apart … out to sea; boats came onto land. second of the two traditions in journal- “Another wave came … The Snorkelers were dragged onto the beach, ism: the greater journalistic tradition, the water launched [Maisara] on a zigzag and sunbathers out to sea, Simon Clark, a tradition of narrative news, of news-as- route that ended a mile to the southeast of photographer who was vacationing on story. her home. The jaunt was fast but not Ngai Island in Thailand, told The Narrative news is the retelling smooth. Something very sharp tore into Associated Press. of real events—news events—with the her left leg. She collided with a tin roof “Indonesia reported nearly 4,500 intent to marry information to story; and then was pitched over its angled dead, most in the Banda Aceh area of story being the careful and artful render- frame. She found herself wedged under Sumatra, a region that has been the site of ing of events and the people who are an uprooted tamarind tree, swallowing a continuing civil war. In Sri Lanka, at part of them through careful description the filthy water as she struggled for least 6,000 were dead. In India, an esti- and detail. Narrative is, by definition, air…That morning she was dressed in a mated 2,300 died, with at least 1,700 con- deliberate. Its structure, style and voice head scarf, a sleeveless t-shirt, shorts and firmed dead in Tamil Nadu, the southern are employed to reflect many levels of a long cotton dress. Now she was wearing state that is home to this coastal city of 4 5 meaning—social, psychological, histori- only her bra and her wedding ring.” Madras, officially known as Chennai.” cal—and to impart the sense of greater The detail in the above passage To be fair, Waldman had two significance that Stephens says can be days to report using only an AP release, achieved with analysis. Art, which is to compared to Bearak’s two months of say story, has all the advantages of research in the devastated region of analysis . It requires analysis on its While smart, Banda Aceh. And there are many readers author’s part. And no form of discourse well-written and thorough, and web and television viewers who serves explanation better than narrative. the piece is appreciate statistics, many who can con- Narrative entertains, and sells. shaded by the voice of the textualize their world, to some extent, by figures and percentages. This is not to say leven months after the Southeast pundit behind it that there is no need for numbers or for Asia tsunamis of 2004, Barry concrete facts. It is to say that print can Bearak published a long-form nar- offer us much more than that. rative article in the New York Times Nor does analysis alone have the EMagazine, a piece that borrowed its form is both visual and sensory. Bearak’s strong same effect as Bearak’s narrative. The arti- and methods from John Hersey’s verbs suggest the physicality of the cle excerpted below, titled “Relief but Hiroshima—a chronicle of six tsunami water’s force, while his concise sequenc- Little Rebuilding,” was published in The survivors and their memories of the day ing lends order to its chaos. When Bearak Economist in December 2005. While smart, the waves hit. writes that Maisara “was pitched over” well-written, and thorough, the piece is Bearak’s writing features the the roof frame; that she “found herself shaded by the voice of the pundit behind kind of intricate detail that was largely wedged under;” that she was “swallow- it: ignored in the typical news account of ing the filthy water” and “was wearing “The transition from emergency the tsunamis. His structure is deliberate, only her bra and her wedding ring,” he is relief to reconstruction has gone less not formulaic: he divides time into three suggesting, subtly, the seeming perpetuity smoothly [than emergency-relief in the movements (before, during, and post- of those moments, the endless-seeming immediate aftermath of the tsunami]… disaster), and then places his six chrono- cycle of the violent wash. And Bearak Money, in theory, should not have been a logical narratives within. The result is a reasserts the water’s impressive physicali- problem. The outpouring of sympathy comprehensible and at times artful ty in giving us the detail that the water after the tsunami resulted in pledges of recapturing of a tragedy and a dissection stripped Maisara of her layers of clothes. over $13 billion in international aid of one of the confusion this tragedy wrought— And this is just one short para- sort or another…But donors have been all in an orderly narrative sequence. The graph in Bearak’s piece, just 93 words of slower to spend the money than to raise following passage, Bearak’s account of well-wrought narrative. Those few words it. Of the $2 billion or so in promised aid one woman’s experience as the waters are both telling and informative. They that the government of Sri Lanka is track- first hit Banda Aceh, is a clear example of reveal to the reader what the scene looked ing, only $1 billion has actually been these technical applications: like, and how it felt to be in it. They reveal handed over, and only $141m of that has “Where Maisara lived, the how strong the waves were without being been spent… waves were preceded by water sluicing explicit. They are much more telling than, “Some delays are the result of at knee level, cutting her legs out from for example, the following 108 words under her as she ran. The house-wife, from the New York Times archives, a report Continued on next page
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NARRATIVE Continued from previous page
simple ineptitude rather than complex plan- long-form news reports that their editors Robert Kuttner nonetheless ning. During the initial airlift, several chari- habitually refer to as narrative journal- foreshadows the creation of a journal- ties flew in unsolicited, unwanted donations ism. But much of what they regard as istic print-digital hybrid in his recent 8 of winter clothing, which added to conges- narrative isn’t narrative at all. To dress CJR article, “The Race.” He writes tion at airports. More recently, aid agencies up any ordinary bit of journalism with that the hybridization of the two have bombarded fishermen with offers of superficial literary techniques—arbitrary media will require the eventual and new boats, but no one has paid to rebuild metaphor, description or wordplay—is complete transfer of all things print the factories that used to supply the ice to not narrative. It’s merely a fast and facile onto the web. Such a drastic move 6 preserve their catch.” attempt to disguise dull writing, an away from paper would certainly The writer’s analysis is on-point; it attempt which will always fall short of assuage our environmental guilt. But is logical, seemingly without bias, compre- satisfying a savvy reader. Gussied-up it wouldn’t do wonders for written hensible. And yet it has none of the effect of inverted pyramids are only barely more story. Bearak’s narrative, the dramatic effect he cre- appealing than un-gussied ones. For example: Kuttner com- ates on the page. The article is an example of Meanwhile, real narrative remains con- pares his morning news ritual to that the thoughtful rendering of fact that can do spicuously absent from print news. of a 22-year-old Internet prodigy he only so much to communicate the reality of a In touting the pleasures of nar- calls Ezra. Whereas Kuttner scans four human condition. It encourages readers to rative, and the well-suitedness of story newspapers at the start of his day, reason, but not to relate. to paper, it seems necessary to address Ezra references “about 150 or 200 rss Print and the web should continue the pleasures of paper’s tangibility. It’s a feeds and bookmarks;” skims four to offer such analysis. But they should offer satisfying thing to hold and own and online newspapers; visits numerous straight analysis alongside the kind of three- pop culture sites and political blogs dimensional, informative detail that Bearak (but not “amateur” blogs, Kuttner provides; the kind of detail that tells and Narrative takes assures us); and also uses Google’s makes story. alert feature to receive news on sub- time to develop and time jects specific to his interest. tory is a saleable product because to absorb, Ezra scans this wealth of human beings live by it. We’re all and so may be ill-suited information in a single hour. But how always making sense of experience for the web much material is retained, and what according to story’s essential elements: conti- kind? The lengthy source list above Snuity, character, and concept. We seek out suggests a greater interest in fact and conceivable beginnings, middles and ends in opinion than in story, context and the day-to-day. H. Porter Abbott, a scholar of detail, those elements which more narrative, writes that narrative is “the princi- mark up the margins of a book. The fully inform. pal way in which our species organizes its holding and owning and marking are Later in the article Kuttner 7 understanding of time,” that narrative not incidental. They are our ways of quotes Tom Rosenstiel of The Project gives us a sense of the shape of time, of our engaging with the book and the story, for Excellence in Journalism as saying place in infinite space. In this respect, it is our ways of taking part in it and becom- that online journalism is superior to the essential element of human existence. ing a part of it. They are how the book print because of its limitless spatial Narrative, in other words, gives our lives and the story become a part of our own capacity, which allows for links to meaning. histories, our own narratives. additional documents, interview texts, As such, it’s our inherent mode of Further, narrative takes time to and “as much statistical backup as the both comprehension and expression. Written develop, and time to absorb, and as such reader can stand.” Even in exalting the narrative is highly interpersonal, and well- it may be ill-suited for the web. The medium, Rosenstiel can’t make this crafted narrative journalism demands the future of the internet likely does not lie sound appealing. reader’s attention and engagement; its struc- in streams of text. Because the great How much statistical backup ture, its voice, its deliberate detail all work to appeal of the web is its ability to display can a reader stand, or survey, or engage the reader, and invest the reader in fragments of information, to both deliver absorb? In such a vast media plane, the page. Traditional methods of journalism and receive text in no predetermined fast-clicking becomes the standard. preach the virtue of information and the sequence, it, likewise, seems ill-suited to One clicks quickly from source to plain language that delivers it—the mainte- written narrative or story. The very con- source, from news to supplement, nance of distance between journalist and cept of a non-linear network conflicts from image to image, because there’s reader. But in attempt to distance themselves with the nature of narrative, the basis of so much space to cover. Ezra would from their audience, journalists have largely which is structured continuity. This con- never spend his morning scrolling distanced the audience from their product. tinuity helps us to understand what, down a single page of text. This realization is not new, and nei- without structure, is only random inci- The journalistic appeal of the ther is the notion of including narrative in dence. Story has to unfold with deliber- daily news; most mainstream papers feature ate intent. It can’t reveal itself in flashes. Continued on next page
LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 PAGE 21 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
COMMUNICATIONS AND NARRATIVE Continued from previous page
MASS MEDIA MEETING IN web rests in part on the sheer space it isting structures or patterns: for example, TheATHENS Mass Media IN and MAY Communication Research offers, space available for filling up with the basic structure of a sentence, and the Unit of the Athens Institute for Education and facts upon facts. And the fast-clicking cul- chronological structure of any story sim- Research is organizing its 6th annual interna- ture that will inevitably develop in turn is ply told. Like conversational language, tional conference on Communication and Mass likely to breed a new brand of just-the-gist narrative is referential, in that it draws Media, 19-22 May 2008. The aim of the con- journalism—a click-friendly brand. upon common ideas and common objects ference is to bring together scholars and stu- to evoke greater ideas, or yet-unseen dents of Communications, Mass Media and one of this is to dismiss the web. objects. And, perhaps most important, other related disciplines. Past conferences drew The availability of more informa- narrative, like spoken language, is inter- participants from five continents and more than tion to more people is undeniably personal, social; it means to convey 50 countries, presenting papers on diverse top- democratic, and a benefit in a culture in something between two or more people, ics such as political communication, EU Nwhich too many millions of Americans are and it specifies its message to a given enlargement, Website design, cross-media own- illiterate and uninformed. But the non-lin- audience through its tone, its mood, its ership, war correspondence, cultural studies, diction, its frame of reference, and its use ear network that is the hallmark of the 9 film, public relations, telecommunication policy, web is not the best place to create or enjoy of rich, concentrated language. advertising, agenda setting, juvenile audience narrative—effective, powerful, and beauti- People respond positively to preferences and cross-national communication, ful writing that tells us more about our- these properties of narrative writing— among others. For programs of previous confer- selves than most other prose forms. While and are willing to pay for the product— ences and other information visit the website the web makes good use of other story- because it all feels real; that is, it reminds
PAGE 22 LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
2008 IALJS Membership Form
Please fill out form and return (by mail, fax or e-mail attachment) with dues payment to address below.
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Please check category: _____ US$ 40 or 30 Euros: Regular Member (Faculty member) _____ US$ 40 or 30 Euros: Associate Member (Professional member) _____ US$ 15 or 10 Euros: Student Member (Master or Doctoral level) _____ US$ 15 or 10 Euros: Retired Faculty Member _____ US$100 or 70 Euros: Sponsoring Member (to support the IALJS general operating fund)
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Please mail check with completed form to:
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2(a). Wire Transfer (Outside U.S.) From your bank, send wire transfer, using Swift Code #CHASUS22, to IALJS account #705981314. Please notify the treasurer by email, [email protected], with date of wire transfer and federal wire number.
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LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 PAGE 23 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
MLA 2008 ANNUAL NOMINATIONS FOR 2008-2010 MEETING IN DECEMBER Proposed slate of officers and chairs from the Nominating Committee. IN SAN FRANCISCO The Modern Language Association's 124th By David Abrahamson, Northwesetern (U.S.A), Alice Donat Trindade , TU-Lisbon annual convention will be held in San (Portugal) and Isabel Soares Santos, TU-Lisbon (Portugal) Francisco, California. The convention will begin on Saturday, 27 December 2008. All MLA members and others involved in the study or CHAIR, PROGRAM COMMITTEE n accordance with the IALJS teaching of language and literature must regis- Norman Sims Bylaws (see sidebar opposite), the ter for the convention in order to attend or par- University of Massachusetts, Amherst Nominating Committee has com- ticipate in meetings, visit the exhibit hall, utilize Department of Journalism, Bartlett Hall #108 pleted its work and offers the pro- the job service, or reserve hotel rooms at spe- Amherst, MA 01003 posed slate below for consideration at cial MLA rates. Members should familiarize I USA the 2008 Business Meeting on 16 May w/01-413-545-5929 themselves with the guidelines for the MLA 2008. As stipulated inthe the bylaws, h/01-413-774-2970 convention. If not provided, organizers' nominations will also be accepted fax/01-413-545-3880 addresses are available on the MLA Web site o from the floor. [email protected] to MLA members and listed in the September 2007 PMLA. All participants in convention ses- IALJS PROPOSED NOMINATIONS (2008-2010) CO-CHAIRS, MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE sions must be MLA members by 7 April 2008. Sonja Merljak-Zdovc For more information, please see: PRESIDENT University of Ljubljana http://www.mla.org/conv_papers. David Abrahamson Faculty of Social Sciences, Kardeljeva plo‰cad 5 Northwestern University Ljubljana Medill School of Journalism, 1845 Sheridan Rd. SLOVENIA Evanston, IL 60208 w/386-(0)1-5805-340 PRINT CULTURE USA cell/386-(0)4-1746-503 [email protected] TheSEMINAR 2008 "Summer INSeminar JUNE in the Histor 2008y of w/01-847-467-4159 the Book" at the American Antiquarian Society h/01-847-332-2223 fax/01-847-332-1088 Lynne Van Luven in Worcester, MA (U.S.A.) will be held from [email protected] University of Victoria Wednesday, 18 June to Monday, 23 June Department of Writing, P0 Box 1700, 2008. The theme of this seminar, to be held at VICE PRESIDENT Victoria, British Columbia V8W 2Y2 the library founded by Isaiah Thomas, author of Alice Donat Trindade CANADA The History of Printing in the United States, will Universidade Técnica de Lisboa w/01-250-721-7307 be “The Newspaper and the Culture of Print in Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas fax/01-250-721-6602 the Early American Republic.” For further Pólo Universitário do Alto da Ajuda, Rua Almerindo [email protected] information and application materials, Lessa please see
PAGE 24 LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
NOMINATIONS Continued from previous page
42-44, avenue de la Liberation, B.P. 3397 w/01-847-467-4159 London SW15 5SL 54015 Nancy h/01-847-332-2223 UNITED KINGDOM FRANCE fax/01-847-332-1088 w/44-20-8392-3257 w/33-(0)383-968-448 [email protected] [email protected] h/33-(0)383-261-476 fax/33-(0)383-968-449 MEMBERS, BOARD OF ADVISORS John Hartsock [email protected] (in progress) State University of New York College at Courtland John Bak Department of Communication Studies EDITORS, LITERARY JOURNALISM STUDIES Université Nancy 2 Courtland, NY 13045 John Hartsock (editor) Centre de Télé-enseignement Universitaire (CTU) USA State University of New York College at Courtland 42-44, avenue de la Liberation, B.P. 3397 w/01-607-753-4103 Department of Communication Studies 54015 Nancy h/01-607-749-6756 Courtland, NY 13045 FRANCE fax/607-753-5970 USA w/33-(0)383-968-448 [email protected] w/01-607-753-4103 h/33-(0)383-261-476 h/01-607-749-6756 fax/33-(0)383-968-449 Norman Sims fax/607-753-5970 [email protected] University of Massachusetts, Amherst [email protected] Department of Journalism, Bartlett Hall #108 Tom Connery Amherst, MA 01003 William Dow (managing editor) University of St. Thomas USA American University of Paris Department of Communication and Journalism w/01-413-545-5929 Department of Comparative Literature 2115 Summit Ave., h/01-413-774-2970 147, rue de Grenelle St. Paul, MN 55105 fax/01-413-545-3880 Paris 75007 USA [email protected] FRANCE w/01-651-962-5265 w/33-1-4062-0600 ext 718 h/01-651-647-0048 Doug Underwood [email protected] fax/01-651-962-6360 University of Washington [email protected] Department of Communication, Box 353740 Jenny McKay (associate editor) Seattle, WA 98195 University of Stirling Susan Greenberg USA Department of Film and Media Studies Roehampton University w/01-206-685-9377 Stirling FK9 4LA School of Arts, Creative Writing [email protected] Scotland Roehampton Lane UNITED KINGDOM w/44-1786-466-228 [email protected] Article 3: Nominations and Elections Susie Eisenhuth (book review editor) University of Technology Sydney • Section 1. The current Vice President, who is the incoming President of the Association, shall, with Journalism Program consultation of a two-member Nominating Committee, present a list of nominees to the Association PO Box 123 President prior to the annual meeting. One member of the Nominating Committee shall be elected at Broadway NSW 2007 AUSTRALIA the previous annual meeting and one shall be appointed by the President. w/61-2-9514-2308 • Section 2. It shall be the duty of the Nominating Committee to invite nominations and develop a slate [email protected] of nominees from the Association's regular membership prior to the annual meeting, to present the slate at that meeting, inviting further nominations from the floor, and then to conduct the election of the EDITORS, LITERARY JOURNALISM NEWSLETTER officers and Executive Committee members. Nominations to the position of Secretary may be made Bill Reynolds (co-editor) from the floor of the annual meeting. Upon completion of the election, the nominating committee chair Ryerson University shall inform members of the name of the winning candidates. School of Journalism, 350 Victoria St. • Section 3. Elections shall be held every two years at the annual meeting. Only members of the Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3 Association shall be entitled to vote in the election. CANADA • Section 4. A candidate for office shall be deemed elected if he or she receives more votes than those w/01-416-979-5000 x6294 cast for any other contender for the office. h/01-416-535-0892 • Section 5. Upon successful completion of an elected term of office as Vice President, the holder of [email protected] that office shall automatically succeed to, and possess all the rights and responsibilities of, the office of David Abrahamson (co-editor) President. His or her term as President will begin the day immediately following his or her election. Northwestern University • Section 6. Upon successful completion of an elected term of office as Secretary, the holder of that Medill School of Journalism, 1845 Sheridan Rd. office shall automatically succeed to, and possess all the rights and responsibilities of, the Vice Evanston, IL 60208 President. His or her term as Vice President will begin the day immediately following his or her election. USA
LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 PAGE 25 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
TEACHING TIPS Continued from Page 28
and fawning football player pro- excruciating amount of time with worked much harder on this assign- files. One brought in a special a 10-year-old boy and wrote ment than they did on their first story advertising section. They were still about him slinging things at her about a trend or issue of their choice. turning in stories in a quote-sum- butt. Writing personal stories—even some- mary-quote format. They would During one discussion, I one else’s personal story—juiced them tell me what he said, followed by had my first literary journalism- creatively, made them reach journalis- what she said, followed by a few teaching epiphany: My students tically and produced better pieces of nonvolatile facts, all in that annoy- knew when description worked writing. ing, objective reporter voice that in a story but they didn’t know This led to Epiphany #2: threatened to put us all to sleep. how to write descriptively them- Reading and writing personal journal- They had no problem fast- selves. Instead of talking in a big- ism is a great tool for teaching literary tracking celebrated works of jour- picture way about description, techniques. I understand why many nalism—I used “America’s Best character development and scene professors are wary about crafting Newspaper Writing,” by The setting, I realized needed to come lessons around writing in the first Poynter Institute’s Roy Peter Clark up with individual lessons for person. Literary journalism is not and Christopher Scanlan, along each and have them practice writ- therapy, and it can be difficult to with other works—to the junk ing short pieces. coach someone creatively when she’s heap but only felt comfortable writing about abuse or rape or death. writing according to formula But if a student really cares about a (anecdotal lead followed by nut Reading and story, he will improve it. And even if graph followed by he said-she the piece never sees publication, he said). Being a journalism school writing personal journalism will have become a better writer for alumna (from this school, in fact), I is a great doing it. That first class I had one stu- knew that in teaching the necessi- tool for teaching literary dent write about losing her father, ties of hard news reporting, journalism another about getting arrested in high including objectivity and the school, another about an ex- inverted pyramid, journalism pro- boyfriend’s suicide. All of them took fessors can unintentionally beat my writerly criticism well and the creativity out of their students, improved their stories on rewrite. I many of whom lose the drive to I sent them out on a don’t remember any of their trend or pursue more varied writing styles. group assignment called “Six issue stories from that semester, but In their quest for good grades and O’clock Kent State,” where every- I’ll never forget how my student internships, their writing becomes one had to observe one place on described her father’s diabetes-rav- a mere vessel for news—plainspo- campus from about 6 p.m. to 6:20 aged feet. ken, unobjectionable and, unless p.m., then rush back to the class- Fifteen weeks flew by. We they are writing about a school room and write exactly what they ended the class with a pizza party and shooting or a natural disaster, bor- saw. Their ultimate goal—and a reading. Everyone picked one page ing. they had until the next class peri- of one story and read it aloud. This In Feature Writing, I soon od to do this—was to make all was the class I’d wished I walked into realized I had to become a one- their observations add up to one on my first day: attentive, responsive woman wrecking crew, destroying overall impression. Later in the and just the right kind of nervous. their confidence in lamb-like semester, most of the vignettes A few students have kept in adherence to the rules in order to ran in The Daily Kent Stater. touch. Last semester, one, an intern at rebuild them as creative writers— Another time, I had them The Hill in Washington, emailed me only with their journalistic sensi- interview one another about a “The Hotel Aftermath” from the bilities, fairness and slavishness to meaningful experience. Then they Washington Post’s Walter Reed series accuracy, in tact. had to recreate that experience for by Anne Hull and Dana Priest. Given I pointed out writerly acts the reader in as much detail as all the narrative techniques used in of rebellion in every story we read. possible. The first drafts were ter- that story, he said he thought I might Gay Talese made Frank Sinatra rible. They all re-interviewed and use the story in class. look like the prima donna he was. rewrote. Some of them called sec- That felt good. He got it, and o Tommy Tomlinson structured his ondary sources. A few of their he was still getting it. story about a mathematician like pieces became so good I could an exam. Susan Orlean spent an hardly believe it. Students
PAGE 26 LITERARY JOURNALISM / SPRING 2008 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
IALJS OFFICERS AND CHAIRS, 2006-2008 PRESIDENT Roehampton Lane John Bak London SW15 5SL William Dow (managing editor) Université Nancy 2 UNITED KINGDOM American University of Paris Centre de Télé-enseignement Universitaire (CTU) w/44-20-8392-3257 Department of Comparative Literature 42-44, avenue de la Liberation, B.P. 3397 [email protected] 147, rue de Grenelle 54015 Nancy Paris 75007 FRANCE CHAIR, MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE FRANCE w/33-(0)383-968-448 Isabel Soares Santos w/33-1-4062-0600 ext 718 h/33-(0)383-261-476 Universidade Técnica de Lisboa [email protected] fax/33-(0)383-968-449 Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas [email protected] Pólo Universitário do Alto da Ajuda, Rua Almerindo Lessa Jenny McKay (associate editor) 1300-663 Lisboa University of Stirling VICE PRESIDENT PORTUGAL Department of Film and Media Studies David Abrahamson w/351-213-619-430 Stirling FK9 4LA Northwestern University [email protected] Scotland Medill School of Journalism, 1845 Sheridan Rd. UNITED KINGDOM Evanston, IL 60208 MEMBERS, NOMINATING COMMITTEE w/44-1786-466-228 USA Alice Donat Trindade [email protected] w/01-847-467-4159 Universidade Técnica de Lisboa h/01-847-332-2223 Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas Susie Eisenhuth (book review editor) fax/01-847-332-1088 Pólo Universitário do Alto da Ajuda, Rua Almerindo Lessa University of Technology Sydney [email protected] 1300-663 Lisboa Journalism Program PORTUGAL PO Box 123 SECRETARY w/351-213-619-430 Broadway NSW 2007 Doug Underwood fax/351-213-619-442 AUSTRALIA University of Washington [email protected] w/61-2-9514-2308 Department of Communication, Box 353740 [email protected] Seattle, WA 98195 Isabel Soares Santos USA Universidade Técnica de Lisboa EDITORS, NEWSLETTER w/01-206-685-9377 Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas Bill Reynolds (co-editor) [email protected] Pólo Universitário do Alto da Ajuda, Rua Almerindo Lessa Ryerson University 1300-663 Lisboa School of Journalism, 350 Victoria St. TREASURER PORTUGAL Toronto, Ont. M5B 2K3 Bill Reynolds w/351-213-619-430 CANADA Ryerson University [email protected] w/01-416-979-5000 x6294 School of Journalism, 350 Victoria St. h/01-416-535-0892 Toronto, Ont. M5B 2K3 WEBMASTER [email protected] CANADA John Bak w/01-416-979-5000 x6294 Université Nancy 2 David Abrahamson (co-editor) h/01-416-535-0892 Centre de Télé-enseignement Universitaire (CTU) Northwestern University [email protected] 42-44, avenue de la Liberation, B.P. 3397 Medill School of Journalism, 1845 Sheridan Rd. 54015 Nancy Evanston, IL 60208 CHAIR, RESEARCH COMMITTEE FRANCE USA Alice Donat Trindade w/33-(0)383-968-448 w/01-847-467-4159 Universidade Técnica de Lisboa h/33-(0)383-261-476 h/01-847-332-2223 Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas fax/33-(0)383-968-449 f/01-847-332-1088 Pólo Universitário do Alto da Ajuda, Rua Almerindo Lessa [email protected] [email protected] 1300-663 Lisboa PORTUGAL EDITORS, LITERARY JOURNALISM STUDIES MEMBERS, BOARD OF ADVISORS (in progress) w/351-213-619-430 John Hartsock (editor) Norman Sims fax/351-213-619-442 State University of New York College at Courtland University of Massachusetts, Amherst [email protected] Department of Communication Studies Department of Journalism, Bartlett Hall #108 Courtland, NY 13045 Amherst, MA 01003 CHAIR, PROGRAM COMMITTEE USA USA Susan Greenberg w/01-607-753-4103 w/01-413-545-5929 Roehampton University h/01-607-749-6756 h/01-413-774-2970 School of Arts fax/607-753-5970 fax/01-413-545-3880 Creative Writing [email protected] [email protected]
LITERARY JOURNALISM /FALL 2007 PAGE 27 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IALJS
CONFESSIONS OF A NEOPHYTE Fifteen weeks and two epiphanies later, what the teacher has learned. By Jacqueline Marino, Kent State (U.S.A.)
hey came to my first-ever Writing course I had taught earlier in writers people on whom nothing is Feature Writing class weary the day, for my eager freshmen still lost, writers Henry James would be and restless, with iPod-plugged feeling their way through compound proud of? I didn’t know. I stum- ears and looming deadlines from the sentences. bled through a few more lectures Tdaily down the hall. They came with Teaching subject-verb agree- before realizing that while I may one semester left before graduation, ment and the correct use of lay and not be able to make them write already lie are fairly straightforward—and good stuff, at least I could make experts at terribly important at my state institu- them read good stuff. writing about tion where even journalist wannabes One day, I broke out Tom car crashes, need a tough tutorial in writing’s Wolfe’s “Las Vegas (What?) . . . tuition hikes (Can’t hear you! Too noisy) Las and basket- Vegas!!!!” and read them the lede. ball games. I stumbled “Hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, They came through a few more lectures hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, her- with far more nia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, confidence before realizing I HERNia . . .” than I had. may not be able to teach them They stared. I struggled The class to write through a few more “hernias.” I TEACHING wasn’t called asked them if they could hear the TIPS Literary craps dealer as crisply as Wolfe did Journalism, five decades earlier. One student but that’s trashed the father of New what I intend- basic building blocks. I may have Journalism for being excessive. ed to teach. To explain it as simply as been teaching high-school subject “You don’t need all those hernias,” possible, I told them I wanted their matter, but at least I knew I was help- she said. “We get it.” nonfiction to read as well as fiction. ing my students. In Feature Writing, I They did not get it. They They told me they were looking for- was lost. In a few short hours, I had still weren’t getting it. When I ward to writing with adjectives and gone from the basics to the big time. asked for examples of good writ- having lots of time. How do I teach character develop- ing, they brought in Henry Rollins That first class left me yearn- ment, pacing, voice, description and ing for the grammar-intensive Media style? How do I make these new Continued on Page 26
LITERARY JOURNALISM THE NEWSLETTER OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR LITERARY JOURNALISM STUDIES SPRING 2008 VOL. 2 NO. 2
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