In class today: Skim-read back through Talbot's article "Stealing Life," and find three or four passages containing good examples of a reporter's way of thinking on the part of Simon or his former Baltimore Sun colleagues who are working on the show. On the blog you're keeping for COMM 337, (1) quote the passage, (2) explain what you learn from it about reporting and (3) analyze how it can help you in your career as a professional writer and editor.
In Margaret Talbot's article "Stealing Life" there are several examples of good reporter's ways of thinking that are done on the new show "The Wire". It is David Simon who has become the show's new director, but the interesting fact is that he was a former Baltimore Sun reporter, who had worked with several types of writing, but never television. This is a huge leap in his career history. The next season of the show will take place at a newspaper in Baltimore called the Baltimore Sun. Simon has decided that he is going to give some of his old colleagues some small roles on the tv show.
One great advantage that Simon has is that he has lived in Baltimore his whole life, he towns the city like the back of his hand. Simon, has written several stories for the Sun that he now can use for scenes or episodes on his tv show. He is taking his personal knowledge that he has gained from working for the Sun, and depicting the crimes in his show the way he wants them to be told, the way he wrote them years ago.
Some of the quotes that I would like to include in my passage are
“I’m the kind of person who, when I’m writing, cares above all about whether the people I’m writing about will recognize themselves. I’m not thinking about the general reader. My greatest fear is that the people in the world I’m writing about will read it and say, ‘Nah, there’s nothing there.’ ” Simon.
Simon believes that he writes for the people, and if they don't want to see who the hell else would want to even bother watching or reading it. If he can't actually get the story down from the people that he is writing about, then who cares? If you aren't going to please the person whom the story is about then what's the point in writing it? Well the answer is, that there is no point, wasted time.
If no one will want to read what you have to say, then really what it is the point. This can be very helpful to a person trying to get into the journalistic field. One needs to learn what people want to hear and read. You need to pick and chose from what it is important or what is popular, but at the same time keeping your personal values.
