To raise the awareness and to see many politically active American Muslims, I wrote my first article at Blasting News:
In fact, my original article was double this length but I had to cut its half according to the site maximum length regulation. Therefore, ISA will try to publish soon some unpublished excerpts ISA.
Read an share, please!
Waiting your replies and opinions!
Thanks in advance!
Image source: www.emerge-usa.org
Egyptian revolution, which turned everybody into activist and/or advocate.
Through two lectures at Harvard Extension, we discussed the differences between: advocate, activist and journalist. In this piece, will summarize the different ideas we discussed. The main question was: “Should a journalist be an advocate or activist?”
The difference between the advocate and activist; the advocate is helping someone or a group or a cause by written word or orally. While the activist, is the one on the ground, rallying and organizing people to make the change.
The journalist, should be neutral, he has to be objective and never state his own thoughts or push them in his pieces. He should be fair and report the different opposing parties over the conflict and not sticking to one side only.
The journalist should neither be an activist nor advocate. Most of us became skeptical about this point; journalism is the Fourth State and should inform the public. If a journalist is enthusiastic about a certain cause, he should not be an advocate for it but on best cases, report people who have his same views and values.
There are gray areas, like freedom of speech. Dan Gillmor wrote: “When it comes to free speech, journalists should be activists.” The main goal from freedom of speech is restraining the government from corruption, it acts like the watchdog.
The journalist can be an activist for a certain cause, hence, he should not report about it. He can have several hats as activist, author or journalist. But during the reporting, the journalist has to remind himself to stay objective and report what the sources are saying even if he personally has opposing point of view.
Moreover, according to these criteria, most of the media outlets right now are not objective. They drive the public’s opinion according to their agendas. Fair and objective journalist should not have any agenda.
Image source: http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2011/1/27/2011127142051918140_20.jpg
Reading Don Fry’s book “Writing your Way”, while writing the last feature piece was really useful to put all theories in practice in real time. Now, to digest more, I asked myself about my strong areas and weak areas.
Always the first chapters in any writing book are about the ideas, then the interviews. These are in my strong realm, I never run out of ideas nor people.
My real problems start when I start transcribing the interviews and writing the first draft. In Don Fry, he simplified the process to write in blocks, and to add the golden coins. The golden coins can be illustrated as pictures or strong quotes to keep the reader hooked and to push the story forward.
Moreover, I face the problem of how to end the story so the reader can remember it. Fry said that the ending is like a nice frame, that if cut, the story can still stand by itself.
Blundell’s book “The art and craft of feature writing”, answered these two weak points in six part step-by-step guide over two stages. The six parts are: History, scope, reasons, impacts, countermoves, and futures. The two stages are: planning and execution, and organization.
In the planning and execution stage, the step-by-step guide for the six blocks are listed in the book as specific questions for each part. As a summary, it is as follows:
In the organization stage, Blundell said that the only way is to index the facts and the interviews according to the 6-blocks mentioned above. He decomposed any feature story to the following stages:
One: Tease me, you devil.
Two: Tell me what you’re up to.
Three: Oh yeah?
Four: I’ll buy it. Help me remember it.
Hmm…this quote is quite true: “Writing is easy. You just open a vein and bleed.”
Fighting my internal critic and my mind over the gig selection
Finally, I have finished reading Don Fry’s book “Writing Your Way.” I like most the last chapter, where he collected all the book’s techniques. I feel that I want to re-read it again and want to re-write all my stories again, upon what I learned from the book. My internal critic is so loud right now yelling at me, “Do not pitch, you are not ready yet. Work on knowing yourself. You need more time to investigate your strengths and weaknesses.” But I can never know without trying.
Other than fighting with my internal critic, I am fighting my mind on the gig selection. It is like questioning myself: “Which cage do I like most, in order to lock my mind in it?” I get bored fast, nevertheless, I know that hopping around will not help me earn any money.
I know that there are shortage in journalists; who write about Muslims in America. According to my blogs’ analytics, the readers like most what I write about politics, travel, parenting and book reviews respectively.
I think I should start collecting newspapers’ writing guidelines and ask my social media about which of my writings they like most. May be talking with people, helps me decide.
Image source: https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/sport-lamp-shadow-pugilist-fight-fighting-mfln5046_low.jpg