Journalism Today: An Interview with Michele Weldon

Michele Weldon is an assistant professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.She is the author of I Closed My Eye: Revelations of a Battered Woman, a memoir about her experience with domestic violence; Writing to Save Your Life: How to Honor Your Story Through Journaling, a nonfiction book about writing as a means of self-discovery; and Everyman News: The Changing American Front Page, about the changing style of media.She has served as an editor, columnist, freelancer and/or contributing writer for hundreds of publications and given more than 150 lectures and keynotes since 1992.Camille Beredjick interviewed Prof. Weldon on July 7, 2010.

CB: Your book Everyman News discusses newspapers' shift towards more personal, humanistic stories, particularly on the front page.What's causing this transition?What's the significance on the culture at large?

MW: The shift is not just in journalism text, but also in digital and online, radio and traditional television.The journalistic changes reflect a cultural move toward a reverence for the individual's story and is a result of economic, historic and social evolutions.The front page is merely a reflection of the priority these stories take in our society and the placement there reflects that.More stories are anecdotal because there has been a sociological paradigm shift to the emphasis on unofficial, rather than official reactions to events.It is seeded by blogging, citizen journalism , the personal reactions to such huge news events as 9/11, and an access to publishing on a scale that never existed before.Gone are the gatekeepers in journalism, and everyone has access to tell his or her own story.Apparently, that preference for journalism told through a personal lens is preferred.

CB: How will this affect young journalists just entering the field?

MW: Thankfully, this moves the format of the accepted writing style deeply into narrative, away from a formulaic inverted pyramid style of writing.I think it is an exciting shift and allows for young journalists to have more freedom in their voices, approaches and styles.

CB: Why “thankfully”?

MW: It gives young journalists more options than I had as a beginning journalist.Narrative was reserved for veteran journalists who had already proven themselves that they could handle daily journalism and strict summary lead writing.It was the next step.Now it seems you can start your career experimenting with the craft more than writing in a strictly defined manner.

CB: Is the narrative structure one we should have been using all along, or did it evolve from the inverted pyramid style?Why?

MW: The summary lead style works in some cases still.For instance, you have a plane crash story on a website, you are not starting with what the stewardess had for breakfast.You give all the news details straightforwardly.But save a few rare instances of star writers, summary and inverted pyramid writing was mostly all that was done.It wasn't considered "news" unless it was a who, what, where, when, why lead.I am a strong believer in narrative and have been writing narrative for more than 30 years; but I was a feature writer on newspapers and magazines.Now it is less defined as barriers of writing styles that cannot be crossed.

CB: What do you see as the biggest challenges for today's journalists - both seasoned professionals and college journalists-to-be?Is the changing face of media helping or hurting them?

MW: I think all the radical changes to mainstream media are improving journalism and information gathering.Older journalists who were trained as strictly print or in another silo alone, must adapt or be passed by.It is good to shake up the status quo, it is a good thing to keep learning and reinventing yourself as a journalist.It is a good thing to challenge yourself far beyond your own comfort level.The biggest challenge is to be heard above the noise and the chaos of the media landscape.That requires excellence.And not just once in a while, but all the time.

CB: Could this mean younger journalists who were raised in the era of a "chaotic" media landscape may have a natural advantage on older journalists?Which is a greater asset in the field: more experience, or a greater understanding of new media?

MW: I think you need both, which is why I think pairing younger journalists with veterans in the newsroom is the best way to go.You cannot fake the wisdom of experience of refined news judgment in an older journalist; it evolves in a person.You get experience by doing 1,000 interviews.But young journalists bring to the table a flexibility and understanding of how technology works, how varied media can be.They are more visual, they think more quickly about how stories can be presented.I have to qualify though, that not all young journalists are so adaptable.I have run into a much more significant level of resistance to technology in my journalism courses than I ever would have expected.I would say up to 30 percent of students declare, "I am bad at technology."It is a mindset.Some young journalists think old and some old journalists think young.You need them both.

CB: As Internet-based journalism continues to develop, what do you predict for the future of newspapers and other print media?

MW: Advertising-supported ink-on-paper products are moving to extinction.The content is not the delivery mode, though the delivery mode affects the content.It is not true that people do not read long form journalism digitally, and it is not true that all print products will die.But they will stop being the primary, expected way to receive the news.As more and more technological products emerge to connect users with information, it is difficult to predict where the audience will go next, except that they will definitely go away from daily, hand-delivered text on paper products supported by department store ads.

CB: In Writing to Save Your Life, you encourage readers to better themselves through writing.What about memoir writing can make such an impact on a person's life?

MW: It is a cathartic, cognitively creative experience to research and report on your own life.It can be helpful in that it forces you to articulate your experiences thoughtfully and examine your own life as a reporter would examine an event.

CB: Did writing I Closed My Eyes change you personally?How?

MW: Absolutely.I have written thousands of articles and produced three decades of journalism, and that book is the one effort I am most proud of.I have not only told my story but literally changed lives and helped thousands of people in the process in seven languages.I get 1,000 letters a year from around the world, still, 11 years after my book was first published in 1999.I am proud of perfectly expressing exactly what it is like for a woman like me to have her life nearly destroyed by domestic violence.The book explodes myths and empowers men and women to take action and to stop blaming themselves.It took a secret I felt shamed about and gave not only me my power back, but gave power back to literally tens of thousands of women like me.

CB: What are some tips you can offer for, in the words of your website , "using your words to heal your past"?

MW: Be honest, be authentic and honor your story in your own words.Excavate the truth sincerely.Tell yourself no lies.

DMU Timestamp: November 09, 2010 14:39