2010/08/07

Interview gives readers the direct story


Source:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103790515

Topic:
Grieving Chinese Family Quells Memories to Heal

Author:
Melissa Block

The terrible earthquake happened in the Sichuan province of China in 2008 shocked the world. As an international journalist, Melissa Block has reported this disaster at that time. This article is one of her follow-up articles.

In the earthquake, a young couple lost their two-year old son and their parents.Melissa Block has interviewed Wang Dan, the couple’s brother. This article reports how their family goes through the next year. The whole article is based on interview, including seven questions and answers. Melissa Block firstly asks Wang about what the couple did in last year. Then, the author emphasizes the emotion of the couple after the loss of their closest relatives.

When comparing with Melissa Block’s other articles, which reports the unfortunate family last year, she no longer writes the story from her point of view. Instead, she uses interview to let the person who is involved into this disaster to talk his own story. Without her own description and judgment, her just let the victims talk so the readers can touch their feelings directly.

As a journalist, the way to tell the story is very important. This report is a good example. The journalist chooses the best way to describe this sad family’s story by giving the vision of one of the involvers. It is like photography. A good photo is a photo can talk by itself. A good journalist aims to tell the readers all the facts. Although Melissa Block doesn’t have many words in this article, we can see her wisdom by how she chooses and organizes the questions. Interview gives readers the direct story .