Second February Post

On February 22, I went to a talk that Rex Smith, the editor of The Times Union newspaper in Albany, was giving at Emma Willard. He talked about journalists’ imperative to tell the truth as well as they can, to strive for objectivity, and to wrestle with questions of ethics, among other things. Before stopping for questions, he added that another role of journalism that he sees as being as important as the delivery of facts is the revelation of lives and situations that most people don’t relate to. He described this kind of horizon-broadening journalism as serving to expose to readers more of the human condition, allowing them to see something of someone else’s experience and to therefore access more of their own humanity.

I was so excited and gratified to hear Mr. Smith talk this way about journalism because as I continue through my project at RISSE, both attempting this kind of journalism myself and reading the work of others, I am increasingly captivated by the kind of writing that attempts to both describe and induce humanness. Those two efforts are ultimately interwoven, I think, but I also believe that being aware of both of them is crucial to effective writing.