How a Journalist is a Star Thespian: Blog 5
Engaging a large group of people can be difficult at times. When I think about engaging an audience, the first thing that comes to mind is a play in a theater. Any theatrical performance is meant to entertain and keep the audience engaged, right? How do they do this? What type of performances are the most successful in doing so?
Performances with unique and interesting story-lines are almost always the ones to leave an impact on an audience. A play with a solid beginning, middle, and end. A play that narrates a story that can either be relatable or engaging to a larger group of people. Similarly, this tactic also works when a journalist writes articles to be read by the greater public.
A journalist has a hard job. They write about current events and world news on the daily-good and bad. Some days these articles are about Kim Kardashian’s marital status, and some days they revolve around more heavy topics such as foreign relations and a global pandemic. Journalists have to spread this news while also remaining unbiased. It is hard enough to write about news topics and engage multiple people, but how do you do it when you also have to erase any personal connection or bias to a topic? The answer is simple, you storytell. You create a narrative with an interesting beginning, middle, and end.
Not only does a narrative structure provide a more engaging way of spreading news, but it often also simplifies news to be more easily understood to a wide audience. When you think about it, a lot of current event topics can be difficult to grasp for an average person. For example, the current situation going on between Russia and the Ukraine is ever changing and has a lot of background details that are involved. For someone who is less knowledgeable on global policy and relations, it can be hard to understand what and why it is happening. When a journalist takes the structure of a beginning, middle, and end and is able to tell these current events as more of a story, people are able to grasp the information more than if someone were to just spew facts.
Journalism, similar to theater, is meant to be consumed by a variety of people; therefore, it should be engaging and accessible. A narrative-like structure makes difficult and extensive subjects easily understood and simple subjects more engaging.