These two readings provided a deeper understanding for me of what a narrative journalism piece truly is. Although they are different in many ways, a common thread that ran though both of them is the extent to which the reporters engaged themselves with their subjects. For a hard news journalism piece, I am accustomed to getting to the site of the event and doing fast reporting to be able to turn around and produce a finished product before deadline. It became more obvious to me that narrative journalism is completely different in this aspect and that a real investment is necessary for a successful finished product. In the case of Orlean, it was much more clear to me the methods that she chose to engage with her subject, the little boy. It was clear that she devoted time to observing him within the household context, at school, and in the pizza place by his school; she picked a subject and she followed him through his daily environments. In LeBlanc's piece however, he relationship with Trina was something that was very unclear to me. I was not sure if she originally set out to do a piece on Trina or if one developed simply out of her interactions with her. It seems that she blurred the line between a support system and a reporter simply trying to get a story. This created a lot of problems for me because it came off as unethical that she initiate so many interactions with someone who needed help so bad if the goal was just a story. I think of the moments when Trina would call her phone and she would not call back, only to reach out a later point in time. I think of how difficult following a person like Trina would be, but I wonder if LeBlanc gave her the hopes of a false relationship.
Having voiced my criticisms of LeBlanc's potential reporting, I think that her final product is a vibrant piece that tugged at my heart strings. She manages to give Trina this voice that his both comical and alarming. I think of the moment when she references vomiting to avoid HIV contraction and I did not want to believe that anyone would live in such a state or be so misinformed about something so crucial. However, at times a more carefree and humorous side of Trina came out-- such as her references of the "junkie shuffle" and the searing image in my mind of her flailing arms. In many ways, LeBlanc accomplished this better than Orlean for me. I thought Orlean told a story that was not that exciting or truly interesting like "Trina and Trina" was. On top of that, I think it made too many assumptions about what the "typical" ten-year-old looks like. While this is the perfect cookie cutter family that I have grown accustomed to watching on TV, my experience as a ten-year-old could not have been more different. I think it was a very upper-middle class portrayal that was used to speak for an entire group of adolescent boys and that did not read well with me. The insight into the boy's life was fun at times, but at the end of the day it was "Trina and Trina" that I had pumping through my mind and truly stuck.
It's interesting that you mention the conflict of interest that LeBlanc had when writing "Trina and Trina." At one point, she even admits that she crossed the line from journalist to friend. Such a move seems to signify that the author is straddling the line between narrative journalism and memoir. When viewed in this light, I don't think LeBlanc's conduct is particularly unethical; in fact, I think it's merely human, especially because she is so up-front about it.
ReplyDeleteIt does force us to ask a lot of interesting questions, though. Friendships seem to develop naturally when journalists immerse themselves in the subject's world. Can a journalist and a subject have a relationship outside of the piece?
Wonderful ethical questions raised here. Let's talk about them in class!
ReplyDeleteI liked how you touched on a comparison between hard news and narrative journalism- this is an interesting starting off point for understanding where each of us is coming from into this class. In class it could be important for some of us who have worked at newspapers in the “harder” news sections to start thinking about the differences, especially coming into the profile pieces, which we can all agree will likely become more personal.
ReplyDeleteYour comments about the cookie cutter ten-year-old living in a upper middle class family were not something which I had thought about at all. Do you think that this was unintentional? How do you think that the author could have broken this down in a more direct and open way? I hope we can discuss the issues of expectations for readers in class, I think this could manifested itself as a challenge in some of our upcoming reporting, and I’d like to think about how to break it down.
Matt--
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you touched on the ethical tensions in LeBlanc's piece. I too wanted more about leBlanc's relationship with Trina and it made me uneasy wondering about LeBlanc's 'using' Trina to get a juicy story.
I see what you mean about Orlean's assumption about cookie cutter boys, but I think that was her intention. My reading was that she was attempting to expose the violent, volatile nature of young boys brought up in a white, heteronormative, middle class world that is dominantly seen as safe but in actuality is quite dangerous.