Jacqui Banaszynski retired as the endowed Knight Chair in Editing at the Missouri School of Journalism in 2017, is editor at Nieman Storyboard, and a faculty fellow at the Poynter Institute. She won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in feature writing for “AIDS in the Heartland,” a series about a gay farm couple facing AIDS, and was a finalist for the 1986 Pulitzer in international reporting for her account of the sub-Saharan famine.
This column was originally published as an issue of Nieman Storyboard’s weekly newsletter. You can read back issues of the newsletter and subscribe here. Thoughts this week turn to the creativity that is rising out of … Read more
Some journalistic tenets are almost sacred, among them: The story is not about us. But sometimes, the story is. Or at least the journalist is living the same story as his or her sources and readers. That is especially … Read more
Journalism is, at core, a reactive profession. Something happens; journalists react. Then they cover the counter-reaction to the reaction, and track any consequences as they dribble out. I used to think of this as the Day 1-Day 2 story … Read more
Do you remember your college commencement speaker, or anything s/he said? I had it in my head that a state legislator spoke at my high school graduation in 1970, but had to reach out to former classmates to confirm … Read more
This column was originally published as an issue of Nieman Storyboard’s weekly newsletter. You can read back issues of the newsletter and subscribe here. We read most stories from a distance — whether that distance is … Read more
While there are no dearth of journalism textbooks on the market, many skim over well-trod territory rather than dive deep into a specialty field. And those that do take that deep dive — whether writing about how to interview … Read more
It’s a predictable moment: A reporter needs some relevant emotion for story, so — recorder running and notebook poised — asks: “How does it feel?” You can insert the situation of your choice: Trial verdict. Lottery win. Pink slip. Read more
Who can say what causes a reader to pause, in one moment, a line or passage she might zoom through at other times? Some sudden notice of the melody of language? Some echo of a forgotten conversation? For me, … Read more
Somewhere in the early pages of “Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process,” John McPhee gives a nod to daily news reporters. The author and New Yorker writer was explaining his own, wildly successful writing … Read more
