Is It Okay To Cry?

...OF COURSE!

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Should Reporters Be the News?

Mon Feb 1, 2010 -- 10:35 AM ET

For decades, journalists were taught to distance themselves from their stories and to remain objective about the subject matter they were covering. There were, of course, a few early memorable examples where reporters deviated from that desired neutral position. For example, watch these two videos (for the second video, note the final 20 seconds or so of footage):




In those rare instances, the events were so sudden and tragic that the otherwise calm and collected journalists understandably lost their usual reserve and displayed their personal emotions.

There is a trend in news reporting now, however, called "emo-journalism," which one expert says has taken those prior exceptions to the rule to the next level. It's a more contrived set-up, where media outlets send their star journalists to the scenes of disasters. These reporters then insert themselves into the story, often becoming the news itself.

The reigning king of emo-journalism: Anderson Cooper.

Here he is at Qualcomm Stadium during the California wildfires of 2007.

(Credit: Nehrams2020)



And marching on January 11, 2007, in New Orleans against violence.

(Credit: Bart Everson)


“Emo-journalism is a trend that is probably being talked about in classes around the country,” Mike Lyons, an assistant professor of English at Saint Joseph's University, said in a press release. For many years, Lyons worked as a reporter for the Associated Press. He saw his own share of global disasters, such as hurricanes in the Caribbean.

“Recent examples like the CNN video of Anderson Cooper rescuing a child in the chaos of post-quake Haiti, and Sanjay Gupta performing brain surgery on television, indicate that journalistic ethics are changing," he added.

Lyons believes the shift in ideals may, in part, be due to the ubiquity of emergent technology.

“Cameras can go anywhere now and they can constantly be running,” Lyons explained. "Couple that with an appetite from the audience for ‘reality’ and it follows that those telling the stories would become part of the stories.”

Is such reality show inspired reporting wrong?

“In the end, I tell my students it is up to the individual person,” Lyons said. “But most of my students say it is wrong for the reporter to insinuate themselves into the story, and I tend to agree. In that moment when they become the story, how can they bear faithful witness to the truth?”

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I'd rather have my news delivered by a human being than a robot!