emotions and journalism

This is the portrait I set up of SIU Volleyball's Chandra Roberson (<) and Marina Medic (>). I brought the pocketwizards and the lights, but I was just helping out James, so he's the one who took the pictures. I would've done it a little more wide angle, and showing a little more of the salukis sign, but that's my style I guess.

It seems everyday more people have bad things to say about the Daily Egyptian, that it exists only to destroy the school's image and report the negative things on campus. It seems people take the Voices (a.k.a. Opinions) page and insult the paper and its staff based on what they read on those two pages. Yes, the Voices page has been somewhat brutal towards SIU President Glenn Poshard, but that is an opinion. It may be a college newspaper, but the Daily Egyptian is a stand-alone publication and it is >>> a newspaper. Negative events bring negative news.

I think what people who read the Voices page and complain need to realize is that opinions don't mean anything in journalism. Feelings don't mean anything in journalism. The fact that someone hasn't slept the last two nights while grieving over a lost son doesn't mean anything in journalism. Journalism is truth. Emotion is not truth, but an endlessly varied reaction. It is completely rational, when relevant, to report on an emotion, but never to report with an emotion.

You might think that is a heartless thing to say or that I am emotionless, but really I am the opposite. I'm controlled by emotion every day, just like everyone else. I don't take pictures because of it. I don't talk to people because of it. Sometimes I don't go to class because of it. I want to write letters to people because of it. I write on this blog because of it. Conflictingly, I am a better person because of it, but a less talented photojournalist because of it as well.

Does that mean I should be without emotion to be the best journalist I can be? No. It means I need control over my emotions. I need to suppress them, yet retain them. I need to overcome the feelings that stop me from being a journalist and embrace the feelings that make me feel more alive as a person. Sorrow? Regret? Anger? Anxiety? Life is too short to ruin now with then or to ruin now with what could be. Life is too short to make a problem out of an issue. Happiness, passion and love bring me to my work, my subjects and my fruits. They bring me to find new life in everyday. They are what drive me to succeed and what will carry me through the end of my days on this wonderful mess of a planet.

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TB