On Writing- journalism or voyeurism?

Although I am a novice fiction writer, I have been writing all my life. Well, definitely once I was in school and learned how to do it. Professionally, I have years of experience in PR and journalistic writing. I recently moved into academic writing and am gaining experience there as well. 

This background has provided me with some opinions on writing. Here you therefore get the first post of what will become a loosely connected mini-series of opinion pieces- or quite possibly rants!

I read a post by a German Anonymous blogger on Facebook yesterday. It addresses the reporting about the Germanwings plane crash in the French alps. It is in German, so I will summarize it briefly:

The blogger’s main message is that Mrs Merkel and the “lying press” in Germany are hiding facts from the German public. The main arguments are the “quick guilty verdict” of the co-pilot, who can’t defend himself any more, the evaluation of the crash by several Secret Service organizations from different nations as not being a terrorist attack, the “complete pulverization” of the plane (as it was described by a French fire fighter who worked at the scene), which the author claims could not be explained by the physical powers of a “simple” crash, and the lack of reporting on problems with poisonous fumes in cockpits.

In addition, the author questions the motives of German media and their reporting style. The main argument here is that the NY Times was the first to report about the content of the voice recording and that German media cited the Times until the details of these voice recordings were confirmed by officials the next day.

Let me assure you that I am not promoting blind followership of governments or the media. I did grow up in Germany after all, where ignorance and a lack of scrutiny had catastrophic consequences not even 100 years ago! Keeping your brain switched on when reading/watching the news is important!

But in this case, I would like to defend the reputable media outlets in Germany. I currently live in Canada and thus followed the reporting on the plane crash over here and on German news websites.

The German media have held back and shown respect for the victims and those who lost someone. They have not speculated too much and kept their distance to those who died as well as those who lost family members or friends.

The international reputable media were less respectful! The NY Times published pictures, full names of the victims and quotes of relatives soon after the crash. Similar crashes and expert speculation filled pages, CNN held a Q&A sessions on Twitter where people could ask “things they did not understand about the crash”, hashtag #GermanwingsQs and all. These outlets were the first to use the co-pilot's full name and post some grainy pictures.

Just to make this clear: I am talking about reputable media that want to be taken seriously and pride themselves on their journalistic ethics- this does not include the paper with the 4 big letters or the like. I am also not talking about bloggers or disgusting tweets, even though their baiting brought on this post. And I understand that the public has an interest in knowing what happened- I frequently fly, I want to know if it is still safe!

Still, I find this journalistic sensationalism abominable. There is a word for this voyeuristic behavior in German, it translates to “shaking widows”. I commend the (majority of the) German media for holding back and not engaging in it- so far.

But unwarranted criticism and stupid accusations like the one by Anonymous, I fear, are slowly forcing the reputable outlets to change their behavior. If their act of humanity and tact causes wild and very vocal accusations, the easiest reply would be to engage in a reporting style that satisfies this underlying lust and voraciousness for ever more intimate details. There already are tweets by German media, explaining why some outlets decide to report in a respectful manner!

And yet, the German media is relenting slowly. A first step of this move towards sensationalism can be seen in the reporting about the co-pilot right now. Yes, he did a shocking, horrible thing. But we know not much about his motives or reasons. It looks like he was sick. What’s more: he was a human and he had a family and friends that lost him and are in mourning now, just like the families and friends of the other victims. What did the co-pilot's relatives do to deserve that we don’t pay them the same respect as the other mourners by digging through his personal life, especially if we should indeed not know all the facts- as Anonymous claims?

A cynical side note: of course, this greed for personal information by the public, the tweets and the bloggers only extends to others. After all, Anonymous fiercely fights for the protection of personal data!

I sincerely I hope the German media are bold enough to stay strong, especially after I read this other post by a German journalist about her experience with sensationalized reporting. She is not hiding behind anonymity while she talks about an experience she and her family had to endure 30 years ago. When her best friend and his family drowned, two “journalists” tricked her and her family into providing pictures of the victims. She vividly describes the hurt caused by this highly unethical behavior.

I wholeheartedly second her plea to journalists and editors: consider how you would want to be treated if the victims were in your family or were your friends. The name or picture of a victim is not newsworthy. Do your research, question the validity of the information provided, but keep your reporting and your research methods respectful and humane!

Communication problems- WriteFridays Challenge 5

This has been an interesting week for me. Since English is my second language, I am not as playful with the words and the language as I might be in German. My initial thought upon reading the challenge was to write something comedic- but I am not even sure I could pull that off in German! With the past challenges, I always started with working on my first idea, which then morphed itself into the end result. This week, that did not work and I had a bad case of writers' block!

In the end, this challenge is a week late (but as a bonus, I edited more heavily before I posted- tried to eliminate filter words!). I heavily used my German- and might have missed the mark of what was asked in the challenge. The text might be unintelligible to those who don’t speak German- but thanks to modern communication tools, you can figure it out! You can find help here: 

Exercise 5: Two of your characters are having a conversation through some form of modern technology. (This could be modern as in the fast food window, modern as in “new for the 19th century” modern, or future-world modern.) How does the technology impede their communication? How does it assist? Do hijinks ensue? Or does the miscommunication have fatal results?

Communication problems

 “Nethourh gbber aorudw”

She did not understand a word of what the train driver had just said. She had to get off in five stops. Thankfully, the stops were announced by a machine voice and she could figure out where she was.

Between the crackling of the speakers, the accent of the driver and her limited language skills, she did not understand the announcements. The train driver had made three by now, but as long as nobody panicked, it was probably not too important. Five more stops and she would be at her hotel, meet her best friend and could finally sleep! The long flight, jetlag and that text message that was waiting when she switched the phone back on had gotten to her!

“Neturogugh aberre gewarde. Kommeri catu aber, oce, depat.”

Once again, she understood nothing. She sighed tiredly in response to the gibberish.

When the train came to a stop, the few others on the train hurriedly got up and left. It took her tired brain a moment to register this. Also, the doors did not close again. Then, the train engine switched off with a low rumble. On the platform, the last passengers hurried down into the tunnel system. Slowly, she stood and gathered her luggage.

As she was ready to leave the train, a man in a dirty uniform came through a door at the front of the compartment.

“This fart ends here?” she asked?

“Pardon?” he replied. 

She nodded. “Thank you for saying sorry. Who is the next train?”

“No nex’ train. Fire. Out!”

“Oh, you are fired? Or a brand?”

“You! Out! Naw!” He pointed to the door and grabbed her suitcase.

“Hey! Thank you, but I have craft to schlep this. This is a brand then? Now, who do we go? I am fast in the hotel. I not can the way, you have a card?”

Frowning, he just said: “Girl, we need’a leave. Come an, let’s go.” He hurried down the tunnel with her suitcase and she had no choice but to follow him. She registered the faint smell of smoke in the air while she followed.

Half running after the man, she asked: “Sir, I am really irritated now. What is past? Go we to the taxi?”

He just kept walking, all the way out of the building. At the curb, he stopped, put the suitcase down and turned around. “Here ya go, ma’m. The infamation desk is o’er thea. Looks like ya have ta wait fo' a cab.” He pointed towards a group of people huddled together, tipped his hand to his head, turned around and disappeared.

WriteFridays Challenge- My short autobiography

This week, my friend Rachel had some problems with her blog and posted the #WriteFridays challenge on Twitter:

#WriteFridays #writingprompt: A short story has a beginning, middle & end ... And this one has only 140 characters or less. :D

My contribution is hitting very close to home this week- yes, I clicked!!!- and comes in quite a bit below the 140 characters!

A faint dream...Writing and worrying. Talking and hoping. A cheer! A cheer! Considerations and... a click! My future decided.

WriteFridays Challenge 4- The painful beauty

I apologize for not posting last week’s challenge. I actually wrote large chunks of it, but then went out of town and forgot my notes at home. I plan to post challenge 3 next week when I am back home and on a more regular schedule again. In the meantime, here’s challenge 4, inspired by my current surroundings. Everything else is fiction, similarities to real people are purely coincidental!

Exercise 4: Your character holds a photograph that he or she just can’t let go. What is it about the scene depicted that holds their attention? Why has he or she been saving it all this time? Or, conversely, why has he or she made the decision to get rid of it? Where did it come from? Write a scene that tells your reader a little about the world in which your character lives through this photograph.

The Painful Beauty

The mountains. He hated the mountains. He hated them because of her. He used to love them, they were home to him. They looked beautiful in the photograph. For a moment, he stared at the snow-covered peaks, the rugged rocks and the dark trees clinging to the steep flanks. He felt a longing, mixed with that dull aching he always felt when he looked at the picture. Slowly, his eyes drifted from the beautiful nature in the background to the couple in the foreground of the picture. He had expected the familiar pain that came when his eyes met hers in the photograph. He almost welcomed it by now. She was stunning. She had always managed to take his breath away. The mountains were his first love, but she had stolen his heart. She had turned his world upside down. Taken his heart and smashed it. Not just dropped it, but smashed it.

He thought back to their time together, the lighthearted, carefree man he had been back then. They had met during a ski trip, had felt an instant connection and soon were inseparable. They had made plans for a future together. They had dreamed of a small, wooden house in the mountains with a front porch facing the sun, overlooking the valley, in the exact spot where the picture was taken. They were so happy to finally have found their future. Or so he had thought.

He saw his arm protectively wrapped around her shoulders, his forehead lightly touching her temple while she beamed to the camera. He saw a couple that was deeply in love, two people that were blissfully happy. To him, that’s what they had been back then, before she left and took his soul with him. 

She not only smashed his heart, when she left, she destroyed him. Only days after they had found this spot, had imagined their home there, kids, a normal life without the crazy schedules they both had kept, she betrayed him.

Betrayed. He has always felt that the word could not express what she had done to him. She had hurt him, stomped on his heart, stopped his world not only from turning but erased its existence.  When she went back on set just days after they had taken this picture together, she slept with her co-star and got caught by the press. She immediately spun a story about their secret love, bought the piece of land in the mountains and the last he heard, they wanted to build the future together that he had dreamed of with her. She cast him aside like an old shirt she did not want any more. There was not even a message, no call, no explanation. Just humiliation and pain.

He took a deep breath and lowered the picture, staring over the water beyond the flames of the campfire in front of him. He missed the mountains, but they reminded him of her. He now lived near the sea. He had avoided the mountains for the last 2 years, ever since the morning when he saw those pictures of her with him. Almost at the same time, he  got that call from a friend who had seen them.

He had kept nothing from their time together, just this picture, but that did not help much. First, there had been pictures of them everywhere he went and pitiful glances his way. When those stopped, there was just the pain inside him. The pain slowly mixed with anger and disappointment. It hurt but also made him numb. He stopped caring, about himself and about others. He stopped talking to his friends and family, until they slowly gave up. Now, he just got a quick call from his mother every few weeks. His old self was gone, as if it was locked into the picture he was holding.

He knew he needed to let go of the picture. He knew he had to let go of the anger and hate as well. He wanted the pain to stop and his life to start again. It would be a different life than the one he had had with her. But he knew that he would come out stronger.

His eyes focused on the flames in front of him and then glanced at the photograph in his hand. This was the first step into a new life.