Journalist’s masquerade

The constant conflict between the journalism cherubs and the theatre cherubs brought upon me an idea that I had not think of before. Aristotle states in his book, 'Poetics,' that theatre is an 'imitation' of emotion, action, and life. In a sense, theatre is a language, for as an art form, it evokes and expresses emotions.

Okay, now it may seem like I am praising theatre, and I am. However, let me add that journalism is also a form of language in human society. I personally believe journalism can go further as in expression and evocation of emotion, than can any other language. Descriptive articles, reports, investigation, etc all show part of human life and action, and evokes and expresses human emotion. Not only does journalism achieve the stated, but it also requires one to become someone else while writing. When writing a story, especially during an interview or while writing a special on an individual, a journalist may need to become someone who they are not to bring out the best story that may be hidden within the individual. Journalism, in another word, innately requires theatre. Journalists often have to put on a mask to bring out a story; actors are the same, except that they do not write the result of their masquerade. What I find funny about actors is that the ability to act as a certain character depends on whether the actor has absorbed the character as his persona or not. Some may disagree, but I believe that an actor has to absorb the character, and completely be the character who he or she is trying to portray, to a point in which he or she can be unconscious about the character to 'act.' If an actor cannot do that, he or she has not written a good story, in a journalistic term. Journalists, however, when confronted with the problem of the masquerade, are put in a different situation. They have to be aware that they have to portray a different character while keeping in mind the story they are looking for with their individual persona. They cannot delve into this another persona and lose the point of their being becoming someone else.

    Basically, journalists have to strive to be an actor, a writer, a linguist, and an artist; all at the same time. Now this has been a rather complicated, beat-around-the-bush type of a writing. To summarize my point more frankly, journalists are more than just writers and are better than the actors.