This quote by Joseph Smith is about kindness, humility, and mercy. Shockingly, this can be applied to news writing!
When writing a news piece, sometimes it seems the opposite of merciful. You have to write about crimes, conflicts, mistakes, and controversies. You have to ask hard questions and put all of the facts out on the table, even the ugly ones. If you don’t, you’re publishing biased information, which can affect your standing as a reporter or journalist. The heart behind reporting, though, is very similar to the message behind the quote.
Compassion.
The first big thing I have noticed in journalism is fairness. When a reporter treats people with real kindness, especially when someone is in a terrible situation, they get more honest and detailed information to share. Building off what I said earlier about your standing, it builds trust. With companies, sources, victims, whoever you are asking to speak to about a topic,
Your kindness does nothing to harm your accuracy. Your information will be even stronger when people open up to you.
Your kindness and mercy, mind you, help you avoid harm. When you choose not to influence others’ beliefs by blowing things out of proportion for attention, avoiding stereotypes, and keeping in mind that your stories are about people.
The people you talk to and write about are real people with real backstories. Lives, families, friends, all of whom you impact if you choose to write untruthful things to get a little bit of newswriting fame.
That doesn’t mean you should ignore the bad things. That will harm the people wronged by the subject. Your other part of the job is to give a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves, or cannot get their needs into the public eye themselves, such as in missing person cases or hit-and-run car accidents. You’re serving your community. Tell their stories in a way that motivates others to create solutions and bring attention to injustices.
I recently read an article of a Pakistani teenager in an Israeli prison for 9 months, for allegedly throwing rocks at some passerby. It was reported that he had been mistreated and beaten, with no contact with his family. If the story hadn’t gotten the attention of the public eye thanks to people reporting on it, we don’t know when he would have been released.
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