in search of: the Room of Requirement

"A revolution that is based on the people exercising their creativity in the midst of devastation is one of the great historical contributions of humankind." ~ Grace Lee Boggs

We're learning how to ask the right questions and how not to invade into others' thoughts or pattern of thoughts.

It is not easy to ask questions when you know what the answer is. If you've watched the Harry Potter movies, there's a line about the Room of Requirement. It goes like:

 "If you have to ask, you'll never know. If you know, you need only ask."

The Room of Requirement. Source: Pottermore

There's not a lot of link between that room - where what you need is waiting for you just as it has for students before you - and the work we are doing in our makeshift newsroom. But there is that need to know what we're asking about. The sources my team of reporters interview are all wary of sharing information which is not something super classified. This is why research on our part is so essential so we can call out the people we're interviewing and have followup questions ready.

Some questions bother me deeply. Just the way they are phrased is sickening and unworthy of being broadcast. But I've noted that journalists ask these questions because they believe it is essential to their work. If they don't, someone else will.

(I'm afraid I'm going to be one lonely journalist)

I guess it also depends on what you're inquiring about. Ahmed's story on non-Muslims that study at NUST bothered a few people even when he was in the process of writing it. Mahnoor S had no such issue in finding a diverse range of sources for her report on NUST making it to the BRICS world ranking. In fact, she filed in her story quite promptly. People at our university are generally good and kind, but when one asks them about really important things - issues that need to be resolved - they get defensive/protective even when the questioner is not intending any harm. If questioning the current way of how things run is equivalent to being intrusive, bothersome and blunt then so be it. Journalists should be able to ask the hard questions.

If they don't, who will?

 From what I've learned about cleaning up the mess that we humans make, there's a really basic need to talk about what happened. If one is afraid of talking and telling the truth, it is unhealthy. We cannot be so secretive as a society that we begin to avoid having the conversations that matter. It is like you're going through a loss and when a friend stops by your home, you let her in (not just into your house but also your life). When you tell her what happened, you share the burden. Your secret - perhaps not as safe but still considerably safe - is now shared. You can breathe easier. You can heal now, because it isn't weighing down upon like you a boulder that can smash your skull.

This is why I won't stop asking questions in class. I'm here to learn. And to contribute to the discussion, which is what my questions - although perhaps naive - (hopefully) do.

"We are referencing the same reality"

I don't understand plagiarism. It doesn't make sense to me. Even if one had the guarantee that they wouldn't get caught, why would they do it? Our teacher took us through the arguments made in favour of plagiarism and those made against it. It was refreshing to participate in a discussion which looked at these very real problems of copying, cheating and lying about one's work. What I found most calming was just the realisation that the discussion did not take place to insult or harm the esteem of the individual who had plagiarised. Rather, it was to educate not just that person but the entire classroom as well. It was about time we took up this topic and spoke about it in a manner that is clear, direct and decent.

For someone who has had their work plagiarised (http://www.dawn.com/news/717743/mailbox-84 - scroll down to the letter titled Plagiarism), I'm wary of this social practice more than others are. I'm stayed away from "helping people out" on their quizzes, "lending" my assignments, and "sharing" my essays primarily because it is just not fair. If we are hoping to live in a society where people aren't exploited or talent is appreciated, and is hard work credited to its real source, then how are we to justify our blatant disregard of ethics as students of journalism? Can we at least hope to maintain our own integrity once we enter our professional lives?

This week was hard and although we learned about News Values, drafts/copies,  and how to protect our sources, I'm increasingly disappointed in the general attitude towards our field of work in other classes. We're debating on issues in a way which just reeks of pessimism. Is this what we signed up for when we chose Mass Communication for our undergraduate years?

On a personal level, I'm finding that my work as the editor is not as fulfilling, interesting, or exciting as reporting is. So I'm going to try and involve myself with the actual reporting too. I've been tagging along with the reporters - two of them who specifically asked me to be there - and I've helped in interviewing students, faculty and the staff for the stories they are reporting.  

I'm also becoming increasingly protective of my reporters. I don't want them to be unfairly treated and I want people to take them seriously. I want my reporters to take themselves seriously. Am I idealistic? Naive?

a scene from The Newsroom

The things we are being taught in this course should have been the foundation of our learning here at university. Had we started with courses like this one, our vision of journalism and the ethics it asks for would have been on solid ground. We are shaky in our principles and we need to start working meaningfully. 

Our teacher was discussing our stories with us and he gave us two pieces of advice which I think applies to every situation I've encountered this week:

1. Be polite
2. Pick your battles

P.S. The blog title is also something our teacher said. 

The commitment

We've kicked off writing on our web-hosted newspaper and I'm happy to report that I've been appointed as the Editor for the Campus beat. It's not a smooth sailing, of course. Here are some moments which make it worthwhile.

Our teacher declared at the very beginning how this course will be "a commitment throughout the semester." For me, the commitment mainly comprises of editing the work that is flowing in and making sure that the flow of news is not interrupted. The reporters on the campus beat are committed to learning although what I'm noticing more than ever before is how we are, as a class, afraid of messing up. I don't know at which point in our lives were we taught that it is a terrible thing to make a mistake. I don't know where this began. I do know that this isn't OK. This is not healthy. I'm committed to learning from the mistakes I have made and I'm human. So it alright - breathe, breathe, breathe - to mess up. To know that you have made a mistake and to work on fixing it and learning from it is the next step.

a timeless example from "How I Met Your Mother"

One more lesson from this week:
There is a huge difference between emailing a source and calling a source for a response. In the latter, you get what Sir Waqas calls "a flavour of their response" to the news. The pauses, changes in breathing, and the tone itself can tell so much about how they feel about what they are sharing. It is a trust that a journalist is imparted with and so, making sure you're on the receiving end (of the call, the receiver and the news) is something you should not be taking lightly.

In another news - which is somewhat related to news reporting - I finally watched the documentary Citizenfour! It is brilliant although I do not know how my response to this should be. Should I shut off every device I own? Should I re-evaluate what I'm sharing and with whom? If their intention is to scare me - if they know that I know that they're reading and watching and listening in on every conversation - it's not going to prevent me from doing what I should be doing. As journalists living outside the U.S., it is more complicated and dangerous for us. "Believe me when I say that the surveillance we live under is the greatest privilege when compared with how we treat the rest of the world," says Edward Snowden.

Sam Waterston, who performed the role of Charlie Skinner in The Newsroom, once said, "I think a lot of people go into journalism because they hope it will be reporting the news well and then they realize it is corrupted. I think people carry that idealism with them even if they carry it in a secret place."

I cannot give up so easily though. We can still fix things. Technology and privacy are not inherently incompatible. In fact technology can make privacy more practical. In a show of faith and trust in our capabilities, our teacher said to us this week:

.آپ لوگ کام کریں گے

"What's new?"

I'm reclaiming this space - about time! - and I'm starting to use it for the purpose of recording my experiences with a newsroom which my classmates and I are running, along with our teacher who blogs about his experience here.

The first post I wrote about this exercise of writing (and not just any writing: News Writing and Reporting) was on my original blog, Makola, where I'm the child who speaks of strange things. I'm adding it here so that we can start afresh.

The first entry was called Rhythm of Reporting. (It has something to do with the quote I found and placed at the very beginning of the post):

“Be a child again. Teach me poetry. Teach me the rhythm of the sea.

Return to the words their initial innocence. Give birth to me from a

grain of wheat, not from a wound. Give birth to me and take me back

to a world before meaning, so I can embrace you on the grass. Do you

hear me? A world before meaning. The tall trees walked with us as

trees, not meaning. The naked moon crawled with us. A moon, not a

silver platter, for a meaning. Be a child again. Teach me poetry.

Teach me the rhythm of the sea.”

- In Presence of Absence, Mahmoud Darwish

I’m enrolled in a course called News Reporting and Writing. We are to run a newsroom of sorts in which we are documenting our time together and what we learned from the stories we wrote. In pursuing an education – in the conventional and formal sense – one requirement of our teacher is to maintain journal entries. Our journals will be documenting our time working on the stories we seek or stumble upon. It is likely that my blog will be held to a scrutiny of a different kind and I am to ask you, reader, to be patient with my writing. It may grow colder and far too formal for any of us to recognise. What I can try and do is bring back the makola who would speak of the stranger things. Perhaps then, this assignment will be more of an attempt to educate not only my readership but also myself. That should be fun.


I’m assigned the Campus beat where I’m to primarily work as an editor. My reporters have picked out stories they want to report on and I’m thinking of what good can come around if we begin to discuss, share and pass on what we have learned in our time here. Maybe our stories may never end up on the rundown of a major news organisation. Maybe we won’t ever be the subject of a headline, or even a shoulder. But regardless of that, I will try to share insights into this class. Perhaps someone out there will read it, seek what is good in it and make it a part of their life.


Ayesha


Interesting finds:


1. BBC’s news style guide http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/journalism/news-style-guide (Shared by our teacher during this week’s class)


2. StoryCorps 414 My Name is Yusor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTES5Hr41sE&feature=youtu.be (A podcast with Yusor Abu-Salha)


3. Dove’s campaign on “A mother’s body” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuNBduVqX4Y


4. David Carr’s interview with Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald and Fdward Snowden http://timestalks.com/laura-poitras-glenn-greenwald-edward-snowden.html