Must-read essay in CJR
Journalism desperately needs a return to terrain, to the kind of
firsthand, solitary discovery of local knowledge best associated with
old-fashioned travel writing. — Robert Kaplan, correspondent for
Atlantic MonthlyKaplan's
essay in CJR
is inspiring. Take a moment to read when you can because I think he
speaks largely to freelancers for whom solitary writing and reporting
is fundamental to the gig.
Reporting, — one of history’s
oldest professions, even as it has gone under different names — will
survive and prosper, while “journalism” as a respected discipline
threatens to dissolve into another branch of entertainment. How will
good reporting survive? Individual men and women will slip away from
the crowd — away from the panels and seminars, the courses and
conferences, away from the writers’ hangouts and e-mails networks — to
cultivate loneliness.