http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB122419511761942501-lMyQjAxMDI4MjE0NjExOTY1Wj.html
My Analysis:
The article that I chose for my public affairs analysis was “Two Families Named McCain” from the Wall Street Journal. Within the piece, its author, Douglas A. Blackmon, explored the descendants of presidential candidate John McCain. It focused on the white McCain family and the black McCain family, the descendants of two slaves owned by the white McCain family. Blackmon also interviews Lillie McCain, a now 56 year-old descendant of the black McCain family. This falls within the realm of public affairs writing in that it deals with the social and cultural issue of race. It also has a political aspect as it relates to presidential candidate Senator John McCain.
One strong feature of the article is just the subject in general. It takes a look at the presidential campaign from a whole other perspective. While other articles spend 100s or 1000s of words talking about the candidates’ policies or campaign funding and spending, Blackmon draws the reader in with a more social or cultural piece having to do with McCain. But one of the best parts of the article is that it is not very political at all and has little to do with the actual man running for president. It talks briefly about McCain in the beginning. No doubt this is to grab the reader’s attention. But, the headline took care of that already. Then, the article delves into the history of the McCain family and takes a look at the life of Lillie McCain, a descendant of the black McCain family.
It has always been stressed by Donald Murray that voice is an important element of journalistic writing. To me, I think of voice as how I would hear the story being read out loud by the author. Also, I think of it as how the story reads, and that it can vary between friendly, easy to read or complicated and technical. Voice also has a lot to do with the tone of the article. Blackmon’s writing style or voice in this piece is spot on for the subject matter. He tackles some tricky lineage information with ease. In my opinion, the actual reporting of the voice article reads a bit like a junior high history book. But, I do not necessarily think that this is a bad thing. That type of voice definitely lends itself to the story. The short informative sentences don’t have the readers trying to comprehend too much information at one time.
A second plus for Blackmon is that he remains extremely neutral in the reporting of the story. I don’t feel that his political preference, if he has one, comes across in the article at all. And I think Blackmon isn’t really trying to tell the readers anything but the story of these two McCain families. He treats both sides equitably, which needs to be done in any piece of writing that isn’t an opinion piece. And you can tell he has done his homework in interviewing and researching also which lends to his credibility as a reporter.
While Blackmon’s writing style may appeal to many readers, I think the article lacks a balance between reported material and quotes. In some instances, Blackmon goes four or five paragraphs before using another direct quote. The information in each of the paragraphs is interesting and pertinent though. But, this imbalance may turn readers away as they begin to comb through the somewhat lengthy article. In addition, some of Blackmon’s quotes lack depth. On in particular, given by a former sharecropper on the McCain land, seems very weak. 90-year-old Frank Bryant is quotes as saying “That’s how I remember it” when asked about the white McCain’s treatment of their laborers. To me, it seems as if this would have worked better as a lead in to something else Bryant might have said in the interview. It could have been written something like: And that is how Frank Bryant, a black former Teoc sharecropper, remembers it. Then, he could have used a more substantial quote from Bryant. Even though he is 90 years-old, I am doubtful that the most useful thing Blackmon got him to say was “that’s how I remember it.”
Another example of where some quotes could use some polishing involves a paragraph where Blackmon discusses how Lillie McCain remembers seeing Martin Luther King Jr. speak, how she and her siblings were arrested for protesting, and how their church was burned down by the Ku Klux Klan. While all of this information is interesting and helps link the history aspects of the article together, I would have rather read a direct quote from Lillie McCain about the events of being arrested or seeing Dr. Martin Luther King speak. That way, the paragraph could have been turned into lead-in sentences for more direct quotes. Basically, I think Blackmon could have done less telling of the some parts of the article and let the interviewees tell it for themselves.
All in all, this article’s subject matter puts it at the top of my list of the best articles that take a deeper look within this presidential campaign and its candidates. And it does that in barely mentioning the candidate at all, but providing readers with another way to consider a lot of issues that have been brought up within the campaign, such as race and family history. Still, I feel that Blackmon did a bit too much reporting within the piece. I would have liked some more direct quotes from the people he interviewed. One thing that Donald Murray says is that people like to read about other people. And, in the same sense, I believe that extends to people like hearing what other people have to say about whatever is going on. I think more quotes would have given the article even more depth and perspective. I think it also would have given more insurance to holding a reader’s attention as well as given readers a more personal connection to the people within the story.
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