I’ve taught and trained a lot of young journalists over the years. From headlines to lead writing, context to nugraphs, the inverted pyramid structure to quotes and paraphrasing. From news writing to feature writing, from analysis to updates to wrap-ups, night-leads and lead-alls.
One thing I used to spend a lot of time on was the art of asking a good question. I just heard a few examples - coming from the ceiling - of Uncle Chen’s press conference and I’m afraid I started losing the will to live.
It’s important to stress that there is no such thing as a stupid question. But there is such a thing as people asking stupid questions just for the sake of it.
I hate to bash the media, and I fully understand that reporters are under huge pressure from editors to try and squeeze anything new out of any interaction with someone as important as a minister.
But the kind of questions I just heard being asked were really beyond ridiculous. It’s no wonder Chen looked genuinely puzzled trying to think down to the level of some of them.
‘After coming up from scuba-diving you are on the beach and you don’t have a mask, will you get fined if you have to walk across a stretch of beach to get a mask from where you left your stuff?’
Chen came back and basically said use a zipper bag, because he had to say something. If it had been me I would have said “For God’s sake, just use your common sense.”
There is no black and white in all this and it saddens me that reporters with such easy and regular access to someone at Ministerial level, a luxury not enjoyed in many countries even in the midst of the pandemic, can’t come up with questions that actually challenge him.
And finally, It is the style around the world that all the reporters at something like a Ministerial briefing that is broadcast nationally that they identify themselves and the media organisation they represent when they ask a question.
Tinkerty Tonk...
《 蠢問題》 她又黏在天花板上了，這是我這個星期第三次把用完的梯子收起來。 多年來，我訓練過很多年輕記者。從標題 (headlines) 到第一段 (lead writing)，從上下文 (context) 到核心段落 (nugraphs)，從倒金字塔結構 (inverted pyramid structure) 到引用和轉述 (quotes and paraphrasing)，從新聞寫作 (news writing) 到專題寫作 (feature writing)，從分析 (analysis) 到更新(updates) 到綜合 (wrap-ups) 再到總結 (night-leads and lead-alls)。 (譯者註：這是通訊社的寫法，不過基本原則大致適用於所有新聞寫作) 我花了很多時間和受訓記者討論如何提出好問題的藝術，剛剛我從天花板上聽到陳叔叔的記者會上的幾個例子，我覺得我開始失去活下去的意志。 要注意，沒有愚蠢的問題。 但是有人提出愚蠢問題，好像只是為了要開口問。 記者是我一輩子的職業所以其實我討厭抨擊媒體，而且我完全理解記者承受著來自編輯的巨大壓力，想盡千方百計要從與部長這樣重要的人的任何互動中，擠出點新東西來。 但我剛剛聽到的一些問題真的是太荒謬了，難怪陳叔叔看起來很困惑，並且試圖降低到其中一些人的水準去回答。 “潛水回來後走在海灘上，你沒有戴口罩，如果得穿過沙灘到你放東西的地方取口罩，會被罰款嗎？” 陳叔叔基本上回答用拉鍊袋，因為他得回答記者的問題。如果是我，我會說：“看在上帝的份上，用你的常識吧。” 這一切都不是非黑即白，但令我感到難過的是，台灣記者能夠如此輕鬆而且定期接觸到部長級別的人，即使在疫情大流行期間，在許多國家是一種奢侈，但他們卻無法提出可以挑戰他的嚴肅問題。 最後，記者參加向全國廣播的部長級記者會，提問時表明自己和代表媒體的身份，是國際慣例。 Tinkerty Tonk… 掰掰。
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