Stage at Will

Eric Durban

Staging is probably journalism's ace in the hole. Unfortunately, it can be an easy out for lazy journalists or those pressured by deadlines. The average viewer won't think twice about the video clip they have been shown. Staging also destroys one of the key aspects of being a journalist: coming up with creative/interesting stories. The ability to stage any event allows the journalist to conjure any action, rather than a "real" situation. Journalists who always result to staging should be embarrassed for cheating their viewers. Drawing on my own reporting experiences, interviews the second time around are never the same. The subjects always seem to rush and assume that you remember what they had previously said. Raw emotion can never be duplicated. The "Do not add" advice in the Poynter article seems to be as simple as you can put it. Any journalist should be able to understand that idea. I also think that the blame for misrepresentation should fall just as heavily on the editor as it does on the journalist. Experienced editors should be able to pick up on things like that and their failure to do so deserves consequence as well.