Being Concise
As journalists we are taught to be concise in our storytelling. Our goal is to explain a story as quickly and wholly, or accurately, as possible. I’m reading Noam Chomsky’s Propaganda and the Public Mind, a series of interviews of Chomsky by David Barsamian. Chomsky talks about being criticized for not being concise:
The point about concision is important … That means you can’t give an explanation of what you’re saying. So it leave you with very simple choices … Concision requires that there be no backing or evidence. That’s the way to ensure efficient thought control and to prevent people from thinking, even thinking about extremely simple things…
What is lost when journalists seek to only relay information from sources? In thinking about visual storytelling pieces, I think about the thought process I go through when I’m editing together the dialogue and visuals. I generally want it to be concise, but to answer all questions. Should everything be explained or should news raise more questions for the viewer? I think the latter. In the Powering a Nation project, I’d like to attempt to raise more questions and not just explain things. Not only raise questions, but make people angry. Content people do not act, and being content does not provoke change.