What a journalist can learn from Sir Winston Churchill
So, today happens to be Sir Winston Churchill’s 53rd death anniversary. Now when you have news days going on, every birth and death becomes an opportunity for a story and this became just that. I found myself looking at literary work and cinema and TV adaptations of one of Britain’s most intriguing political characters and wasn’t disappointed. Right from when I binge-watched The Crown, John Lithgow’s Churchill made a huge impression on me, not because of the larger-than-life personality, the outstanding oratory or the political shrewdness, but for a convincing portrayal of a character’s vulnerabilities. So I found myself looking up all the other celebrated Churchill portrayals on TV and cinema. Gary Oldman’s take in Darkest Hour seems so interesting; I can’t wait for the newsdays to end to run to the theatres and catch the film!
Meanwhile, irrespective of how that story turned out, the late statesman managed to teach me a thing or two in journalism today. Here goes my lessons from the newsroom for today, courtesy Churchill.
1. Word of the Day: Churchillian
While this isn’t the first time I have come across this word, it has a different ring to my ears now after close to 24 hours of living and breathing Churchill and his life. Adj. uncompromising, focused, and strong. Here’s three words I really wouldn’t mind being associated with. The man has his grey areas but you have to agree, the tale is pretty amazing! To see him always be thwarted by circumstance, friend and foe and come out probably stronger than before is worth admiration. Such strength of character, irrespective of what it was for and the vanity and subsequent frailty (ironic or expected) that came with it all made for an enjoyable chunk of information to take in. Before these news days began, I was constantly telling myself and eventually my course tutor that I found the difficulties of news gathering worrying and a little denting to my self confidence. She, in her own way, urged me to search for these very virtues. Now, three days before we say goodbye to these production days (for now), it feels good to see life come full circle.
2. Churchill- the journalist
Winston Churchill often wrote for the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, The Pioneer and Morning Post, wrote back home detailing his pursuits when he was sailing the seas to new lands or colonies and even penned a few books. He often had the tendency of being quite uni-dimensional, both in personal and official accounts. This is something a person who steps into the shoes of a journalist cannot afford to do and watching people play him and reading about him just underlines why an attempt to be objective is so important, especially in times that are crucial to shaping a country’s character.
3. Writer’s conflict: professional or personal?
Gary Oldman’s Churchill in Darkest Hour is attracting praise from every corner of the world. Today while compiling that piece for Birmingham Eastside, I found a particularly light video of Oldman, in all his Churchillian (Aha! pats own back) splendour doing a little jig. I turned around and drew attention to the video. ‘‘ That man allegedly assaulted his wife. I don’t want to see it,’’ a colleague of mine said. Now this confuses me. I like Oldman, as an actor and a performer. His work has made for some very memorable cinema. I don’t however want that to seem like it makes up for the ugly flip side of the coin. As people writing about him, it puts us in such a spot when we need to choose between viewing him as a pure professional and as a mix of his personal and work spheres. For now, I chose to go with the former. The demons shall be devoured another day.
4. A little experimentation
The timeline and just how packed with activity and drama Churchill’s life is can enchant anyone. So last night, when I should have religiously been working on my essay, I sat and tried out what a timeline of Churchill’s life would look like using one of the tools taught to us in our module. I had never tried it before and thought it worth the shot. I shall weep tears of blood about those two hours later. For now, I am just glad I know one more way of telling a a story.
While we are on the subject of the two hours, maybe prioritising and time management are also lessons I am swiftly picking up now.
5. Planning for stories
We can’t always discover important days like this on the morning of the said day. It robs you of the opportunity to prepare a more well-rounded story. Had I planned this Winston Churchill piece better, (irrespective of whether this is newsworthy or not, for the sake of personal curiosity), I would have tried to understand his Birmingham link. There was a stained glass tribute to the man installed in Dudley that was taken down. I would have tried to figure out where it is and what happened to the movement to bring it back. I would have tried to find out his impact on Brummie politics and if Conservatives here identify with the man. All this, with just a little planning. Something to work on for sure. Weekends can’t just be about waking the inner Kumbhakaran (mythical figure from our folklore who slept for six months straight)
6. Sources: spoilt for choice
There are a hundred ways to do a story. All we need is to figure out the angle. The Churchill piece is an example as several other stories through this fortnight have been. Interviews, vox pops, polls, press releases, curated articles, listicles- anything is possible to tell a story. For this one idea, I could ask film experts, political experts, regular people, historians, archivists- the list goes on. It’s nice to have experiences that open your horizons. Now I won’t be as paranoid as I was earlier to find stories or people to talk to henceforth.
7. The skill of asking: copyright permissions
I know I mentioned copyrights and checking permissions in my previous post. This is a little different though. I did everything to manage with creative commons today but there was this one picture from a website that I just absolutely wanted in my piece. So I went and checked out their reuse policy. We had to ask. ‘‘Sigh,’’ I thought. I went ahead and dropped them an email and waited for HOURS to hear back. The point of bringing this up is that intellectual property is a big deal and one cannot infringe on those rights irrespective of how important one thinks one’s own work is. India can learn a little from this. We are very casual about using images from the internet. This is a lesson we can learn. It would make our jobs there harder, but it certainly tows the line as far as ethics go.
