J243 Advanced Narrative

Welcome to The Mechanics, Magic, and Pitfalls of Empathy in Narrative Journalism. Falling in love with a subject. Hating a subject. Wanting to intervene in a subject’s life. In this course we’ll define what empathy means in a journalistic context. Then we’ll pick it apart. We’ll deconstruct how you build empathy through core skills like story selection, relationships with sources, framing, and voice. We’ll analyze classic examples of empathy’s power. We’ll also study pieces in which empathy has failed — pieces in which a journalist’s emotional vanity has allowed them to be manipulated by a source. Or pieces in which a journalist’s emotions have created a mess on the page.

Some classes will be devoted to reporting and writing about specific subject matter: disability, “victims”, poverty, the incarcerated, unlikeable people, animals, etc.

We’ll debate the role of empathy in covering systemic problems. We’ll look at when empathy collides with journalistic convention, when caring makes you want to cross a line — i.e., when should you intervene?

Reading will range from “Eichmann in Jerusalem” to “Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp.” Guests will include a journalist and her adult daughter with Down syndrome, the editor of Ear Hustle, a writer who had a major story killed because he felt morally compelled to help a subject personally. The visual journalist Wendy MacNaughton will work with the class on how to see.

Expectations:

Please come ready to engage intellectually and emotionally. Each week we’ll do a short writing exercise in class. Over the semester students will produce several loose sketches focused on particular skills (reporting, framing, scene selection, word choice, etc.). Students will also produce one ambitious story. This can be a 2,500-word class-specific piece or part of a larger J School project.