Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Auperlee Reading Response
In general, I thought that Aaron's pieces were straightforward and well-reported. It was obvious in the Grass Lake Teens piece, for example, that he spent a lot of time with the two boys and their families to really get to know them and their stories. Aaron made his readers feel compassion for the teens and invested in their triumphs and failures. His attention to detail and imagery in this piece and in the Life on Chittock article really stood out to me and allowed me to connect with the people in his stories. Specifically, the section about Wanda Jordan and her grandchildren was very effectively described and the part about a child's distinct screams was both humorous and telling. I really liked watching and listening to the audio/visual segment that accompanied this piece in particular but wish that Aaron had captured the charismatic quality of Edward's voice through his writing as well. While all three stories mostly followed "good" journalistic form and were interesting to read, I found myself questioning whether the Mother Beat Cancer article wasn't pointing to some larger issues that ultimately go unaddressed. For example, does the situation of this one family allude to a critique of the American housing, healthcare, and jail systems? Or, is this story really just about one mother's love for her family? I almost felt like Aaron hadn't quite gotten to the heart of the story in his reporting but was on deadline and had to file the story as it was. It was really exciting to read a "K" graduate's work and see his name in print!
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Hi Alaina,
ReplyDeleteI thought your observation about the "Mother Beats Cancer" article was reflected in the long comment streams for each article written by Aaron. The critics of his work either wish he would focus on something "less negative" or get to the bottom of why this family appeared so dysfunctional in the first place. Bending a situation into a narrative that is tangent to so many institutions and societal woes must have been difficult for Aaron. In the end, it seems like he wanted to highlight the trials of people in a difficult circumstance trying their best. Hopefully the Citizen Patriot will run some investigative news pieces attempting to root out the causes of Jackson's housing, heath care, and jail systems, as you say.
Elaine
Alaina,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the question you posed about whether or not Aupperlee addressed the "heart" of the tangled web of issues posed through his article on the mother with cancer. I could not say that it was simply an example of her love -- I would say this piece feels "unfinished" in a sense because it does not dig deeper. While I can emphasize with the author's struggles as Elaine does, I cannot help but long for a deeper exploration of the issues raised within the context of this article, which already humanizes the characters enduring these struggles enough to give me a poignant example of how these isues hit home. However, I cannot help but admire the depth of Aupperlee's reporting and the complex, rich details and descriptors he uses.
Amanda
To offer a different opinion of the "Mother Beats Cancer" article, let me ask what the piece would look like if it did, in fact, take aim at (even one of) the complex social/political issues that it runs tangent to. My guess is that if Aupperlee wanted to write a piece about the prison system, or drug laws, or even the housing crisis, he would end up with a much longer more diffuse piece that frankly has already likely been written. I read this article as a human story that, as George Eliot would say, allows the reader to “enter with sympathy, the realities of the lonely and wounded who walk the earth beside us.” (sorry, had to drop that line from “The Events of October” because I love it!) My guess is that Aupperlee was happy enough to give the reader the insight of what this one woman’s life was like. The “heart” of the piece was very present for me; it was in her story and nothing else. She is but one in a million who, without reporters like Aupperlee, would go completely unseen. I guess I just really read for the personal, rather than the policy, and that gave the piece heart I thought.
ReplyDeletePaul