Illustrating the Role of a Journalist: Friday, May 17, 2024

By David David Mazula from the College of the Ozarks

Today, we got to hear our first lecture from the legendary Lee Pitts himself. It turns out

writing satirical emails isn’t his only skill — he also knows his stuff when it comes to the

field of journalism. His instruction began with an image of a painting that he displayed for

the class. “Can someone tell me what’s in this painting?” I was the first one foolhardy

enough to answer. “A shepherd? A fisherman? A farmer?” All of these answers were true,

but none was the one he was looking for. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the name of this

painting is Landscape with the Fall of Icarus. The painting depicts a 16th century scene

bustling with activity. Ships sail through the sea, a shepherd leads his flock, and a farmer

pushes his plow across the top of a craggy cliff face. In the bottom corner of the painting, a

leg just barely juts out from under the water — the only clue that this painting depicts the

death of the mythical character Icarus. Pitts used this painting to make a striking point

about the role of a journalist: to notice the things no one else does, and to give a voice to

those no one listens to. He spent the rest of the lecture discussing the craft of news

writing; I was impressed by his ability to break down something as abstract as writing well

into such a tangible, step-by-step process. He really hammered the point that a news story

is just what it says on the tin: a story, which means that it should contain a setting, a

protagonist, and a conflict to overcome.