Indonesian Earthquake Kills at Least 4
There was an article in the New York Times about a recent earthquake in Indonesia. It is a well-written article with a lot of facts covered. Sometimes it sounds as if the reporter were right there when it happened, but I don’t think he was since he credits all of his information to officials and other news sources.
The reporter did a somewhat thorough job, but I don’t think he fully captured the local point of view. Residents of Indonesia who actually experience the fright of the earthquake were not used as sources. Though the reporter does capture some of the terror through the description by the officials, it would have been more effective to quote and actual resident. Also, the article discusses the new early-warning system for quakes that cause tsunamis. I think this would have been a good place for more usage of resident sources—perhaps the local point-of-view on this new system and its effectiveness.
Though this article provides readers with the facts of the earthquake, a more detailed description of its affect on the people of Indonesia was lacking. This would probably have been a more effective article if the reporter were actually in Indonesia when the earthquake occurred.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/world/asia/18indo.html?ref=asia
November 18, 2008 at 10:29 am
I read an article from a writer from the New York Times as well and I also thought that he didn’t capture the local view point well. The article I read was about a Saudi oil ship getting captured by pirates and the writer didn’t interview any Saudi people, but he did interview lots of other people. I think that the article could have definitely benefited from having the local view point in mine, and I agree that the article you read would also have been better with it as well.
December 3, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Hi there,
I defiantley agree with you. The use of quotes or interviews from actual residents would of created more emotion for us readers who did not experience or see the Earthquake. It is imporant for everyone to realize what is occuring on in the world when it comes to weather tradegies. Since global warming and the atmoshpere keeps changing, incidents that are occuring in other countries could happen to us in the future. We need more than just the basic information of what occured and more of what the residents did to prevent damagae or where they went or what they were feeling when the weather took a bad turn. Maybe if we knew more of what the residents were feeling or going though that others world wide would contribute.
I agree with your opinion and also think this is an important article.
thanks for sharing
sarah
December 9, 2008 at 4:14 pm
I think it would be difficult for the reporter to completely capture the devastation of this earthquake. Some reporters are better than others in describing the sorrow, but no one can fully explain it unless they experienced it firsthand or had family affected by it. I agree that a way to show this would be to include quotes. A local point of view would be extremely beneficial to the article. He seemed to have included a lot of technical news, but he needed quotes to capture the whole situation.