Nieman 80: Journalism That Makes a Difference
How are great journalists made? Often, it’s pieces of great journalism that help form them, influencing their lives or careers in an indelible way. To celebrate the Nieman Foundation for Journalism’s 80th anniversary in 2018, we asked Nieman Fellows to share works of journalism that in some way left a significant mark on them, their work or their beat, their country, or their culture. The result is what Nieman curator Ann Marie Lipinski calls “an accidental curriculum that has shaped generations of journalists.”
“Mrs. Kelly’s Monster” has never left me.
“The heartbeat goes pop, pop, pop, 70 beats a minute.”
[sidebar style="right" head="Nieman 80" deck=""]
More Nieman Fellows on exemplary journalism that influenced them[/sidebar]
In his December 12, 1978 article in The Baltimore Evening Sun, Jon Franklin put me in the operating room and spiked my heartbeat with his words.
He had an inspired idea: witness something remarkable yet common. Every hour of every day, a surgeon somewhere is trying to save a dying patient.
A life-and-death plot with three characters. Surgeon. Patient. The “monster” in her brain. Electrifying pace. Complex procedures rendered with stunning clarity.
“The aneurysm finally appears at the end of the tunnel, throbbing, visibly thin, a lumpy, overstretched bag, the color of rich cream, swelling out from the once-strong arterial wall, a tire about to blow out, a balloon ready to burst, a time-bomb the size of a pea.”
I read that story over and over in college. Later I had my journalism students at Georgetown University read it out loud to feel their own hearts go pop, pop, pop.
Great idea. Precision writing. No fancy words. Pure power.
[sidebar head="Mrs. Kelly’s Monster" Deck="By Jon Franklin
The Baltimore Evening Sun, Dec. 12, 1978" style="full"]
Narrative Journalism
[/sidebar]
“The heartbeat goes pop, pop, pop, 70 beats a minute.”
[sidebar style="right" head="Nieman 80" deck=""]
More Nieman Fellows on exemplary journalism that influenced them[/sidebar]
In his December 12, 1978 article in The Baltimore Evening Sun, Jon Franklin put me in the operating room and spiked my heartbeat with his words.
He had an inspired idea: witness something remarkable yet common. Every hour of every day, a surgeon somewhere is trying to save a dying patient.
A life-and-death plot with three characters. Surgeon. Patient. The “monster” in her brain. Electrifying pace. Complex procedures rendered with stunning clarity.
“The aneurysm finally appears at the end of the tunnel, throbbing, visibly thin, a lumpy, overstretched bag, the color of rich cream, swelling out from the once-strong arterial wall, a tire about to blow out, a balloon ready to burst, a time-bomb the size of a pea.”
I read that story over and over in college. Later I had my journalism students at Georgetown University read it out loud to feel their own hearts go pop, pop, pop.
Great idea. Precision writing. No fancy words. Pure power.
[sidebar head="Mrs. Kelly’s Monster" Deck="By Jon Franklin
The Baltimore Evening Sun, Dec. 12, 1978" style="full"]
Narrative Journalism
[/sidebar]
