Greetings good citizen, most of you are familiar with the 5 W's from the Disney film Gallagher, about a 'cub reporter' chasing leads into danger back at the turn of the last century...
Too young for that? Doesn't matter. The 5 w's are known to professional journalists everywhere, some clever son of a gun worked them into the theme song for this particular Disney flick...circa 1966 if you're having a hard time remembering...it's likely because you don't.
Who, what, when, where and why...followed/coupled with 'how'.
EVERY (good) news story touches all of these stones. Probably why we have a society where everybody walks around with half-baked ideas in their head, placed there by journalists that glossed over one of the five (actually six, but one of them doesn't start with W) critical factors
Depending on the type of story (or the creativity of the reporter) usually determines which of the five they 'lead' with.
If it's scandalous, they lead with 'Who'. If it's curious they lead with 'What'. If it's an issue (or a sermon) They lead with 'Why'...which is to point out that When and Where are often only supporting factors, things the reader wants to know but have little bearing on the information being imparted.
STOP! I know you've already come up with some 'excellent exceptions' to these 'guidelines' [How ironic the first rule of writing is the same as the first rule of fighting...and that is there are no rules!]
While the guidelines make for 'good writing' (reporting) good reading comes from the control and judicial use of 'exposition'.
Humans, having unnaturally short attention spans, like to get their info [given the current slant/emphasis on entertainment I hesitate to use the suffix 'mation' when it is more likely 'tainment'...creative fluff that is either trivial, false/only partially true or both.
That said, it is I who frequently laments not getting to the 'point' of these rants in the first couple of paragraphs.
Shall we walk through the 5 W's of my favorite hobby horse?
Let's start with 'Who', okay?
This is (naturally) a two-sided story, one of victims and perps. Since 'specifics' aren't available we will have to use 'generalizations' as writers often do, using terms like the Haves and the Have Nots; although for this particular exercise I prefer 'Citizens' (most of you) and Criminals (the One Percent and their legion of lackeys.)
We can do this in almost any order so I'll knock out 'where & when' in a single statement, 'here and now'.
This clears the path for What, another multi-parter. Depending on where you're sitting it's either our messed up and stubbornly immutable political apparatus OR it's the obvious mismanagement that plagues our society from top to bottom.
Even the rich know they have 'more than they can spend' Why doesn't it occur to them to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?
Money sitting in bank accounts collecting nothing is doing them zero good yet, inexplicably, we have MILLIONS of homeless nationally and billions worldwide.
What's causing it? Is it 'politics' or 'mismanagement' [attributable to colossal STUPIDITY!] One thing's for sure, it's not 'invisible', EVERYONE can see it.
Never occurs to the 'blessed' that the afflicted, freezing and starving in squalor, look upon the idle untold riches of the, er, [fill-in-the-blank] and ask 'Why'?
It would take but a tiny bit to relieve the suffering of the destitute but those managing our society 'feel' (nobody accuses this bunch of THINKING) it's 'better' to keep 'em hungry. That way they'll be more 'agreeable' when a short term gig comes along.
The 'insecurity' of our 'hand to mouth' existence has become commonplace, just look at the Heck's, America's new 'average family' being parodied in a sitcom.
I suspect one of the thing that makes the show so popular is most people can 'relate' to it.
Now I'll ask YOU WHAT that says about our [badly mismanaged] society?
Almost done, the only thing left is HOW...
To which I redirect your flagging attention to the question each of us must answer upon opening our eyes each and every day.
'How will I live?'
Do you mentally hit the 'autoplay button in your head and rock out to the tune 'let the bodies hit the floor' as you shuffle into the kitchen to brew a pot of go-juice?
Or do you hope it ain't too cold (or warm) to go 'dumpster diving'?
Oh, you've got a steady gig? Well, that makes things simple...but honestly, how many times do you get up in the morning wondering if the rumors are true? [The one that seems to NEVER leave ANY workplace, ever, the one that says 'they're going to have a lay-off on Friday!'
You know your continued 'well-being' relies on being invited back to play again tomorrow.
Now let me ask you, honestly. Is this any way to live?
Short answer...[hint, it's shorter than yes.]
The 5 W's good citizen, think about it!
Thanks once again for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
Too young for that? Doesn't matter. The 5 w's are known to professional journalists everywhere, some clever son of a gun worked them into the theme song for this particular Disney flick...circa 1966 if you're having a hard time remembering...it's likely because you don't.
Who, what, when, where and why...followed/coupled with 'how'.
EVERY (good) news story touches all of these stones. Probably why we have a society where everybody walks around with half-baked ideas in their head, placed there by journalists that glossed over one of the five (actually six, but one of them doesn't start with W) critical factors
Depending on the type of story (or the creativity of the reporter) usually determines which of the five they 'lead' with.
If it's scandalous, they lead with 'Who'. If it's curious they lead with 'What'. If it's an issue (or a sermon) They lead with 'Why'...which is to point out that When and Where are often only supporting factors, things the reader wants to know but have little bearing on the information being imparted.
STOP! I know you've already come up with some 'excellent exceptions' to these 'guidelines' [How ironic the first rule of writing is the same as the first rule of fighting...and that is there are no rules!]
While the guidelines make for 'good writing' (reporting) good reading comes from the control and judicial use of 'exposition'.
Humans, having unnaturally short attention spans, like to get their info [given the current slant/emphasis on entertainment I hesitate to use the suffix 'mation' when it is more likely 'tainment'...creative fluff that is either trivial, false/only partially true or both.
That said, it is I who frequently laments not getting to the 'point' of these rants in the first couple of paragraphs.
Shall we walk through the 5 W's of my favorite hobby horse?
Let's start with 'Who', okay?
This is (naturally) a two-sided story, one of victims and perps. Since 'specifics' aren't available we will have to use 'generalizations' as writers often do, using terms like the Haves and the Have Nots; although for this particular exercise I prefer 'Citizens' (most of you) and Criminals (the One Percent and their legion of lackeys.)
We can do this in almost any order so I'll knock out 'where & when' in a single statement, 'here and now'.
This clears the path for What, another multi-parter. Depending on where you're sitting it's either our messed up and stubbornly immutable political apparatus OR it's the obvious mismanagement that plagues our society from top to bottom.
Even the rich know they have 'more than they can spend' Why doesn't it occur to them to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?
Money sitting in bank accounts collecting nothing is doing them zero good yet, inexplicably, we have MILLIONS of homeless nationally and billions worldwide.
What's causing it? Is it 'politics' or 'mismanagement' [attributable to colossal STUPIDITY!] One thing's for sure, it's not 'invisible', EVERYONE can see it.
Never occurs to the 'blessed' that the afflicted, freezing and starving in squalor, look upon the idle untold riches of the, er, [fill-in-the-blank] and ask 'Why'?
It would take but a tiny bit to relieve the suffering of the destitute but those managing our society 'feel' (nobody accuses this bunch of THINKING) it's 'better' to keep 'em hungry. That way they'll be more 'agreeable' when a short term gig comes along.
The 'insecurity' of our 'hand to mouth' existence has become commonplace, just look at the Heck's, America's new 'average family' being parodied in a sitcom.
I suspect one of the thing that makes the show so popular is most people can 'relate' to it.
Now I'll ask YOU WHAT that says about our [badly mismanaged] society?
Almost done, the only thing left is HOW...
To which I redirect your flagging attention to the question each of us must answer upon opening our eyes each and every day.
'How will I live?'
Do you mentally hit the 'autoplay button in your head and rock out to the tune 'let the bodies hit the floor' as you shuffle into the kitchen to brew a pot of go-juice?
Or do you hope it ain't too cold (or warm) to go 'dumpster diving'?
Oh, you've got a steady gig? Well, that makes things simple...but honestly, how many times do you get up in the morning wondering if the rumors are true? [The one that seems to NEVER leave ANY workplace, ever, the one that says 'they're going to have a lay-off on Friday!'
You know your continued 'well-being' relies on being invited back to play again tomorrow.
Now let me ask you, honestly. Is this any way to live?
Short answer...[hint, it's shorter than yes.]
The 5 W's good citizen, think about it!
Thanks once again for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
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