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Article starts like this: "THE MOVING VAN from Sacramento chokes its way through Miami's thick August air" What is it with want-to-be novelists and journalism

Article starts like this: "THE MOVING VAN from Sacramento chokes its way through Miami's thick August air" What is it with want-to-be novelists and journalism? Who has time for all that? It's a plague lately in media. Just tell the simple story.

ForHackernews 7y ago
You can read AP wire stories if you prefer those: https://www.si.com/nba/2019/01/23/kings-executive-jeffrey-david-pleads-guilty-fraud https://www.si.com/nba/2019/01/23/kings-executive-jeffrey-da... > Former executive Jeffrey David pleaded guilty to federal charges of wire fraud and identity theft. Just the facts.
- mythrwy 7y ago
  Somewhere in between this and parent article (but leaning more to this) would be perfect. A little detail is good but these text walls of "A tall slim man he stood in the shade of a very old tree that was greener then an emerald as he took a drag on his cigarette and told me he had known Bob since childhood" get old fast. Am I the only one that doesn't want a screenplay to read about a sequence of events? Or thinks that type of stuff is becoming far too common lately?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - leppr 7y ago
    It depends if the goal is mostly to inform or entertain me. For some investigative-type articles about a foreign culture/environment, it can be enjoyable. For news reporting, it's a nuisance.
  - ergothus 7y ago
    Right? I DO have interest in a higher level of detail - how was this uncovered, etc - but the whole article was painful to parse. I also had to keep remembering that "Jeff" and "David" were the same person.
    - yellowapple 7y ago
      Yeah, that bugged me, too. No reason why the author couldn't have been consistent about whether to use the first or last name there. Or at the very least used "Mr. David" instead of just "David" to make it clear that no, this ain't some other guy named "David". It's okay if it's clearly a first name, but when it's ambiguous like that it's confusing.
alexpetralia 7y ago
This is called narrative journalism[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_journalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_journalism
- Scoundreller 7y ago
  Still funny for a sports journal. "Today he drove in from his new mansion on Beach Ave designed by noted architect Willem Van Vondenberg and CHECK OUT THAT SLAM DUNK! Let's see it on the replay again and again and again."
ericzawo 7y ago
If you can't make it past the first three paragraphs before making an assessment of this well researched piece perhaps you need to evaluate how much time YOU have. It's a feature article not an AP wire report.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- mythrwy 7y ago
  I wouldn't say I "can't", nor do I believe my distaste for this form of writing indicates I should evaluate anything about my use of time. Frankly that along with the caps "YOU" comes off a bit hostile, but I see you are a writer so maybe it came of as a personal attack of sorts. Apologies if so. I see these type of articles as ultimately doomed to fail because the audience they are after likely isn't the curl up by the fire with a novel while wearing a faded beige cardigan that smells of tea and old book set. Plus they are really annoying when I'm trying to obtain information. It's not just time. More attention and working memory. These types of articles abuse it for very little gain. They are like Christian rock. Not good rock. Not very Christian. This is an entirely different topic from how well researched the article is. Consider this an opinion piece rather than a news comment.
FooHentai 7y ago
That's characteristic of 'Long-Form Journalism', which you're right is becoming more common lately. Another common characteristic that can be annoying with Long-Form Journalism is the way it often jumps around, focusing on the subject at hand for a paragraph, then jumping off into some background context/flavor meanderings for a while before returning again to the core topic. I kinda enjoy it for what it is, when I have time, but it's a very different thing from 'real news'. More of a reflective, long-term digest piece and I think that's a reflection of where that style came from (think National Geographic more than Daily Telegraph).
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
dang 7y ago
Please don't post generic complaints that don't have to do with the topic. They never do any good, and they make boring reading. Every article, like very website, has its annoyances. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

ForHackernews 7y ago

You can read AP wire stories if you prefer those: https://www.si.com/nba/2019/01/23/kings-executive-jeffrey-david-pleads-guilty-fraud https://www.si.com/nba/2019/01/23/kings-executive-jeffrey-da... > Former executive Jeffrey David pleaded guilty to federal charges of wire fraud and identity theft. Just the facts.

mythrwy 7y ago
Somewhere in between this and parent article (but leaning more to this) would be perfect. A little detail is good but these text walls of "A tall slim man he stood in the shade of a very old tree that was greener then an emerald as he took a drag on his cigarette and told me he had known Bob since childhood" get old fast. Am I the only one that doesn't want a screenplay to read about a sequence of events? Or thinks that type of stuff is becoming far too common lately?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- leppr 7y ago
  It depends if the goal is mostly to inform or entertain me. For some investigative-type articles about a foreign culture/environment, it can be enjoyable. For news reporting, it's a nuisance.
- ergothus 7y ago
  Right? I DO have interest in a higher level of detail - how was this uncovered, etc - but the whole article was painful to parse. I also had to keep remembering that "Jeff" and "David" were the same person.
  - yellowapple 7y ago
    Yeah, that bugged me, too. No reason why the author couldn't have been consistent about whether to use the first or last name there. Or at the very least used "Mr. David" instead of just "David" to make it clear that no, this ain't some other guy named "David". It's okay if it's clearly a first name, but when it's ambiguous like that it's confusing.

alexpetralia 7y ago

This is called narrative journalism[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_journalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_journalism

Scoundreller 7y ago
Still funny for a sports journal. "Today he drove in from his new mansion on Beach Ave designed by noted architect Willem Van Vondenberg and CHECK OUT THAT SLAM DUNK! Let's see it on the replay again and again and again."

ericzawo 7y ago

If you can't make it past the first three paragraphs before making an assessment of this well researched piece perhaps you need to evaluate how much time YOU have. It's a feature article not an AP wire report.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
mythrwy 7y ago
I wouldn't say I "can't", nor do I believe my distaste for this form of writing indicates I should evaluate anything about my use of time. Frankly that along with the caps "YOU" comes off a bit hostile, but I see you are a writer so maybe it came of as a personal attack of sorts. Apologies if so. I see these type of articles as ultimately doomed to fail because the audience they are after likely isn't the curl up by the fire with a novel while wearing a faded beige cardigan that smells of tea and old book set. Plus they are really annoying when I'm trying to obtain information. It's not just time. More attention and working memory. These types of articles abuse it for very little gain. They are like Christian rock. Not good rock. Not very Christian. This is an entirely different topic from how well researched the article is. Consider this an opinion piece rather than a news comment.

FooHentai 7y ago

That's characteristic of 'Long-Form Journalism', which you're right is becoming more common lately. Another common characteristic that can be annoying with Long-Form Journalism is the way it often jumps around, focusing on the subject at hand for a paragraph, then jumping off into some background context/flavor meanderings for a while before returning again to the core topic. I kinda enjoy it for what it is, when I have time, but it's a very different thing from 'real news'. More of a reflective, long-term digest piece and I think that's a reflection of where that style came from (think National Geographic more than Daily Telegraph).

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

dang 7y ago

Please don't post generic complaints that don't have to do with the topic. They never do any good, and they make boring reading. Every article, like very website, has its annoyances. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html