Emo-Journalism

(Overly, some say) emotional journalism.

Commenting on the international media’s presence in Haiti, The Philadelphia Inquirer’s John Timpane pondered the risk that reporters were, once again, “becoming the story”:

Journalists have cleared debris, fed the hungry, rescued victims. And in this age of the reporter-doctor, they’ve set bones, delivered babies, and even done brain surgery.

Since 1980, news has swung more and more toward the personal. During Katrina, in 2005, some correspondents got so feely that the term “emo-journalism” – not a term of praise – was coined. Richard Goedkoop, associate professor of communication at La Salle University, recalls that “you had people like Geraldo Rivera standing on endangered levees, or Anderson Cooper demanding to know why help wasn’t arriving.”

But Goedkoop says the personal has its value. “My local paper ran a headline yesterday something like, ‘Perhaps 200,000 Dead in Haiti,’ ” he said. “It’s difficult to get your mind around such numbers – but an individual, personalized story … can bring the story home better.”