Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Piracy Q and A

While doing research for my paper I came across this article on bbc.com and think it's an excellent example of when ASF's work well. The story is laid out with a quick brief about the Somali Pirate issue at the top followed by a series of Q and A grafs. For an issue like this one, I think a Q and A is the perfect way to inform the reader.
When I personally heard about the surge in piracy off the Horn of Africa I was quite confused. Prior to this, I associated the word "piracy" with two things: illegal music downloads and men with peg legs. Somali pirates are obviously neither of these things. They are sophisticated, fast-moving hi-jackers capable of taking over sea-faring vessels exponentially larger than the boats they travel on. They use small boats with high-powered outboard motors and heavy weaponry, namely AK-47's, to get the job done.
But I wouldn't have known this if not for a simple Q and A article like the one I linked to above. Q and A articles are excellent for reporting on issues like this that are foreign to the average person. Questions like "Why can't they be stopped?" and "How do they hi-jack ships?" are very simple but I'm sure a surprising number of people don't know the answere. A straight news article wouldn't be able to answere these questions so directly, and so in this case an ASF works quite well.

2 comments:

  1. I couldn't agree more. Oftentimes, journalists assume their readers understand advanced terms when in reality, they do not at all. Understanding what a true pirate is acts as the perfect example. Why? The media cannot blame anyone but themselves for this confusion. Movies, t.v. shows and pictures constantly reinforce the peg leg image. I'm glad the ASF wrote this article, too. It cleared up a lot of my confusion!

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  2. I agree. I learned a lot about piracy from reading this. It shows a lot of thought on the part of the journalist in confronting the questions that readers might have.

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