After reading the article "The Cost of Dying", I was really honestly sad. Some poor guy I didn't even know had died, and him just dying had not only put an emotional stress on his family, but also a financial burden! However, the actual act of investigative reporting seems daunting to me. Don't get me wrong, the author of that article did it super well, but I personally am a little intimidated by the idea of snooping around and trying to dig up truths from people who may or may not be incredibly terrifying!
Someone has to do it, and I think the whole idea of it is romantic and fantastic. I picture myself walking around in a little press hat with a camera and notebook interviewing people and getting pushed away by famous politicians and the likes, and publishing stories that are shocking and reveal some insane truth that has been covered up or lied about or just hidden from the public. When I think about investigative reporting that way, I think it sounds amazing. But I think the vision I have of reporting in that sense is mostly derived from films I've seen and also from Could Atlas, one of my favorite books, in which an investigative reporter tries to publish something about the instability of a huge nuclear reactor and almost gets killed and gets into gun fights and has this grand adventure. In the end, her story is published and she is this huge hero and what not.
But from what I've read and understood from the class, and from an analysis of "The Cost of Dying", I think investigative and enterprise reporting may actually be somewhat dull (at least in comparison to my over-active imagination). I also think it would be incredibly stressful. I can just say, if it was my father dying, I certainly wouldn't be trying to find out more about costs and writing a whole story on it. I would probably just be crying, and sobbing, and mopping around. Not writing. And certainly not publishing my tragedy for the world to see. Furthermore, if I was investigating a person, and they came after me angrily, I might just get angry right back at them and end up not only without a story but also with a nasty lawsuit on my hands. Also, the daunting idea of deadlines springs up into my head when I think of enterprise reporting, and I know how stressed out I can get if I don't have all my information at least planned, if not gathered, but the time a deadline is even announced. I couldn't imagine if I didn't even have a story idea, or if all I had was a shell, and my editor told me the deadline was in a few days.
So overall, investigative and enterprise reporting sounds like an amazing thing, and I think it would be something I would have a great interest in trying out, and something I might even enjoy. However, I don't know if I am cut out for the job. It sounds really difficult, and I give the people who can do it an immense amount of credit and respect. I just don't know if it's something I could handle.
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