I want to be a war correspondent.

Be a journalist first. If you do well, you will be transferred to the battlefield.

Teacher Miao of Sanlian Life Weekly put forward three conditions for being a good reporter.

First, be curious and curious;

Second, you must have communication skills, understand what others say, and make others willing to talk to you;

Third, we should have a feeling for words.

In addition, there is another sentence you can choose to use: what is a good reporter? People who can grasp the situation quickly are good journalists. Can also exchange needed items, with the spirit of cooperation.

Many journalists are born with curiosity, a heartfelt interest, almost possessed, and they must get to the bottom of everything; Another important condition is to expose the wrong behavior. Besides, great journalists are also interested in balance and justice. And writing ability, which is hard to get. Once you have it, it will become a part of your nature. A good reporter is like a good camera.

Many people want to know about the traditions of The New York Times. The challenge of this job comes from finding the right interviewee. If you want to tell the story of this newspaper in the 20th century, no one is more suitable than Ar thur Gelb, and the publisher of this newspaper thinks so, so I asked him to write a memoir, City Room, which recorded his rich experience as an assistant editor in The New York Times for 45 years. After retiring from 1999, he still kept an office in the newspaper, which is one of the courtesy he received as a legendary newspaper.

On the morning of May 2 1 local time, Gebu answered my phone at his home in new york and told his story on The New York Times. Unlike the old man who is nearly eighty years old, his voice is clear and powerful and his thinking is orderly. His opening remarks were somewhat unexpected: "Next week will be the 60th anniversary of my joining The New York Times. 1944 started work in late may. It's 2004, and May is coming to an end, so it's 60 years! "

A good reporter is born.

265438+20th Century Business Herald (hereinafter referred to as "2 1 Century"): You have worked in The New York Times all your life. Who is the most interesting editor you know? Why?

Arthur Gebu (hereinafter referred to as Gebu): The most interesting editor is certainly A.M. Rosenthal. He was a great journalist at first, and he was born with the instinct to report. He is the first student journalist accredited to City University of new york. This is a free school, mainly for children of European immigrants. European immigrants come from poor families. They want their children to receive education and have a better future. It is not easy to get into this school. You must get very, very good grades in high school. Rosenthal went to this school and was the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper, so The New York Times asked him to be a student reporter-at that time, our newspaper had student reporters in various colleges, who were responsible for reporting the news of our school. Rosenthal did so well that he got a formal position in the newspaper a few weeks before graduation. He accepted the position immediately and never graduated! He is two years older than me and has shown unusual talent from the beginning. Shortly after the end of World War II and the founding of the United Nations, he began to report the news of the United Nations, doing better than others. Later, he was sent overseas, first to India, then to Poland, and his report won the Pulitzer Prize, then to Japan, and then he was recalled to China as an editor by an eager senior editor, in charge of the local news department. As a deputy, I have the opportunity to observe his genius up close. In fact, he may be the most talented reporter and editor I know in the newspaper building, which has a great influence on me. I followed him almost step by step, but in different directions. When I was a journalist, he liked international news, while I liked cultural news better, so I became the chief cultural journalist and then became a cultural editor. Then he asked me to join his local news department as a deputy. Our cooperation is very close, and so is the promotion path. He is always one step ahead of me.

265438+20th Century: You mentioned the instinct of reporting. Can this thing be seen from the candidates?

Gebu: I believe you can see this from his articles, including reports and interviews. However, I always feel that many journalists are born with curiosity, a heartfelt interest, almost possessed, and everything must be inquired into. As long as they have this instinct, they will have the important conditions to become a great reporter, that is, trying to get more information, writing a complete and thorough report and pursuing accuracy.

Another important condition is to expose the wrong behavior, which is very important for many talented journalists I know. Besides, great journalists are also interested in balance and justice. They want to explain the facts, but they also know that they must try their best to be balanced and fair. Excellent reporting embodies all these characteristics.

And writing ability, which is hard to get. Once you have it, it will become a part of your nature. A great reporter can make readers seem to witness the fire, crime or battlefield he reports. A good reporter is like a good camera. As long as we look back at the reports before the popularization of cameras and television, we will find that the written reports of great American journalists on events like the Civil War are so vivid that you can see every detail of the battlefield accurately at once, as if you were really there, standing with the reporters.

265438+20th century: As you said, that was before cameras and televisions became popular. Now that technology is so advanced, what will happen to newspapers that pay attention to written reports? For example, can it compete with TV?

Gebu: Ordinary newspapers can't do it, but great newspapers can, because the best TV programs can really achieve good results in reporting, but they can't record all kinds of things that have happened in the world for many years, analyze them and show all aspects of a specific thing we want to know. Television is just a passing sight, and usually prefers news with action. For example, in the case of war or disaster, of course, no one can beat television. They can send continuous pictures from the scene, but newspapers can't-this is not without exception. For example, the photos sent back by Life magazine from the Normandy landing site are mainly from robert capa. It can be said that his photos overwhelm the documentary about the landing to some extent, because your attention can be focused on the excellent composition of the soldier's face and photos. A photo may be more powerful than a documentary. A great newspaper has the ability to report all the hundreds of important news that happened that day and give a thorough and detailed description, which TV can't do. Television mainly pleases another kind of audience, which is a little lower than that in The New York Times.

265438+20th century: Do you think you must have experience as a journalist to be an excellent editor?

Gebu: Of course, there is no doubt! I don't believe you can skip the reporter and still become an excellent editor. It's probably no problem to be an editor-in-chief You must be able to understand what challenges journalists face, how to overcome them, what writing problems may be caused by the pressure of deadline, how to solve the problem of how to obtain facts quickly, and how to obtain facts from different channels. The obstacle often lies in collecting facts and writing a beautiful and error-free report. This is a reporter's daily experience, year after year, only reporters can understand. I don't understand why someone can teach journalism without being a reporter or editor, and I don't believe anyone can be a good editor without being a reporter. I will never allow this to happen when I am in power.

265438+20th century: What do you think of school education? Can the school teach us how to be a good reporter or editor?

Gabe: Since I first joined this newspaper, I think Meyer Berg is the greatest and most literate writer among American journalists. He is poor and has many brothers and sisters. /kloc-When he is 0/2 years old, he will work to help support his family. He has never received any formal education, but he likes reading. His wife is a teacher. Help teach him. He became the best writer in American newspapers. So you can teach yourself to be a reporter without formal education. But if you plan to report on a specific field, such as science or architecture, you need to be educated in this field. If you say comprehensive news, you don't have to, but you should be smart, like reading, have a desire to learn and be able to teach yourself. If you like reading hungrily, like reading Shakespeare and other great writers, historians and poets, like learning about current events through newspapers such as The New Yorker, and you have a natural ability to absorb information and express your ideas beautifully, you are sure to be qualified for the job of a reporter. Editors must be tolerant.

265438+20th century: You also mentioned the stories of many great journalists in your book. They seem difficult to get along with. As an editor, how do you deal with them and make them a cooperative team?

Gaby: All talented people are difficult to get along with! I have never seen a brilliant or even brilliant writer easy to get along with. Because they are always anxious and eager for recognition, they don't like being told how to write articles. I am also a writer, so I know how to deal with them. Be nice to them! Chat with them, have lunch with them, listen to their complaints, try to solve their problems, get to know their wives or husbands, maintain a caring attitude and appreciate their talents. I like such a person, a talented person can always have an impact on others. Editors can't think they are the best and must be tolerant, which doesn't mean that editors can't strictly demand and set high standards.

265438+20th century: It seems that one of the differences between editors and journalists is that editors are more tolerant.

Gebu: Yes, the editor may think that a talented reporter has chosen the wrong reporting direction, but he must be very tolerant and try to understand how to get the other person back on the right track. Not all editors are good editors, but there are second-rate editors. A great editor must have rich reporting experience, tolerance, patience, understanding, willingness to listen and certain sensitivity. He must also have understanding and sympathy, and be willing to support and listen to each other. Only in this way will the reporter feel that the editor supports him, and he will begin to respect the talent and personality of the editor and be willing to accept the changes requested by the editor.

265438+20th century: But as an editor of a daily newspaper, how can you be patient under such pressure when the deadline always seems to come in an instant?

Gaby: Of course, sometimes you really lose patience. For example, there are only a few minutes before the deadline. I should sign the manuscript first and improve it in the next issue, but I want to report the news comprehensively so much that I put forward an impossible request-let the reporter rewrite the whole report. As a result, he fainted in the middle of the newspaper. This is because the pressure of pursuing perfection often makes us forget that we are all mortals.

"265438+20th century": In this case, it is not easy for everyone to unite to cope with the pressure. Can we say that one of the secrets of the success of this newspaper lies in its harmonious and friendly atmosphere?

Gebu: The success of this newspaper stems from its insistence on hiring the best talents for many years. Once there are many talented people working together, there will be an inspiring environment to motivate everyone to do their best. When the 9. 1 1 incident broke out, we sent all talented journalists to report everywhere, and as a result, we won seven Pulitzer prizes for the newspaper. This is the way of big news. We have so many personnel reserves that we can find the most suitable person as long as something big happens. Talent inspires talent. Once you find yourself in a talented environment, you will always try to show your skills. This is why The New York Times can maintain its position as the most influential newspaper in the United States. It will also miss the news and wrestle everywhere, but its greatness lies in its constant pursuit of perfection. Newspapers change with ideas.

265438+20th century: Can you introduce the culture of your newspaper, and how does the editor-in-chief ensure that the successor understands and inherits this culture?

Gaby: The way I received training is a good example. When I work, you can only go step by step, starting with a reporter, or like me, you first become a reporter who reports public safety news, understand what the police and criminals are doing, learn all the skills to collect necessary facts, and know how to get to the scene of the case or get the truth from officials before the police. Public security news can make you master these skills quickly, and then you can probably run comprehensive news and sit in the newspaper news department and other editors to assign tasks, and any topic is possible; Next, you may get a special line, such as the city hall special line or the hospital special line where I run. Step by step, until you fully understand this newspaper, the ideas it represents become a part of your body and mind. When you become an editor, you will not only go through this process, but also learn a lot of skills from conversations with senior journalists. You will inherit the tradition of newspaper from them-fairness, balance and accuracy. You will be able to assign tasks to journalists and edit their reports, and do better every day until you are confident that you can decide the development direction of the newspaper.

265438+20th century: In the past 60 years, great changes have taken place in newspapers and journalism. How do you think The New York Times has adapted to these changes?

Gaby: This has to start from the beginning. You must remember that The New York Times has existed for 185 1 year. 18 1996, AdolphOchs, a little-known newspaper publisher in Tennessee, heard that The New York Times might go bankrupt and bought it. Ochs is an ideal newspaper publisher. He wants to turn The New York Times into a great newspaper. For example, he firmly believes that if you want to be an educated person, you should understand the changes in the world. Therefore, he placed international news in a position second only to the front page. This is contrary to the practice of most newspapers at that time. He also defined some specific principles, such as hiring the best international journalists and the best cultural commentators to create a great newspaper. This newspaper has experienced the development of 100 years, and its foundation is so solid that readers can always keep up with and accept any changes, as long as the speed is not too fast. They may not like some new things in the newspaper, such as new sections and columns, but as long as the basic methods of doing news have not changed, there will be no problem. The goal of all these efforts is to continue the foundation laid by early publishers. Change is because the world is changing, and newspapers must change with it. Sometimes it may go too far in a certain direction, but eventually the newspaper will stabilize after the change, and we will find that it is still a great newspaper.

265438+20th century: Speaking of publishers, you also said in your book that your publishers never rely on opinion polls to determine what readers really need. So how do you know when and what changes should be made?

Gaby: When I say the world is changing, I mean our standards are changing. We describe sex more today than we did 25 years ago, and we also describe new diseases such as homosexuality and AIDS. Things that seem important today may not have been taken seriously before. For example, we didn't write about homosexuality 25 years ago, and we didn't pay much attention to the changes of women as a group. When I joined the newspaper, there were no black journalists and there were only a handful of female journalists. In the past, it was inconvenient for Jews to go abroad ... In short, the world has changed, the concept has changed, and the newspaper has also changed. Sometimes newspapers even cause changes, such as newspaper reports on the Vietnam War and Watergate, and the way we report on the Bush administration today. These reports have caused shocks and changes in the United States. Sometimes newspapers can really cause changes by focusing on a certain field.

265438+20th century: Are you worried that newspapers or media may become too powerful?

Gebu: No, not in a democratic society, because a newspaper will never become too powerful. The key to maintaining social freedom is newspapers, that is, information. If you can't get all the information, it's hard to keep your freedom, because the media is the only way to ensure freedom. There must always be a newspaper like The New York Times, so that journalists can dig up as much information as possible. Sometimes it is difficult to get this information, but newspapers should try their best to use the best journalists. Doing so will never make the newspaper too powerful. Newspapers are as important as Congress or the President. We call them "the fourth power". I don't know what we would do without newspapers. This can be very dangerous.