Award-winning writer focuses on ‘why’

Journalist Gary Smith

4:24 p.m., Oct. 12, 2004--Speaking at the first-ever Homecoming Weekend journalism lecture, award-winning journalist Gary Smith urged an audience of faculty, students, alumni and working journalists to step off the beaten path of conventional reporting and to approach each story as a chance to explain and illuminate the human condition.

Smith made his remarks to an audience of about 50 persons Oct. 1 in Memorial Hall, in an event sponsored by UD’s College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of English and the Journalism Program.

“My talk today is more about breaking out of the pack in a large sense, leaving behind what is comfortable and pushing for something more,” Smith said. “I approach each assignment not as an opportunity to write a newspaper article or a magazine piece, but as a chance to write a short story.”

A Delaware native and graduate of LaSalle University in Philadelphia, Smith worked for the Philadelphia Daily News and the New York Daily News before joining Sports Illustrated, where his stories on the famous and the obscure have earned him numerous honors, including four National Magazine Awards, the magazine writing equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize.

“For me, a story is a chance to learn a little more about what made one human being think and do whatever it happened to be that I was writing about,” Smith said. “By extension, this would help explain why all human beings think and act the way they do.”

In discussing the five basic tenets of journalism, Smith noted that while questions addressing who, what, when, where are important, it is the “why” element that helps to address universal issues and also lifts stories to the level of art.

Smith also said that, while he appreciates the fact that such writing is a tall order for a reporter working on a 25-minute deadline, it should always remain a goal that writers aim for whenever the chance occurs.

“The stories that people are going to remember are not the ones about who is hot and who is cold, who is slumping or injured, or who is in the pennant race,” Smith said. “Whether you cover the [Philadelphia] Eagles or the high school team or even the local school board, or whether you end up with a microphone or a pen in your hand, you should cultivate a curiosity about human beings. If you do, this will separate your work from others in the profession who never make it past the stuff like who is hot and who is cold.”

Smith also said that it is important for writers to occasionally place themselves in strange situations and to then use the knowledge gained by such experiences when interviewing subjects for future stories.

“When you are more at ease going into an interview, it puts the other person more at ease, and the result is that you get a better interview,” Smith said.

Article by Jerry Rhodes
Photo by Greg Drew

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