ABSTRACT
Lara Logan, the chief foreign correspondent for CBS News, recognized her responsibility to get close to the story when she covered the war in Iraq. Robert Capa was talking specifically about photojournalism, but his advice applies to all forms of journalism. Shoe leather that is worn and expended in the search of the real-life stories of real people. Fons Tuinstra, a Danish journalist based in China, has written about how Internet social networks have aided him in covering events all over Asia. Call it journalistic attention deficit disorder, a condition in which we hear but don’t listen and see but don’t observe. Paying attention is more than taking copious notes. Good observation, William Ruehlmann says, requires two things: concentration and analysis. The best reporters—beginners and veterans alike—accept no substitute for walking up tenement steps and knocking on doors, or driving to the scene of an event and talking to people.
