Time Magazine April 6, 1931

Time Magazine is one of the most widely known and respected papers that has ever been published in society. The reason why it has so much clout in the journalism community is its ability to stay unbiased as it gathers and presents information. Further, the writing commonly produced by Time Magazine writers is very text book journalism. It is simple in language. It has few, if any, complexities among the writing. Lastly it has, like the crux of all journalism, a straight forward message directed by a strong, hard-hitting lead. The articles presented in Time Magazine’s April 6, 1931 issue did not have these basic elements and  characteristics. Despite the discrepancies and my ability to fully connect with the cultural context/significance of some articles, this 1931 spring issue of Time Magazine really appealed to me as a reader.
As a journalism major I am always reading feats of journalistic greatness to see what items I can adapt to improve my writing. This issue was a great example of everything I was trained not to do. 10 dollar words like harangue and incubus paraded across the pages of the issue. These words are a stark contrast to the rule that newspapers and magazines have to be written at an eighth grade level so that it reaches large amounts of audiences. Another story led with the following poem:
Then, at the brief command of Lee,
Moved out that matchless infantry,
With Pickett leading grandly down,
To rush against the roaring crown
Of those dread heights of destiny. . . .

This is the first, and will also probably be the last, time that I have ever seen a journalism story introduced with an aabba rhyme scheme. 21st  century journalists would NEVER dream to utilize prose and poetry in their story unless it was a story about a new poem used to threaten the president with bombs and destruction. Being a writer who loves creative writing, especially poetry, I would love to be able to lead a story with this tactic. It would be entertaining, original, and really draw readers in.
The best example of how this issue of Time failed journalism 101 is the article of the school bus catastrophe in Little Towner, Colorado. A normal journalism lead about the particular story would read, “5 elementary school children die and from poor weather conditions and exhaustion when a school bus crashed due to inclement weather.” In contrast, the lead of the article was not hard hitting at all. The child deaths weren’t even mentioned into deep into the article. It instead slowly arranged the pieces together, so that the unexpected twist of terror could logically make sense.
The stories, regardless of their journalistic merit,  were exactly what they claimed themselves to be: stories. Currently, news is just a regurgitation of facts. Then, however, news stories were a well-crafted presentation of information that seemed more fiction than not. They were entertaining. They drew in readers. They had me not wanting to turn the page or skip ahead in the article.
I wish we as journalists still wrote in a manner where a newspaper or magazine read more like a book of short stories. I sincerely feel this would cause a positive spike in both readership and the public’s perception journalism. Reading a news article about the president’s adventures abroad would be much more appealing now if the writers incorporated emotion and detail to help readers relate to the president. Lines like, “His cheeks were a pinkish tan. Lines around his eyes had been smoothed out. He had not been so cheery for months,” which humanized Hoover and helped his constituency relate to him on a personal level, would never be incorporated now. It is too bias. But maybe this subtle bias is less of an influence and more of a push towards how journalism could have manifested itself in society--as a series of entertaining nonfiction stories written in a stylistically fiction fashion. Would this have been better or would this have crippled journalism? No one will ever know.