Among
many other writers who give this advice, Meg Cabot, author of the Princess
Diaries series, once said she found most of her inspiration for her stories
from her very own diary she has kept since middle school. In my opinion, I
don’t believe many people who keep a diary be it via journal or on a blog,
actually write thinking that one day someone will find it and it will become a
bestseller, much less the beginning of a revolution. The attack on Malala
Yousafzai due to what was written in her journal has not only interested me on
the level of a 14 year old girl standing up to the Taliban, but on a personal one
as well. After watching the TED Talk from Manal al-Sharif about the oppression
of women in the Middle East, hearing that they weren't allowed to drive or even
be called by their name, I have followed the foundation “Drivers of our own
Destiny,” set up to help women in Muslim dominated countries find their voice.
I am also emotionally connected to this story as well, because I have kept a
journal since middle school and even though I may lose some friends and my
parents may be upset, it wouldn't be a huge deal. Malala’s diary scared the
Taliban! Her words could very much bring the momentum needed to start a
revolution, and that is incredible.
The
lead from the first account of the story on Washington Post mentioned “a 14
year old Pakistani student was critically wounded Tuesday by a gunman who boarded
her school bus, asked for her by name, aimed his pistol at her head and fired.”
Although the information offered was good, the article jumped around too much.
The second paragraph merely skimmed over her being an anonymous writer about
the Taliban atrocities for the BBC. This is an interesting piece, and I think
readers would want to know why the BBC chose a ninth grader to be their
anonymous correspondent. The next paragraph talks about Swat Valley (where
Malala is from) as a tourist destination, with very few Taliban attacks. The
article then jumps to mentioning many Pakistanis see Yousafzai as a “symbol of
hope in a country long beset by violence and despair.” She won the
International Children’s peace Prize for “her bravery in standing up for girls’
education rights when few others in Pakistan would do so.”
The
next paragraph was a touch ironic, for it mentioned the vigils school children
across the nation and that even though they (young children) were holding these
vigils, major religious parties and mosque leaders remained silent, “for fear
of provoking the Taliban.” Just something to think about.
The
odd part of this account was the skipping around, it started off with the
altercation, went to talking about the Valley, the school vigils, offered a
little more about what happened on the bus, quoted her father and the Chief of
Army General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and then ended the article with even more
information about what happened on the bus. “A masked man stopped the school
van, the driver tried to speed off, but the man shot her before jumping off and
escaping.” I enjoyed the article and through these journalism courses I have
found the Washington Post to be my favorite newspaper, but I wish they kept
everything together instead of skipping around, getting to the rest of the
information when they felt like it.
When
the Washington Post took a more straightforward perspective, the New York Times
went for a more dramatic and rather emotional approach. “On Tuesday, masked
Taliban gunmen answered Ms. Yousafzai’s courage with bullets, singling out the
14 year old on a bus filled with terrified school children, shooting her in the
head and neck. Two other girls were wounded in the attack.” The article doesn't start out with the attack however, but hints at the blog writing, “At age 11,
Malala Yousafzai took on the Taliban by giving voice to her dreams.”
A
quote from a Taliban spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, called her “crusade for
education rights and obscenity. She has become a symbol of Western culture and
was openly propagating it. Let this be a lesson.” He then commented that if she
was to survive the attack, the Taliban would come for her again.
The
article included quotes from her diary, “During the morning assembly we were
told not to wear colorful clothes as the Taliban would object to it.” According
to the article, she wore a pink dress to the assembly that day. “On my way home from school I heard a man
saying, ‘I will kill you,’ I hastened by pace and after a while I looked back
if the man was still coming behind me. But to my utter relief he was talking on
his mobile and must have been threatening someone else.” Apparently not.
The
school Malala attended was forced to close and she escaped to Abbottabad (the
town where Osama bin Laden was killed last year). That summer, the Pakistani
Army fought against the Taliban and an uneasy peace settled over the city.
Yousafzai was a prominent voice in the community, a classmate Fatima Aziz said,
“We found her to be very bold, and it inspired every one of us.”
The
article said the Taliban violence was a “fresh blow for Pakistan’s beleaguered progressives,
who seethed with frustration and anger.” A tweet from a media commentator,
Nadeem F. Paracha was quoted, “Come on brothers, be real men. Kill a school
girl.”
The
Times pulled at heart strings in this account, they talked about the community
fighting back against the Taliban and used more dramatic language when
describing the shooting (i.e. “terrified school children” “answered courage
with bullets” “seethed in anger”). Although I enjoyed reading the account
because it was so dramatic and should be since it’s the Taliban shooting a 14
year old girl, this may also be a red flag of sorts since I am now curious as
to what else the Times is being a little over the top about.
The
Wall Street Journal was concise and to the point, the report barely reached a
page. Like the New York Times, a few key phrases such as, “symbol of
resistance,” “incident sparked outrage” stood out. The only mention what the
actual shooting was in the lead and that did not even tell the reader that she
was shot on a school bus. “was shot by Taliban gunmen in Swat Valley. Malala
survived the attack but underwent complicated surgery to remove the bullet from
her head, and is reported to be in stable condition.” This is cool because it
gives the reader a straightforward account of what happened, but I think that
the school bus detail is important and should be a part of the account.
The
Wall Street Journal may have been the only one that did not make a huge deal
out of the shooting, but it is the only one that explained the BBC aspect of
the story. “Malala first came to prominence in 2009 when she wrote an anonymous
blog for BBC Urdu about her experiences as a school girl as the Taliban forced
closures of private schools as part of an edict banning girls’ education.
Malala’s identity was revealed later, and she was nominated for an
International Children’s peace Prize.”
The
article included quotes from her diary, “During the morning assembly we were
told not to wear colorful clothes as the Taliban would object to it.” According
to the article, she wore a pink dress to the assembly that day.
The
article concluded with the final, rather ominous quote, “On my way home from
school I heard a man saying, ‘I will kill you,’ I hastened by pace and after a
while I looked back if the man was still coming behind me. But to my utter
relief he was talking on his mobile and must have been threatening someone
else.” Apparently not.
Although
I knew I wanted to write the critique on this report, I was worried that all of
the articles I read would look the same. To me, it is such a huge issue, it was
about a ninth grade girl standing up to the Taliban, and it included the
Taliban who everyone hates. This may have not been a story that revealed a
newspapers standing on a particular issue, but it did show the personality of
the paper and general tone. I would say The New York Times is on the dramatic
side, the Washington Post is in the middle, and the Wall Street Journal is on
the more dry side of the news writing spectrum. I also think that this has
proved to me that you kind of have to read all of the papers in order to get
the right kind of perspective on the situation. If you solely read the wall
Street Journal for instance, you probably wouldn’t understand the heaviness of
the situation.
