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This American Life: radio review This American Life: radio review
(7 months later)
It's often claimed that the trouble with contemporary news culture, burbling along on air, online, all of the time, is the lack of real depth afforded to any one story. That, despite a multimedia, 24-hour news cycle, it's difficult to retain much in the way of substance; we are fuelling up on too much content of too little worth.It's often claimed that the trouble with contemporary news culture, burbling along on air, online, all of the time, is the lack of real depth afforded to any one story. That, despite a multimedia, 24-hour news cycle, it's difficult to retain much in the way of substance; we are fuelling up on too much content of too little worth.
It's a fair point. One amplified by the must-hear special on gun violence presented by This American Life. On the day Barack Obama visited Chicago to talk, in part, about gun control, Ira Glass and his team unloaded their agenda-setting weapon: the second part of a deeply unsettling, often tragic, documentary on Harper High, a school that saw 29 of its students shot at last year, eight of them dying. To understand and make sense of the bloodshed, This American Life embedded three journalists, who were given eye-opening access, to observe the school over five months.It's a fair point. One amplified by the must-hear special on gun violence presented by This American Life. On the day Barack Obama visited Chicago to talk, in part, about gun control, Ira Glass and his team unloaded their agenda-setting weapon: the second part of a deeply unsettling, often tragic, documentary on Harper High, a school that saw 29 of its students shot at last year, eight of them dying. To understand and make sense of the bloodshed, This American Life embedded three journalists, who were given eye-opening access, to observe the school over five months.
"It's a war zone around there. I can't lie. It's just a war zone," said one student about the danger of stepping outside his territory. Gang membership isn't optional at Harper, even according to an unexpectedly frank police officer: "They don't have a choice," Aaron Washington says of the school's 500 or so students. Each one is automatically a gang affiliate, part of one crew or another, depending entirely on where they live."It's a war zone around there. I can't lie. It's just a war zone," said one student about the danger of stepping outside his territory. Gang membership isn't optional at Harper, even according to an unexpectedly frank police officer: "They don't have a choice," Aaron Washington says of the school's 500 or so students. Each one is automatically a gang affiliate, part of one crew or another, depending entirely on where they live.
For all the Hollywood films on gangs, for all the documentaries, for The Wire and the prison memoirs that listeners might have become inured to, the brutal reality for these teenagers, living in the world's most developed nation, is still shocking. Don't walk in a group, don't walk on your own, don't walk on the pavements and don't step out on to the porch at home. It's a constant catch-22, with students being killed over "girls, he-said-she-said stuff, money owed, a fistfight". Once, a paintballing session ended up with real guns going off.For all the Hollywood films on gangs, for all the documentaries, for The Wire and the prison memoirs that listeners might have become inured to, the brutal reality for these teenagers, living in the world's most developed nation, is still shocking. Don't walk in a group, don't walk on your own, don't walk on the pavements and don't step out on to the porch at home. It's a constant catch-22, with students being killed over "girls, he-said-she-said stuff, money owed, a fistfight". Once, a paintballing session ended up with real guns going off.
It's immersive journalism at its best, and most necessary. The individual portraits are vivid, the reporting is sensitive. As the president noted in his speech, 65 under-18s in Chicago were shot and killed in 2012, "the equivalent of a Newtown every four months". One can only hope that authoritative journalism like this might eventually force the actual authorities to do something.It's immersive journalism at its best, and most necessary. The individual portraits are vivid, the reporting is sensitive. As the president noted in his speech, 65 under-18s in Chicago were shot and killed in 2012, "the equivalent of a Newtown every four months". One can only hope that authoritative journalism like this might eventually force the actual authorities to do something.
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