Dear Readers:
A recent story in The New York Times reminds us of the power of dialogue, and how easy it is to build a news story around it.
The headline of the page one story is: Tapes of Shuttle’s Descent Show Dawning of Disaster.
Here’s the lead, from Matthew L. Wald and John M. Broder: “The first hint of trouble came from Jeff Kling, the maintenance and mechanical officer at Mission Control who was monitoring the descent of the space shuttle Columbia.”
The dialogue that follows is drawn from audiotapes recording communication among ground controllers for the mission:
‘F.Y.I., I’ve just lost four separate temperature transducers on the left side of the vehicle, hydraulic return temperatures,’ he calmly reported.This is the effect of dialogue: it is a form of action, of vicarious experience; it puts the reader on the scene as the tension mounts.
The flight director, Leroy Cain, seemed surprised, but not alarmed. ‘Is there anything common to them’ he asked. ‘I mean, you’re telling me you lost them at exactly the same time.’
‘No. Not exactly,’ Mr. Kling replied. ‘They were within probably four or five seconds of each other.’
The enemy of dialogue, and of narrative, is the quote or soundbite. A quote is a statement out of story time and out of story place that, in the words of Tom French, steps on the narrative. It is explanation, not action, fine for reports, deadly for stories.
Public meetings and debates, crime scenes, the courtroom, the locker room — all provide opportunities to record and report dialogue. It’s a shame we don’t give readers this gift more often.
