Okay, you lot!  Look sharp and PAY ATTENTION.

See what can happen when some poor bastard asks for C&C and actually GETS IT?
^_^



Travis Butler wrote:

   Unfortunately, the entire story-arc here is based on the assumption
that Noriko loses her head and acts quite un-journalisticly, which is the
main problem people who have actually been involved in journalism have
with this story (as you can easily tell, I've never been involved in any
sort of journalistic publication whatsoever).

Hmmm. If the main thing you're after is her reaction after the incident
-- and not the specific details of the incident itself -- then here are
some suggestions. I'm a bit nervous about trying to write the story for
you ^_^, so I apologize in advance if any of these cross that line.

* Characterization change -- instead of putting Noriko in a blind fury,
make her bitter and resentful. As you noted:

Not necessarily... bitterness and resentment are certainly going to be a
PART of it, but everything she worked SO hard to build up is being VERY
CASUALLY tossed aside.  Blind fury is NOT out of character here.

Think about it... You are still dealing with High School students here.
They are NOT the most rational creatures in the universe, but they are DAMN
good at *rationalISING*...  Professional behaviour is something that you
will get out of them on any normal day, but this is not a normal situation.
They've been stung.  Something that they CARE about is being threatened,
and they are going to fight back.  And they will NOT always fight fair.
This is high school, not college, tempers still tend to override logic.

Because of this, it's still reasonable to conclude that Ranma's
responsible, if you don't know the full circumstances. And there are ways
of keeping Noriko from knowing the circumstances *and* still have her
behave journalisticly.

This is true... But Zen still thinks that the POINT of the story is that
she DOESN'T behave journalisticly.  Journalistically.  Bugger.  Like a
reporter ought to.  It can *start* with a genuine lack of information, but
Noriko's going over teh edge to *justify* her printing inadequately
researched material is what is really going to provide your dramatic
tension.  How will Ranma (not unlike any politico) react to an obviously
hostile and biased press?

For example, I seriously doubt Ranma would be
willing to explain his side of the story right off the bat, given how
touchy he is -- especially if the interview is started in a
confrontational tone, which all of the student journalists are
inexperienced enough to do. You could even add a little jounalistic depth
by having the student realize the mistake -- asks challenging question,
Ranma reacts badly, student realizes goof too late.

Any of this would make a good start, but it is not enough by itself.

You realize, don't you, that you have a NOVEL started here! ^_^

Ranma's friends would
likely follow his lead, his weak enemies are going to be too scared to
say anything, and his strong enemies are not going to be considered
credible sources. Could you imagine a reporter accepting Kuno's standard
views on Ranma? Or one of Ryoga's rants?

D'oh!  Is that a SERIOUS question?  Hell Yes, Zen can imagine it!  Any
reporter with an axe to grind could print one of those rants verbatim, and
still come out smelling like a rose when (if) it blew up...  And don't kid
yourself.  Journalistic Integrity is all very fine and well, but it doesn't
mean what it did when Lou Grant was Editor!  Most Journalists DO try to
uphold it, but the bad apples out there can do a LOT of damage.  (Just like
bad cops, ne?)

(You probably don't need to show this in detail if you don't want to,
either; as long as it's brought out that she has made these checks, and
come up empty, that should be enough.)

Feh...  some checks.  Might even make it that she used the ones she liked
and dumped the ones she didn't... After all, if teh facts do not conform to
the theory, they must be disposed of. ^_^

Given this, Noriko can go through these basic checks and still conclude
that it's Ranma's fault; in fact, if just about everyone gives 'no
comment' answers to her questions, it should make a good journalist
suspicious that there's *something* going on here -- but without anyone
going on the record, there's no proof and no grounds to publish anything.
Thus, bitterness and resentment, and a motive to continue pushing,
*without* the unthinking blind fury that seemed out of character for a
journalist. Instead of seeing the events and automatically assuming the
worst, she sees the events, checks them out, comes up empty, and then
gets suspicious and starts drawing conclusions.

If this were college, Hai.  But it is high school, so Zen thinks that
expecting Noriko to maintain these standards in the face of such adversity
is unrealistic.  Mind you, that does NOT mean impossible, Zen has known
many high school students with impeccable integrity - in high school and
since!

But Noriko has already demonstrated a bias.  She has made up her mind, and
will ignore any evidence she gets that contra-indicates her interpretation
of the data.  Ranma is at fault.  Period.  End of Sentence.

Then, when the attack comes, she's got something concrete she can act
upon. And again, if she makes a good-faith effort to find out what
happened (the main thing I thought was missing from part 2) and can't --
Gos and Suzuki haven't recovered their memories (as you noted), no
witnesses have come forward -- then the journalistic conventions are
satisfied, and she can rationalize publishing it. It could be another
opportunity to add character depth, having Noriko debate this with
herself: On the one hand, I don't have the full story; on the other, I've
got indisputable facts that *did* happen, I could publish those and let
the reader draw their own conclusions. Oooh, I really *want* to publish
this...

True... But she is the EDITOR.  She would rationalize it, she would print
it.  But if Noriko behaves like Little Miss Ideal Journalist, then where is
the tension in the story?  More importantly, where is the potential for
resolution, as one or both parties learn their lessons and try to fix their
mistakes?

And from that point on, you've got ideas on what to do, right?

Zen hope so!  Zen is looking forward to it!

(Ghu, I've gone all long-winded again, haven't I? <Sigh, sheepish look>
Gomen.)

Seems to be contagious, don't it? >_<

In short, I think your basic structure still works fine. The main
differences would be that instead of acting in a devil-may-care blind
fury, Noriko's making a good-faith effort to act in a journalistic
fashion, and coming up with the wrong conclusions because the right
people aren't talking. Her main failure would be in succumbing to
temptation and printing something without all the facts, instead of
printing in a blind fury without care for the facts.

Zen thinks that too much is being read into "blind fury" here.  Bottom line
is that Noriko is letting her emotions cloud her judgement.  Maybe a
little, maybe a lot.  It's that simple - the *results* are complex.  The
story has more punch when the REASONS for the code of Journalistic
Integrity are driven home with a little more force.  Whether from ignorance
or malice, or some combination of the two, Noriko is gonna learn just what
kind of damage an irresponsible news item can do.  It's an object lesson.

I didn't say when or how she had to do this, did I? :) Seriously, if she
debated it herself and rationalized her attack, it would strick that much
closer to home when she talks to the teacher, ne?

Possibly...

Not needed. :)

Zen agrees!  ^_^

Nope... journalists are human too. :) Well, most of us, anyway. ;>

Oh, HO!  The BASIS for the pro-integrity bias!  ^_^  (Gomen, professor...)
Zen agrees!

difference is that a good journalist works to fight personal biases when
reporting the news, to rise above personal opinions and give an objective
presentation. The thing that bothered me about Noriko is that she didn't
at least make the attempt to do this, to try and get all the facts on the
story. If she makes the attempt and fails, then it's more reasonable to
let her biases have some influence -- especially since, as you note
below, she's young and inexperienced. And portraying this struggle can
add depth to the character, as I noted above.

Okay... Zen will concede this point *in part* - But where Zen differs is in
that Noriko, having demonstrated an anti-martial arts bias from the very
outset, has shown her Achilles Heel.  She may indeed check into the stories
she has heard, but she could easily gloss over data that would not fit her
theory - after all, there are PLENTY of people in and around Furinkan that
are willing to support the belief that "it is ALL Saotome's fault."

In deference to the Professor, Zen will say in defense of his position that
the editor of the paper at the high school that HE attended did indeed one
year act like Noriko is here.  The result was two students were expelled
unjustly, and the fertilizer impacted the old rotary impeller with
substantial kinetic potential.  So it *can* happen.  It wasn't that the
editor in question was entirely without ethics, he just didn't like one of
the people involved, and was far too ready to believe the negative things
that he heard.  Situation is starting to sound kind of familliar, ne? ^_^

so BE WARNED.  ZEN's opinions on this issue are JUST as biased as the
Professor's here, if not MORE so!  ^_^  (Zen just felt that needed to be
said, in the spirit of Journalistic Integrity, after all.  It is a DAMNED
difficult matter to maintain objectivity all the time, and Zen has nothing
but the utmost respect for those reporters that manage to do it.)

No, not really -- after all, one doesn't expect a high school student to
have professional skills, in *any* field: music; football, basketball,
baseball, and other sports; drama... or journalism. :) There are the rare
exceptions, like the high-school violinist who got invited to play with a
professional orchestra, or like Ranma -- but that's exactly what they
are: *rare exceptions*. You can't really expect Noriko to be a
professional-level journalist while still in high school; what you can
expect is for her to try to act like one, even if she doesn't achieve
that level.

Oh, bugger.  You mean Zen's entire rant was for NOTHING?  Aiiigh!

Gomen ne!  Gomen ne!  Sumimasen!

Actually, leaving aside Noriko's bull-headedness, the "Informer" felt
very much like a student newspaper, as I experienced one in college; I
could imagine this taking place in the University Daily Kansan's newsroom
very easily.

Yes.  It was a lot like Zen's college paper too.  (No, Zen was not on
staff, though he *did* occasionally get wrapped up in Goings On.)
(Paddington had *nothing* on *this* bear.) ^_^

Hopefully the above will help. :) Basically, I think all that's needed is
a re-focusing of Noriko's character -- instead of doing these things in
an *unthinking* fury, have her make a good-faith effort to do things by
the numbers, and have the results (or lack thereof) drive the plot, along
with her struggle with her bias.

The only trouble Zen has with this statement is "good-faith" - It has been
established already that her efforts are biased, and therefore are not
"good-faith" - These are words that would be used in her rationalizations.
Just like "blind fury" and "unthinking" might be used by her detractors...
After all, there are two sides to every five yen piece!

<Sheepish look again> I just hope I wasn't *too* harsh. I like the basic
idea a lot, and the only real problem I have is with Noriko's
characterization -- and I've always thought that was fixable. Did these
suggestions help at all?

Yes!  They got this poor fellow more C&C than he prob'ly EVER expected,
given recent discussions on the list.

The question REALLY is, did the C&C serve to clarify or confuse, and which
directions will he go? ^_^

Well, Raphael?  How fast can you write, ne?  The members of the list are
probably getting tired of listening to Zen & the Professor, and would like
to hear the writer's side of it! ^_^

Ahem. <tap, tap, tap> I'm waiting... :)

See? See?  Zen told you! ^_^
Zen is waiting too!


Zen the Heretic-