Disaster journalism and the search for truth

I’ve spent a lot of time this year reading Ernest Hemingway. What has struck me about his writing is the way in which he tells a story in such a deceptively simple way. His sentences are generally short and sharp with no real use of flowery language. It’s the ocean of subtext buried underneath these simple techniques that make his writing so powerful for me. Each time I read one of his stories or novels, I discover something new below the surface and because it’s not just handed to you on a plate, it sticks with you.

As an aspiring journalist I’ve taken a lot out of my reading from Hemingway, not only in his style but the way he lived his life. Journalism and writing wasn’t his profession, it was his way of life. Every conversation he had, everything he saw, touched, smelt and felt all made their way into his writing. Every day was an opportunity to find, as he famously said, one true sentence.

For me, taking on an internship as a disaster journalist in Sierra Leone was not only an opportunity to sharpen my skills as a writer and journalist, but as a way to immerse myself in a world I’d never experienced before, to search for truth and fight for change where it is needed. Like Hemingway and other pioneers of new journalism, I want to go beyond mere facts and uncover truths about human nature and the world around us.

The most rewarding aspect of my first month working as a disaster correspondent has been the relationships I’ve built with people in Sierra Leone. While it has been a challenge to build contacts from a country I’ve never been to, where power cuts and lack of internet access can be a daily struggle, the ones that I have made have proved to be very profound.

My first story is about a fire that tore through one of the biggest slum areas of Freetown and how it has consequently tied up the country’s disaster resources. There has been nothing written about this particular subject so I’ve had to use my interviews and research to build a holistic picture of the subject.

You can’t trust everything you’re told and you have to be confident in your search for the facts. I have learnt that no one source can give me all that I need, and that like a puzzle, I need to find the pieces and fit them together to create an image of what is happening.

I recently received interviews conducted with residents of Susan’s Bay and the striking difference between the challenges they face day by day not only puts things into perspective, but it has fuelled my motivation to work hard and use my position to raise awareness and tell the stories that have been left untold.

As I continue to write, I hope to craft well written stories through a true understanding of the lives of those in Sierra Leone and their way of live. I don’t just want to report the facts and figures, I want to penetrate into something deeper and more universal, a truth that remains even after the events have faded.