Close to the world’s heart
| Date :07-Jan-2020 |
Henry Luce
By Vijay Phanshikar :
“I became a journalist to come as close as
possible to the heart of the world.”
- Henry Luce,
Founder Editor-in-Chief,
TIME Magazine
THIS simple sentence is actually one of the finest definitions of crux of journalism. Let us mark the words well and correctly -- as close as possible to the heart of the world! These words say volumes without saying actually anything! They say something about journalism’s main motivation, its soul, its engagement that drives journalists in search of an otherwise indefinable destination -- of continuous pursuit of truth that must be told to the world in a palatable manner, in an acceptable form, and in a mode that the world would want to read or hear and contemplate upon.
Heart of the world! Heart is what keeps pulsating, keeps pumping blood into the system -- the heart of the system! Henry Luce, the Founder Editor-in-Chief of the iconic TIME Magazine, wished to go as close as possible to the pulsations of the global heart. He wished to be the ringside observer of the events to become the best chronicler of the current moment and its upward and forward -- and an occasional downward -- trajectory. He wanted to tell the world how it was moving, what kind of pulsations were driving it -- so that the world would get to stare into a mirror and contemplate what sort of place it has been and would be. Showing the mirror! Yes, this is, again, a phrase often used in journalistic philosophy. Journalism shows the society the mirror.
Journalism is also the mirror of the society. In other words, journalism is both -- the mirror to the society, and mirror of the society. True, the difference is too fine to be noted in the totality of depth, but it is there -- between being the mirror to the society, and being the mirror of the society -- two ends of a spectrum. Journalism, thus, approaches its tasks from both ends. For, in the centre of that fine line joining the two ends of the spectrum lies the heart of the world -- the place Henry Luce, and also all journalists worth the salt, wished to travel to.
There is a 1959 movie with title Journey To The Centre Of the World that tells the tale of explorers that make the impossible-sounding endeavour to reach the centre of the world! Where is the centre? -- by the way -- in the centre point of the Earth, or somewhere in outer space?! The movie shows them going deeper and deeper towards the centre of the Earth. It is a sci-fi story and the movie makes it thrilling and interesting. It is a tale of the journey -- impossible and yet seemingly possible! Journalism, too, is one such journey -- seemingly impossible and also possible if attempted most sincerely -- towards the centre of the global heart that pulsates with thought and action of the larger human community.
It is, thus, the story of all those brave men and women (whose families often call them crack-pots chasing impossible mirages) in the search of that deepest truth of the idea of growth and progress of human community. This was what drove Henry Luce in his life as he created a great magazine. And this is also what drives all journalists across the world, no matter if they are not as precise in defining their motivations as Luce was.