"This Is Not a Job for Cynics" — Ryszard Kapuściński's Conversations and Lectures on Media and Journalism

For the first time in Poland, a book is published today with Italian and Spanish conversations and lectures by Ryszard Kapuściński on media and journalism.

Contemporary media, the journalist’s profession. How, in a world of money, does one not forget what is most important in this profession? Ryszard Kapuściński shares his experience with younger colleagues.

Ryszard Kapuściński’s lectures and conversations about journalism — published until now only in Spanish and Italian — finally appear in full in Polish translation. The first part, “The Five Senses of the Journalist,” is a transcript of workshops the reporter ran for journalists in Latin America in 2000–2002. The second part, “This Is Not a Job for Cynics,” contains three conversations with the master from 1994 and 1999. At a time when the distinction between journalists and media workers is increasingly blurring, tabloidisation of the media is advancing, and truth in reporting matters less than attractiveness and click-worthiness, Ryszard Kapuściński recalls fundamental truths about his profession.

“Kapuściński proved that journalism can approach art. He wanted to understand, and only then to explain. He had an insatiable curiosity about the world, which he observed with his head raised, never looking down. He took readers on a journey, took them by the hand and walked with them into the unknown. And he dreamed to the last day of his life — perhaps that is why he remained forever young.”

Wojciech Jagielski

“In his writing he was an ascetic devotee of linguistic purity and a mortal enemy of cynicism and falsehood. He repeated stubbornly that the precondition of good journalistic writing is human goodness and goodwill towards one’s neighbours. So little, and yet so much.”

Adam Michnik

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http://www.rp.pl/artykul/10,1007784-Nieznany-Kapuscinski.html

source: kapuscinski.info