The Washington times., 1912-04-20
HUMAN INTEREST"

In the evolution of modern journalism the most
significant development is that described by the
phrase human interest" Time was when the news
depended upon the quality of Importance. In that
era of journalism the newspaper devoted practically
all its space to politics and war, and news was Sec
ondary to opinion. The measure Of the importance
of piece Of news as news was its importance with
respect to governmental affairs.
When, in 1885, James Gordon Bennett devoted
nearly all of the four pages of the infant New
York Herald to description of the great Wall street
fire he created new thing in journalism, for he
told the interesting things about the fire as we'll as
the important things. The important things were
the number of buildings destroyed and their value.
The interesting things were all the details Of the
confagration and the struggle to stop its spread,
From that day forward the newspapers began
to demand both importance and interest in every
item of news published, or at least in every piece
of news accorded prominent position or lengthy
space.
The next gradation is not so sharp. Dana and
Mccullough and Pulitzer and Laffan-a score in all
began to perceive that interest was not always
bound up with Importance in the news And out Of
their experiments grew the knowledge that if the
interest had to do with life and death, with love or
hate, with great wealth or dire poverty then i'm
portance was not necessary quality to assure the
entry of particular piece of news into the paper.
That peculiar variety of interest was dubbed human
interest
AS the papers grew and as the invention Of the
linotype and the cheap processes Of making paper
enlarged the scope of the newpapers space then it
discovered that there different kinds Of
human interest" 1t not sufficient to engage the
intellectual recognition of a human element, but it
also necessary to appeal to the emotions by dis
covering or if need be, by adding the dramatic
quality.
And this is the rule Of human interest followed
by the newspaper Of today. Remember that the
newspapers did not make this rule any more than
Newton made the law of gravitation They discov-
cred it, The rule is as old as human hearts and
every great interest Of every age succeeded only as
he succeeded in obeying it. Mr.. William Shake
speare would have been an ideal human interest
news writer.
thousand babies die in one city in one month
because the city regulations concerning the milk
supply are defective or are not enforced. This is
human. This is important But it is not dramatic
Therefore it is not human interest news and the
newspapers do not print it without dressing it up
with the drama of politics with other green.
room disguise, for the simple that otherwise
it is dull and folks won't read it.
thousand men die in one city in a year be-
cause they have disobeyed certain rules and laws
of nature. This is human. This is important. But
is not interesting 1t is not II is not printed
hundred miners are entombed in mine dis
aster; hundred girls are burned in factory fire
a wife is murdered by her husband; train is held
up; bank is wrecked-all these are interesting, all
are dramatic, most are important, but all are news
and are printed and are read.
The Titanic disaster possessed all of these re-
quirements in an unusual degree. Shipwrecks are
the most dramatically tragic of all disasters. And
here was the biggest and the best of ships on its
maiden voyage, designed to break speed record
and carrying some of the weathiest and some OF
the most prominent men of the world And it went
to the bottom of the with its band playing Near
er, My God, to Thee!'
The man in the street who has spent hours in
stead of minutes reading the paper-he is the man
who knows what is meant by human interest" ir
the news
The only things that persist in taking up news
paper space by of Importance rather than by
reason of human interest are those two games oi
Looa aLon