Reading Journal: Profiles

I much prefer reading and writing profiles because I think they allow the journalist to express themselves in ways which news article writing does not. In news article writing, the writer has a responsibility to just give the facts to his or her reader without any bias on spin on the material. While these principles certainly do apply to some extent with profile writing, from the profiles we have read in class, I get the impression that the journalist's duty is to give the reader their own perception of a person in as truthful, unbiased, and empirically observed manner as possible. This allows the journalist much more license for freedom in their writing, while also asking the reader to have more faith in his or her discretion. For example, in the article "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold," the writer find himself unable to get an interview with the the singer, however we, as the reader, completely allow him to paint a picture of Sinatra, his demeanor, his body language based entirely on our trust in the journalist's observance of him. Whereas news articles seem to be built and structured around quotes and sources, profiles seem to have much more leeway for the writer's interpretation, perhaps because one's reaction to a personality is bound to be highly more subjective than one's reaction to a group to facts or an event. 

Thus, if news articles are meant to make the truth accessible to the public, then I wonder what profiles are actually meant to do? Do they make exceptional people (i.e. celebrities, CEO's, and public figures) more accessible for the readers so that we feel we have a sense of what the person is like in real life? And what about profiles that don't cover people that are generally known to the public but are instead interesting in their own right?

Profiles that bring to light people’s experiences that are seemingly mundane but are actually extraordinary fascinate me the most. Unlike the profile that covers the celebrity, these profiles aren’t made to bridge the gap between the public figure and the reader but between the reader and someone whom they would never have the opportunity to know in real life. By making their stories public, the journalist takes an almost anthropological role and introduces his or her readers to different characters of which we would otherwise be unaware.