The Importance of Bearing Witness

If your LinkedIn feed is anything like mine, it’s been taken over by AI lately. Lots of opinions and advice. Some good, lots not. (Are we really debating em dashes?!)

This is not another AI post, at least not directly. This is about being human, and the importance of bearing witness and how it can’t be replaced.

My journalism career has taken me around the world, from Afghanistan to Iran, North Korea, Kashmir, China and many other places. You learn so much by seeing things with your own eyes, talking to people, taking in sounds and smells. Things sitting at your keyboard will not teach you.

I have been putting together a proposal for training journalists at a news organization. One module is about owning a story and adding value by getting close to it. The section in my proposal was called “Pick Up the Phone”. When I shared it with another industry vet, he asked “Do you really think anyone picks up the phone anymore?”

The best stories told are those that we have breathed in, touched, absorbed. We bear witness and share it, and hopefully it makes some kind of difference.