Closed Words Can Be Strong, Like the Beating Drum

[Celia Vuong]

When the last Monthly issue had come out, Celia had initially been disappointed to see her Halloween article buried so far back in the paper. She had signed up to cover the event precisely because she'd assumed she would be able to make the front page. But while writing the article, she'd decided to stray away from the dull, straightforward style that regular news stories were written in. No one really cared about the decorations or the food. They wanted to hear about the drama and the costumes. So she'd injected a bit more opinion than was probably appropriate, and her article had been placed further back in the paper.

It had all been rather disappointing until she'd overheard someone comment on her article. She barely remembered their remark, but it had shifted her perspective completely. The Monthly wasn't just a resume-padder, but a megaphone. She could write something down and have it shared with the entire school. No one would remember her name if she wrote boring news stories. The reputation she sought could only be obtained from writing something memorable, something distinctive, something that provoked a reaction. She needed her own opinion column.

Celia didn't know how difficult it would be to convince Poppy to give her a column, but she figured it would be better to over-prepare than to under-prepare her case. Step one was research, and that was why she was currently flipping through old issues in the newsroom. It didn't take long to notice a pattern. Celia glanced up, frowning when she realized that the only other person in the room was Rhys. It would have been better to find someone more experienced, but he was better than nothing. "Rhys, you've been a part of the Monthly for a while now, right?" He had at least been there longer than her. "Do you know why the paper doesn't have an opinion section?"

 

[Rhys Garner]

Rhys had been pretty pleased to be able to land the Quidditch article this time around after having his eyes on it for a while. Maybe Charlie had finally gotten the idea that hogging the same article for himself over and over again was not going to get him many friends as there were other people interested in writing it too. Not to mention it wasn't very fair to just let the same person do it over and over again. Thankfully, he was getting his chance to do it now before he had to go and complain to Poppy about certain people being article hogs.

With one match already down that semester, he was making a start on his article while the memory of the Hufflepuff and Slytherin match was still fresh in his memory. It had been a pretty short match, all things considered, but there were still things to write about. He was so absorbed with what he was doing he hadn't even noticed there was someone else in the room. Not until he heard them speak up, eyes glancing up from what he was doing as he frowned at the other girl for a moment. "I guess..." he hadn't been there for much longer than Celia had. Then he paused at the question, frowning as he thought about it. "Probably because opinions are, well, opinionated. You could make enemies of half the school if you have the wrong opinion on something or end up insulting someone."

 

[Celia Vuong]

Celia had started to flick through another issue but set it down when Rhys answered. "The paper doesn't run opinions because people are scared?" she asked incredulously. "There's a whole house at this school that's supposed to be dedicated to bravery." Not that she believed in the house system; it was a ridiculous arrangement. She probably could have written a whole piece arguing for its elimination if it weren't for the fact that she was still trying to stay on Alicastell's good side. While Celia had never had an issue pissing off her peers or people underneath her, she was much more wary of making enemies of those who had power over her.

Maybe Rhys had a point.

She would have to approach her column (assuming she got it) with care, but Celia figured that if anyone could pull it off, it would be her. "But let's say someone did want to start submitting opinion pieces. Do you think Poppy would publish them?" Celia hadn't had time to form much of an opinion on their editor-in-chief yet. The older girl seemed nice, if a bit of a pushover considering the fact that she let just about anyone join the Monthly. Hopefully she took a similar approach to running stories in the paper.

 

[Rhys Garner]

Rhys shrugged, "Like, I don't know for sure. I'm just assuming." He didn't run the paper so he couldn't really say why there wasn't something in it or not. It was mostly just guesswork, but he still liked to think he was making sense. Though he didn't say anything as Celia said something about the Gryffindor's, just pressing his lips together. This was probably why an opinion column was not a good idea. Especially not coming from someone like her. But he didn't say any of this out loud, instead, keeping his eyes fixed on his own in-progress article.

He only glanced up from his work again when Celia asked him more questions. "You would have to ask Poppy," he offered simply. He couldn't really speak for their editor. "But, I guess it sort of depends. Opinions on what?"

 

[Celia Vuong]

Celia wondered if maybe Rhys' comment was more of a reflection of his attitude towards the matter than the student body's. He was usually very quiet, and it would make sense if he was the type who wanted to avoid making waves. It would have been better if she could ask someone who had been at Hogwarts a bit longer, but he was the only one in the room presently. "Well all the real papers have opinion sections." Even her old school's student newspaper had run op-eds.

She was a bit disappointed that he didn't have any thoughts to share about Poppy's decision-making. Gossip was not only fun but also a good way to collect information. "Anything really," Celia said with a shrug, as if she hadn't already brainstormed a dozen pitches. "Opinions on the school and the magical world probably make the most sense." If she thought she could get away with it, she'd try for her own fashion column, but even she knew that was out of the scope of a school paper. "There's lots of stuff to write about — the curriculum, extracurriculars, Ministry politics. If it gets covered as a news event, you could probably also write an opinion piece on it."

 

[Rhys Garner]

Rhys had been brought up around journalism. With his father in the profession, it was hard not to know more about the work that went into writing articles. He could still remember some nights when he couldn't sleep as a kid and he would sneak downstairs to find his father still up in the early hours of the morning in front of his laptop working. But Rhys always respected it. In fact, he always looked up to his father and now he wanted to be a journalist just like him when he managed to graduate from this place.

"Journalism is about telling the truth and reporting on issues in an unbiased way," he offered simply, "It's not supposed to be about giving your own opinions on things. No one asked for your opinions." Being too opinionated could get you in trouble and was not a very good approach to writing articles. And he didn't think that anyone really wanted to read someone's opinions on random things, most people read a newspaper for, well, the news. "Again, I guess it's down to Poppy whether she wants that stuff in the paper or not. So you would just have to ask her."

 

[Celia Vuong]

"You're right," Celia said with a dramatic sigh, "Journalism is about telling the truth and reporting on important issues, and that's why we should all be spending our time writing up donut recipes," she said with a pointed look. "I'm sure that's exactly what all our readers are asking for." Why did the Monthly even bother with recipes? They had house elves that did all the cooking at the school. She was pretty sure that any op-ed she penned could get more readers than Rhys's recipes.

Celia knew Poppy was the only one who would be able to sign off on a column, but she figured she could practice and refine her arguments with Rhys. It was a good chance to figure out what kind of counterarguments Poppy might pose. "All the professional papers have opinion sections. The Daily Prophet has one. So does the New Zealand Herald. Normal news stories are boring; no one wants to read the news." Celia considered herself more plugged into current events than most of her peers, and even she just skimmed headlines and a couple of introductory paragraphs before moving on. "People want columnists who can make sense of what's happening and make them care about the news."

 

[Rhys Garner]

He instantly scowled a little when she brought up his donut recipe. Well, that was uncalled for. "All papers have little bits in there not to do with the news," he pointed out with a huff, "Like crosswords and comic strips. There is nothing wrong with adding recipes people might want to try in there as well." At least a donut recipe wasn't going to piss someone off. "I'm sure none of our readers are asking for your opinions on things, either," he also had to point out.

"No, pretty sure most people pick up a newspaper for the news," that was a dumb argument to try and make, "And how many people have been pissed off by those opinions they're putting in their paper? I've heard one too many arguments about how biased the prophet can be." It was part of the reason he didn't want to read it because it clearly kissed up to the Ministry and tried to make them always look good. "But you're right, people want people to make sense of what's going on in the world around them and reporting on the important stuff. Shoving your own un-asked for and maybe offensive opinions down their throats is not the way to go about doing that."

 

[Celia Vuong]

Celia smirked when her comment elicited just the reaction she expected. "People here don't even have to cook. Why would they want to try a recipe from a student paper?" She definitely would not trust a random recipe from one of her classmates. On the other hand, she would read an op-ed from them, provided they said something interesting. "And the Monthly doesn't even have a crossword or a comic strip," she pointed out.

"They pick it up for the headlines. Most people stop after a paragraph or two." Celia had read a couple old Halloween stories in preparation for her last assignment, and it had been a struggle to finish them. The only interesting parts were the places where the reporter had injected their opinion. "People being pissed off can be a good thing. That means they're actually reading it. And the people who say the Prophet is biased are upset because it tries to pass off opinion pieces as news stories. That doesn't apply to the opinion section since it's labelled, you know, opinion." Celia was curious to know why Rhys seemed to think anything she wrote would be offensive. She'd barely talked to him before, but he was acting like she was going to piss off the whole school. "I wouldn't be shoving anything down anyone's throat," she said with an eyeroll. "If they really don't like something I write, they can just skip over it, like I'm sure they already do with your recipes."