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| Designer Fleur Wood (Source: Gourmet Traveller) |
This piece of feature is what I call lazy journalism.
This travel feature by Kerryn Burgess about Delhi, India is an interview with Australian fashion designer Fleur Wood, who shares her travelling secrets with the readers.
At the beginning of the story, Burgess introduces Wood, an experienced India-phile, and explains Wood’s love of and familiarity with India as the reasons for the feature. Nevertheless, this part of the article is probably the only part the writer has contributed.
Out of the 2500 words of this story, around 2200 words are quotes and another 100 are addresses of the sights to visit. Burgess bombards readers with blocks of quotes by Wood and these quotes are only separated by subheadings of where to see, shop and eat.
Why would readers want to read a transcript of interview?
Initially, I was drawn to the article because I wanted to learn about Delhi. However, a feature purely based on the opinions of one particular person will only works if the readers can connect with that person. Sadly, I couldn’t. I didn’t know who Fleur Wood was and I doubted a lot of readers would. So right there, readers are starting to lose interest.
On top of that, the lack of visual supports, such as videos or images, further draws the readers away. It’s hard to visualise the attractions Wood recommends simply by relying on her quotes (after all, she’s a fashion designer, not a writer). The article did put hyperlinks to a few of these attractions, but the hassle of clicking these links and having to wait for the websites to appear can frustrate readers - at least me.
The way the article is structured may appeal more to readers that are actually planning to visit India as they can treat the article as a guidebook. But for readers who genuinely want to see India through the portrait of excellent travel writing, this article disappoints.
I think this is simply a perfunctory article put together to take advantage of the Commonwealth Games. It’s a pity that it fails to engage readers with this enchanting place, India.
UGH! I so agree with you! we don't want to read transcripts! although it may have used brain work to come up with some questions....still nothing annoys me more than a lazy journalist clamming up our head spaces with white noise!
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