Making Sense of Primordial Chaos

Allan Sloan addressed students and faculty and the third annual William O'Neil Lecture Series in Business Journalism.

Sloan's prompt for his speech: "Is Journalism Dead? And Should it be?" Sloan addressed some of the problems that are going on right now in the business of journalism and in business journalism. Through his rich Brooklyn accent, he told students that if he could get a job anyone could.

Sloan, a self proclaimed recovering English major, said that Journalism has a business problem. After 38 years in the business he laughingly said he used to have hair and he used to be young. Hitting the highlights of his career he reflects back telling the audience about how he wanted to be a sports writer and that's what he thought he was. He was THE business staff in Charlotte, North Carolina.

He said that there's never been more of a need for people to understand the business realm. Now, he says, the audience is on their own. If you sit down and read the numbers that might not make sense they eventually will. In doing this, you have the power to change the way people live their lives for the better. Sometimes, the lack of a story may be the story says Sloan.

Sloan offered a real life experience to credit that statement. After receiving 400 pages of information that Blackstone released he said he found himself looking through it all asking, "where's the good stuff?" He analogized this instance to an episode of "Sex and the City on regular cable minus the good stuff."

The best piece of advice that Sloan gave was that journalism isn't just about writing something, go out look at what's going on and explain it to others who wouldn't normally understand. He even simplified the explanation of what journalists do each and every day. He says that with the flood of information that the business demands a sane, rational and calm voice to translate what's going on into something that resembles English. In other words, to make sense of the primordial chaos that's going on in what we call the profession of journalism.

I couldn't agree more. There is SO much information out there. I talk to people all the time that say they just don't even know where to begin because there is so much information. People don't want to be bogged down with useless data or information that doesn't improve the quality of their lives. Sloan offered a fresh perspective. I am not a numbers person, at all. That's why I chose words. To people who aren't in the business of business the jargon and language is overwhelming. For there to be someone that can shed light on a confusing subject is incredibly helpful to readers all the while making it interesting. His charge to know simple math and learn how to read business documents makes me want to sign up for another math class.