So, as I was reading "It Ain't Necessarily So," I most certainly enjoyed The Danger of Hedgehog Interpretations. Well, we have talked about decieving statistics and biased articles but what about the straight-way path to the answer? Ohhh there is none! I get it now, blind spot, tunnel vision. As journalists, we want an angle, a fair and yet unbiased angle, which we search for among the crowd with our blinders on. We know what we're looking for and fail to understand when a roadblock or new passageway opens up. Now if there is change in the already outlined passage, we tend to disregard it, thinking it will just mess up the angle.
Hedgehogs who ignore such changes miss out on an important part of the picture.
I, as well as many others are guilty of being bad hedgehogs. For example, as I was covering the King and Queen of the Hill article for the Setonian, I had an angle, to cover the basic information everyone covers every year. But, this year, there was mischief! There was a crime! It was far more juicy than I made it out to be. If you did not know, the crown was actually stolen. Not so much of a big deal to some, but it definately would have added a "new angle" to my story. I have my reasons for not submitting the entire negative aspect of the contest (and because no would confess or talk about it). But I did leave it alone and go without it.
Some people think, what you don't know can't hurt you.......and I am starting to think it happens more than we think!
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