Reading hard news can feel a bit like eating plain oatmeal sometimes. The content is there and it’s digestible, sure, but there’s not much flavor or flair. That’s the thing with hard news: while it’s essential to helping us stay informed, it’s also often almost robotic in nature due to its objective tone, and doesn’t offer much more than face-value facts. Hard news isn’t meant for personality and exploration.
Opinion journalism, on the other hand, is where journalism truly opens itself up to emotive and expressive writing. The front page may tell us what happened, but it’s the act of forming our own viewpoints and conveying them that encourages us to reflect on the what instead of simply mindlessly absorbing it and accepting it as-is. But beyond expressing ourselves, consuming others’ thoughts and interpretations can be just as valuable, as doing so can challenge our own views — whether we welcome that or not. When reading perspectives that we may not necessarily agree with, we may be pushed to reconsider our own beliefs or affirm our positions with more conviction. Either way, the action of putting our thoughts in the scope of a grander picture serves to remind us that there’s more than one single valid narrative. Disagreements may be inevitable, but they’re often also productive.
The beauty of opinion writing also lies in its open-endedness. While reactions to current events are often at the heart of opinion sections, that’s not everything opinion writing is all about. Because of the infinite subjectivity of opinion, the sky’s the limit. Articles here can be about unique personal anecdotes, thoughtful book recommendations, or something as whimsical as food reviews. The opportunity to be candid offers writers not just a chance to explore outside of the breaking news that usually headlines mainstream media, but also a chance to imbue articles with a certain emotional resonance and humanity that pure hard news isn’t capable of conveying. Opinion journalism draws its vitality from every personal perspective that is narrated and published, which is why it’s critical to protect the variety of voices that constitute opinion sections.
Censorship in opinion writing can be especially dangerous, and it’s crucial to maintain safe spaces where all viewpoints can be heard. In support of free press for student journalists, the New Voices Act, signed into law in New Jersey in 2021, guarantees that student journalists have the right to exercise freedom of speech and press. This provides us with an open platform to express our thoughts without fear of being silenced.
Whatever the content of the piece, opinion writing is like a mirror. It reflects who we are, what we care about, and how we think. Some opinions are well-received by many, and others can ruffle a few feathers. But that doesn’t mean opinions should be suppressed and censored for the possibility of controversy; we’re neither one uniform mass nor an echo chamber with all the same sentiments. The difference between our philosophies and ways of thinking are what make us human — opinion writing is simply the medium in journalism that allows us to share that with the world.
