Article Information
The New York Times is rightfully considered one of the most credible media sources not only in the United States but across the globe due to the newspaper’s intention to cover the globally significant stories from various points of view. One of the most interesting and, perhaps, complicated in terms of writing categories of the NYT articles is the “Opinion” section, as it comprises guest essays and journalists’ deep reflections on the various events and phenomena relevant to the social and informational context. Hence, the article picked for the present analysis is written by a South African journalist William Shoki (2021), and it obtains quite a gripping title: “South Africa is falling apart.” This guest essay is relatively recent, as it was published on July 28, 2021.
Article Context
The story written by Shoki revolves around the informational context of recent South African protests caused by the imprisonment of Jacob Zuma, the former state president. The author provides a brief overview of the events that currently take place in the state and empathetically informs the readers about the cases of looting, law enforcement violence, and even deaths. However, the primary goal of the author is to provide the readers outside South Africa with a real picture of what is happening within the state through the lens of recent events. According to Shoki (2021), “the deep rot of South Africa’s social and political order — rife with racial tension, communal mistrust, injustice, and corruption — is now on full display” (para. 4).
What Is Attractive About The Story?
There are various aspects that might attract the reader in this story and primarily captured my attention. To begin with, such a provocative heading may seem intimidating and reminds of a classic clickbait, yet it draws the reader’s attention to read at least the first paragraph of the story. Further in the story, the reader becomes persuaded that the heading fully corresponded to the body of the article. Second, the story itself is interesting due to the fact that it is written by a journalist who knows the socio-political environment of South Africa from within and, thus, has a strong emotional attachment to everything covered in the article. The third important aspect is the story’s relevance, as people who have a habit of checking the news every once in a while are at least remotely familiarized with the incident.
What Does Reader Have To Know Prior To Reading?
One of the major strengths of the following article is the fact that the author provides the reader with as much background information as possible in order for the recipients to feel what is going on. However, there are some slightest cases in which it is implied that the reader has some general knowledge about the country. For example, when speaking of protests, Shoki (2021) states that “the rainbow nation, supposed beacon of reconciliation, is falling apart” (para. 4). In order to fully grasp the meaning of this sentence, the reader is supposed to know that the term “rainbow nation” was coined as a periphrasis for South Africa back in 1994 after the first democratic election in the state (Nevitt, n.d.). The same here applies to the phrase “beacon of reconciliation,” as it implies that South Africa is generally known as the first country in the African continent to have democratic socio-political patterns. Still, in general, the author provides sufficient information for the reader unfamiliar with the story to understand what is going on by inserting explanations and external links.
Moral Dilemma
Although the author’s personal identification with the story may serve as an asset in terms of creating an emotive and stylistically colorful narrative, it may also become a stumbling point in the context of journalistic impartiality. It is by no means implied that the author of the article is biased, as opinion essays allow for personal reflections on the informational precedents. However, are readers able to differentiate between the primary objective data presented in the text and the author’s reflections? Thus, it should be outlined that the present story, although written professionally and replete with supporting data, should be perceived critically by the readers.
Conclusion
Having analyzed the article written by Willian Shoki, it may be concluded that the text itself is an example of a proper opinion essay that addresses a relevant socio-political issue. The text encompasses both data analytics and the personal reflections of the author. For this reason, it is of paramount importance to treat this piece of journalistic writing as an opinion essay and not a plain rendering of facts and statistics.
References
Nevitt, L. (n.d.). What’s the deal with the rainbow nation? Cape Town Magazine.
Shoki, W. (2021). South Africa is falling apart. The New York Times.