Biologists work in biology. Physicists study physics. Meteorologists work in meteorology. Columnists . study columns?
One of these is definitely not like the others.
The first three study for years to become experts in their respective fields. There is a measured science behind their successes. Columnists may spend years writing columns, but that only makes them experts in writing columns (the occasional pundit notwithstanding). Still, readers presume columnists' opinions are valid.
And therein lies an intriguing dichotomy: Columnists do not write about writing columns. They cover a variety of topic from politics and the economy to medicine and the arts. In other words, they get to play dress-up. One day they're armchair political commentators, the next, Web MD-educated physicians.
But all they really do is just jot down their strongly worded opinions and buttress them with statistics, anecdotes and quotes from experts. If columns were a Simpsons character, they'd be Lisa - "Springfield's answer to the question nobody asked."
At face value, it seems strange that the columnist can occupy such an important and influential role in today's media and society.
Mary Ann Weston, a professor of journalism at Northwestern University, explained that the press in the early years of America was strongly affiliated with political parties and were even subsidized by them in many ways. Popular editors derived fame from the editorials they wrote, and even regular news stories had a clear bent.
It wasn't until after the Civil War that the advertising model emerged for newspapers. That required appeal to a mass audience, and thus subjectivity was traded for objectivity. The modern columnist was created as a way for the newspaper to remain objective while still publishing strong personal opinion.
Prominent early columnists like Walter Lippmann and Scotty Reston served a crucial purpose in distilling and analyzing complex issues, in addition to offering their opinions. Lippmann especially saw the columnist as responsible for interpreting the news, something he saw the public to be incapable of doing.
Today's columnist, though, (say, of the Maureen Dowd variety) has to compete with the 24/7 reporting and analysis on the internet and television, whose news sources no longer seem to strive for objectivity. The advantage of opinion as distinct from reporting has been lost, and the definition of a columnist broadened.
Witness the birth of the "down-to-earth" columnist (or should I say "Dowd-to-earth"?), whose primary function, according to Takashi Mogi of Kyorin University in Japan, seems to be connecting mundane events like hiring a babysitter to hot-button issues like abortion.
Moreover, the sarcasm and sneering that permeate so many of today's op-ed pieces could make them equally well-suited to Conan O'Brien's opening monologue. (To clear up any possible confusion, Maureen Dowd has one Pulitzer Prize; I have zero.)
"Columnists have changed from clergymen to clowns," Mogi concluded.
That's not entirely fair. For all their faults, modern columnists, through their means of expression, are part of a collective consciousness. The public can relate to them in a way it never could have to Walter Lippmann. Rather than speak to the readers, they speak for them - or at least manage to give that impression - and convincing the reader to side with you instead of that other guy is incredibly powerful. It's difficult for the expert - the biologist, the political scientist, the sociologist - to connect with and convince an audience on that level because of the prejudice of ivory-towerism. This continuing gap preserves the necessity of the opinion columnist.
When I started gathering ideas, the first thought I had was: "Why would anybody want to hear what I have to say?" And 603 words later, I think I know: because we like to question. When someone sticks out his neck and offers an opinion, sometimes the results make you nod, and sometimes they make you cringe. But it starts a dialogue in ways that straight news can't since it's more fun when you know with whom you're arguing.
Of course, what do I know? I'm just a columnist.
Brandon Moyse is a College junior from Montreal. He is the former senior sports editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. What Aboot It, Eh? appears on Thursdays. His email address is moyse@dailypennsylvanian.com
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