By reading Michael Lemonick’s essay, “Honesty is Always the Best Policy”, which has been published in May 2010 in Onearth magazine, I have felt that there is so much information about his background. Michael is currently a professor of Science-Journalism at Princeton University. He is known for his publication of global warming essay in a Time magazine. Michael has claimed that the aim of this essay is only to report the truth to the readers rather than to up the publication.
Michael Lemonick tells the readers so much about this background on science that any reader would have an impression of him being intelligent. He tells that his father was a physicist, who studies the behavior of the materials in the universe. Also he talks about an event when he was working in the Time magazine and the group of climate scientists came to the editorial staff and how he liked the story of the global warming. Where Michael had worked in the past was Science Digest magazine, which is known for science related articles targeted at people with high school level education. Michel had been really unhappy with the changes in journalism since journalism was changing toward sensational journalism. Science Digest had later changed its’ targeted audience to college students.
However Michael says that the purpose of this essay is that it lets him make a short lesson on science. He claims that it is not an attempt to sell any one idea but to report the truth the best possible. I, as a college student, liked this essay and how he’s being honest. Actually, his morals are seen in the end. I didn’t feel as if he was making any kind of argument with anybody, but I think it’s an epideictic type of discourse. He has tried his best to stay biased on anything.
On the other side, I also think that contextual approach is better on this essay since the author gives lots of background and gave reference to people and his experience with the climate scientists. The effective strategy he has invented to capture the audience into reading is by being honest and being none to less formal and that’s why the title is also so relevant to the essay. In these days, media is having great competition with other sources, so there is a heavy need for the young audience to read this publication. Michael thought as his audiences are youngsters but I felt that the ‘real audience’ to the essay is anyone of any age. The contextual approach does matter to me and to other readers since our reading and writings in this class or in public place; it is going to shape our views on different issue. Not necessarily, a person in the beginning of reading is same at the end.
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