Emotional Persuasion vs Fracking

Blog Post RQ #5

ES 241: Environmental Journalism

By Linwood Nicolas Jr, October 2nd 2021.

Written by Colin Jerolmack, “They Couldn’t Drink Their Water. Yet, And Still They Stayed Quiet.” focuses on the story of a quiet battle between fracking and the community of Hughesville. In particular, the Crawley Family. However, within this article Jerolmack takes a very productive approach. An approach that still manages to focus on the whole event in which it is taking place, but in a way that moves the audience to feel a particular emotion whilst reading the article.

In Chapter One of Bob Wyss “Covering The Environment”, he mentions different ways of reporting the issue at hand. One of the techniques he mentions is using venerability to communicate risk or emotion to the audience. He states “Vulnerable – children in particular were seen as less able to cope for themselves so society has wanted to protect them. Any risk to children, therefore, was a heightened risk. The same applied to other vulnerable populations – the poor, the weak or the handicapped.” (Wyss, Page 47). 

In this case, Jerolmack uses Tom Crawley and his wife’s relationship with their community as the weapon to persuade the audience’s feelings in favor of the victims of fracking. Tom Crawley is an elderly man who does not have money, nor his wife. His community is also filled his people of age, and one having cancer. This background information automatically creates a sympathetic feeling toward the Crawleys’ and their community. 

Jerlomack also accomplishes this technique by using strong quotes throughout his story. These quotes provide you with an insight of the bond the Crawleys share with their community. Early on in the article he mentions how Mr. Crawley would not make the clean water issue public and did not want his name or face in any interviews or articles. Quotes such as Mr. Crawley emphasizing that his “major concern with this whole deal is somebody harassing his neighbors or camping out on their property.” (Jerlomack, 2019). He also mentions how it struck him the most that  the Crawleys insisted that they were not against fracking, even after they came out losers in the fracking lottery. After all, it did benefit some of their neighbors. Jerlomack then finishes the article off with a final quote from Mr. Crawley after being paid for the fracking incident followed by a sorrowful trip sentence. He states “Mrs. Crawley said they were happy with the settlement, but added: “It’s weird. All of our friends are gone.” Despite the Crawleys’ best efforts, they lost the one thing they cherished more than clean water: their community.” (Jerlomack, 2019.) 

Despite the fact the article was essentially about fracking and the effects of the clean water in the neighborhood. Colin Jerlomack does an excellent job of grabbing the reader’s attention and emotions in a way that supports his viewpoint or issue at hand. Personally, when reading this article I felt like I had a personal issue with the fracking company. Due to the fact the Crawleys were an elderly couple who could not afford to move, and all they wanted was to live happily with their friends and community. Jerlomack also mentions how they’ve gone 2 years without clean water before going public. This technique alone does enough of a job to cause the wanted reaction from the audience on the source. Next time the audience hears or reads about fracking this story will sure at least be thought of.

Sources

Jerolmack, Colin. 2021, September 17, “They Couldn’t Drink Their Water. And Still, They Stayed Quiet” New York Times. Print

Wyss, Bob. Covering the environment: How journalists work the green beat. New York: Routledge, 2019. Print.

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