Different styles of reporting: war reporting

Since I began studying and practicing journalism, I have been thinking about what styles of writing work for particular stories. I know a breaking-news style story would not work for a public interest story, and a narrative style would not work best to report about the hit-and-run that happened on Main Street an hour ago. Yet, it's been difficult for me to master the different forms and styles in the most effective way. For a breaking-news report, it's simple, because the structure is inverted triangle and the most important news goes at the top. However, for other topics, it's sometimes more effective to write it like a story and let the reader be drawn in by descriptive language and detail. I found an inspiring example of the latter of the two in the writing stiles of Ernie Pyle.

In the past, I have never read much about war or found the vague reports about American casualties very appealing. However, I found the war reporting that harped on specific details to be most interesting. The work from Ernie Pyle about World War II, specifically, resonated with me because of the way in which he described what he saw and what he was experiencing on the front-lines. The benefit of this narrative, descriptive style of writing is that it allows the reader that has never been to war to see it through the eyes of a soldier, or reporter, on the battlefield. Pyle's writing is like a movie in the way he uses descriptions to illustrate exactly what he saw and included even the smallest details in order for the reader to create a visual representation of the scene. This style of writing is more effective for war reporting than just stating dry facts as concisely as possible since most readers have not witnessed a war first-hand and would not be able to connect to every emotion if the reporter did not provide sufficient detail. If more war reporting was written this way and published more often, than it would be a style of writing more popular within the mainstream media because it is captivating and informative to readers. Also, while polling random UNH students during class a few weeks ago, I found that many people would like to see more news in the media about America at war.