The Practice of Freelance Print Journalism

Abstract

This research, as conducted from within the rational tradition, begins with the premise that creativity is a process that can be understood and that, despite enduring romantic and inspirationist claims to the contrary, to do so is not to damage but to facilitate it (Boden 2004, McIntyre 2012, Negus and Pickering 2004, Pope 2005, Runco and Pritzker 1999, Sawyer 2006, Sternberg 2006). Using the methodology of Practice Based Enquiry (PBE) (McIntyre 2006, p. 4, Murray and Lawrence 2000, p. 10) to explore the nature of creativity as a system in operation, I engaged in the practice of freelance print journalism to produce a series of 20 feature articles on other creative practitioners titled Profiling Creativity. Each of these articles focused on an individual creative practitioner and their experience of creativity, and these practitioners were drawn from a range of areas of practice — those traditionally associated with creativity such as music and art, and those that are not such as maths and science — as a demonstration of the diversity of creative activity (McIntyre 2012, Sawyer 2006). Engaging in the practice of freelance print journalism in this way provided me with two sources for exploring creativity: the accounts of the 20 practitioners interviewed for the profiles, and my own experience of the creative process in writing the series. I also kept a research journal, in keeping with the requirements of PBE, which documented this process and provided evidence for my practice, allowing me to compare my experience with that of the practitioners interviewed for the profiles and to apply the literature on creativity to this collected material.