My friend Jennifer Corriero of TakingITGlobal asked for a quick contribution for an exhibit she is putting together about change and how it happens. She asked me to write about how journalists see crisis relating to change.

My quick thoughts:

Journalists spend their time going against the crowd.

When there was an earthquake in Taiwan, I fought to find a seat on a flight into Taipei (actually, it was rather easy to do). As highways jammed with cars driving north from the Gulf of Mexico, I headed south to the Alabama waterfront where Hurricane Ivan would most likely hit. As the Asian financial crisis of 1997/98 deepened, I found myself going to the region’s most politically unstable countries. A number of times I have found myself in live warzones.

Some journalists behave this way because they are disaster and crisis junkies, but most are not. Journalists behave this way because they constantly seek moments of change.

The more fundamental the break in continuity, the happier the journalist (and the bigger the story).

This desire to witness change often drives journalists to take personal risks beyond those most people take at work.

The sad question, beyond the journalists’ behavior, is why it takes a crisis for change to happen?

It seems that people content themselves with living life as it stands, making compromises over time. In a moment of crisis, however, the price of these compromises can be crystalized by a single act, anecdote or photograph. We can all think of those iconic images of change.

By being there at the moment the statue fell, the day the soldiers took to the street or inside the war-torn city, journalists can get a sense from the crisis of where change will go. Sensing this change is not a spectator sport that can be done behind a computer or a thousand miles away.

To understand it, you need to be so close to change that you can feel the texture and taste it. To me, change is crunchy in your mouth and tastes a lot like the dust blown up from a road where long-cowed citizens find the courage to confront their adversaries.

That is not a crisis you are witnessing, it is a change. Hopefully change for the better.