I Need Explanations

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I'm not sure how much more longer I'm going to last. I want to kill my journalism teacher in the worse way. But its more than that. Today he was reading about an article, it had to do with death and disease. Everyone in the class was talking about how it made them feel sad, how it made them want to help these people out.
But I was sitting in there, I said nothing about my opinion about the piece, feeling kind of bored. I didn't much care for the story. A story built to make you tear jerk, which it didn't.
There was another incident where I was suppose to cue in somehow that the man dying was the more important part. In my midterm, we were suppose to write a news lead. I wrote a news lead. I had everything he required. The reason he marked me down was because the fireman wasn't in the first sentence. But when I read the facts and read the information, the hotel burning down was the most important fact. At least from what I was represented. So, I was suppose to cue in that the fireman dying was more important?
I won't make it the rest of the way in this class if I can't solve this issue I'm having. I read the news and just find myself sifting through the papers, seeing feature stories about "homeless man reunited with family after ten years" in my head I am like, "why do I care?" Everyone in my class seems to care, I don't. I don't see the importance, I don't see how it is factually or even logically important to be put into the news.

Why don't I care for the emotional human sides of stories?

Why don't I care when they do stories about death and homeless people?

Shouldn't I care more?

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There is an even wider issue in this journalism course as well. An issue with the teacher. And I'm about to have a freak out. Or a meltdown in class. One of those moments. I can feel it. I just don't know how much more I can stand.

-The very first article we get, I'm told my lead isn't a lead. Even though I worked with the students who saw him at his office hours. These are the students he praised about how well they were doing. So I worked with them in a study group. They even told me, and gave me advice. And helped me with my lead. They get a good grade on it. I get a good grade with some very bad remarks.
-My midterm, I get a C. Even though I clearly did better than a C. And we were to write a news lead. When he was giving us the reason why we got what we got wrong. I had everything he asked for in the news lead.
Yes I didn't state the human emotions part of the piece first. Yes, I didn't use the word "destroyed", but burn down kind of implies its destroyed...it burned down.
Despite the two minor mistakes.
Guess how many points I get on my news lead for my midterm?
4/10
Um...I had maybe two mistakes
But had everything you asked for in that piece that I wrote
When were to give him events we were going to cover
Other students, "I'm going to write about a party I'M going to,"
He replies, "Okay that's fine, just remain objective,"
Other student, "Going to write about a Christian event at my church,"
He replies, "Okay yeah those sound like all great ideas,"
Me, "I'm going to cover a scooter club meetup I'm going to,"
He replies and in a very snarky tone mind you, "Are you Sure [capitlized to the effective of venom he put into it] you can write objectively about an event You're attending?"
Wait...so you had no problem with the students writing about parties and Christian events
But when I am going to be actively involved in a scooter club meetup
You suddenly care and hate me
What have I done to deserve this kind of bullcrap?
I didn't do anything of the things last year
In one of my classes, I walked in with an extremely broad mind
And alienated the teacher and the students because my views were very alien to them
I came into this classroom and checked a lot of my more alien views out the dor
I have done nothing to challenge him
I haven't done anything alien to him
He just hates me.

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I'm about to have a freak out. I really am.

Maybe its my Aspergers or maybe its just me
But in news
I always find the human or the emotional side of the story to "grab" the reader
Kind of not part of the facts
I feel it as a tool
But I don't like reporting on the human side or the emotional side of the story
Because I do not see it as fact
I find my brain at times is very logical
So sometimes the emotional side of a stories makes me question
Why this is even part of the news
Maybe I wasn't cut out for journalism
I'm not sure any more.

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I need an explanation. Or else...I'm going to scream and just ugh.

I've had similar situations where I thought I met all the requirements the instructor had of the work, and apparently did not, or the instructor seemed to judge my work to different standards than a work which I felt was of the same format or an inferior format.

My theories as to why this was...
1. Perhaps I do have some more pervasive theory of mind issues than are immediately apparent to me.

2. I interpret things differently and points that are pertinent to me, are not others, and points pertinent to them, are not to me.

3. The instructor had higher expectations of me than other students, based on samples of my work, and the work he had issue with was of an inferior quality with respect to my other work.

Anyway, maybe the issue isn't that you don't respond to the emotional side of the story, but perhaps he has an issue with your prose.

You are welcome to PM me an example of a report he had an issue with and I would be more than happy to try to offer some feedback.

Well he graded me poorly on my very first article as well. The article that I had worked on and was only learning how to write in AP style. How can you hold me to a higher standard if this is my first time doing this?

I've actually only read the first part of your post, but I want to respond to that on its own before moving on. Has your instructor given you a list of "what makes people pay attention to news"? If not, find one online and learn the criteria. It's always about the people. NT people want to read about people first. If you are being expected to figure that out on your own, your instructor didn't give you enough to go by. Remember the five W's and an H? "Who" is almost always most important.

It is wonderful that you are learning journalism because you will bring a unique and important perspective to reporting once you get the conventions down. It's a very rigid form of expression that would be frustrating for anyone on the spectrum to study. You are doing something harder than many people will ever do. Of course it hurts.

Part of the art of journalism is being able to deliver to what interests the majority of people. And the majority of people are primarily interested in emotional topics. If you have major problems caring about the sorts of emotional things that interest the majority of people, you'll have to fake it. Emotional stories are what sell news consumption.

If this isn't something you want to keep having to do, there are other facets of journalism, such as being a fact-finder or technical columnist, that may suit your temperament and abilities better. Maybe even a technical writer. I'm not well-versed in journalism so hopefully others here will suggest related fields of work or study.

The point is that a news story needs to focus on what's different or unique about the situation. Just "building burns down" is boring news, so the story needs to be spiced up somehow. And human interest is king in journalism. Whenever you can get a human element into the story or show how it impacts regular people, you're supposed to do that.

Does he know you're autistic? If not he might be misconstruing what you say and do.....some of the idiots in my workplace were begining to turn nasty like that before I was diagnosed. I'm afraid that when the average person doesn't understand somebody's behaviour, they'll tend to have less respect for them, especially if the behaviour is awkward for them - in your case, it's awkward because he can't just expect the whole class to automatically understand what excites the readers by referring to what excites the class members. I remember some of my teachers would make a judgement on me within a couple of weeks of first meeting me, based on one or two negative observations, and after that they'd typecast me for life as a useless clown. They lacked the imagination to look for any evidence that challenged their first impression. I'm afraid a lot of teachers are weak and lazy in that way.

The way he seems to be saying it, he's assuming that this "human interest" thing applies not only to the buyers but also to the journalists, which is only reasonable for neurotypicals. I would think the only way to survive would be to delete "you" and insert "the readers" every time he makes that mistake. Trying to use your own mind as a fair example of a reader isn't going to work. I'd make a proper mess of it if I tried to be a journalist for any of the UK tabloids. I seem to be able to see straight through the way they sex up everything, and I find it hard not to feel contempt for anybody who falls for the scam. I could probably do the job if I absolutely had to, but I'd always feel annoyed that I was depending on public gullibility for my livelihood, I'd always be wondering "how can they be so stupid?"

Remember your audience. News stories are meant to inform people of the things they find significant, and your audience is overwhelmingly NT. They will want to know the human, emotional angle; and if you ignore it, you're not being a good journalist. If you were writing a scientific article, then the emotion would be quite out of place because of how subjective it is; but in this case, you're communicating to the everyday NT.

It's how their brain sees the world. People, emotions, relationships are what their mind focuses on, while ours focuses on other things. If you're going to write something engaging for them, you'll have to put the people first.

It might help if you told your teacher about your autistic traits, especially if you don't want to write that way. Or maybe you could write it your way, then edit it so the people get mentioned first. "I'm writing it my way, but giving him an edited version so I'll get better grades."

I don't see how emotion isn't involved in caring about the hotel and it's history.

Caring about history, of a hotel, has to do with both emotions and people.