Posts Tagged ‘interviews’
I have interviewed 10 journalists at the paper: editors, front-line reporters, reporters who joined staff post-Katrina. Each interview lasted an average of one hour and 15 minutes, time that flew by too quickly. These people tell stories for a living. Telling their own stories is something they rarely have an opportunity to do. Each has a different story to tell, but each story contains common threads.
They not only answered my questions but also gave fantastic insight to what it means to report in a place like New Orleans when newspaper journalism is threatened. Although some acknowledged the sliding state of the industry, their passion for what they do strengthened my own optimistic view that journalism will be around for a while.
I could have listened to and talked with them all day, but that’s not the best for my project. It’s also no good for me in time spent transcribing all those interviews. (BTW, transcribing feels like taking a timed spelling test for two hours: you race and race to get it done as quickly as possible and there is little to no thinking involved. I was good at spelling tests because of the whole photographic memory thing and knowing they’d be over soon. I still can’t spell guarantee right on the first try…)
I’m at the point in my research where I revisit each of these interviews, listening and looking for what I missed before and thinking about what I’m still missing. Time is running out, and although I’m farther along than some of my colleagues, I still feel behind.
“Perfect objectivity is an unattainable standard for journalists even in the best of times. Because nobody’s a robot, no journalist can be expected to write in a way that doesn’t reveal at least a little something about who that journalist is…
Objectivity became that much harder for local journalists after Hurricane Katrina. We who write the story of New Orleans after the flood are, for the most part, New Orleanians ourselves. We struggle in many of the same ways the subjects of our stories struggle. We need financial assistance to get into houses the same way they need it.
Do we care about how this story unfolds? Yes, and unashamedly so. Does that mean we can’t, that we shouldn’t, write about the things that are happening — or not happening? A complete recusal would feel like abandonment.
Somebody’s got to tell the world what’s going on here. If local journalists are not the most objective sources of the story, we should be considered the most authoritative. We know the pain of living here — not because we see it but because we feel it.
— Jarvis DeBerry, The Times-Picayune, September 30, 2007
Yesterday I met with editorial writer Jarvis DeBerry. After Katrina, his column focused on displaced New Orleanians. He started writing about his own application to The Road Home, the government program set up to compensate 150,000 homeowners in Louisiana with significant damage to their homes. He encountered red tape, confusion and conflicting information.
After several columns, he got a phone call saying his case had been expedited. There was a “note” in his file. Jarvis didn’t call any favors. It had to be because of the columns. Later he was told he received $90,000 more than the original valuation. He wondered if this was a move to shut him up. His girlfriend told him to take the money, but he couldn’t personally or professionally. He didn’t want to get entangled in any future traps and he couldn’t live with that money thinking that it could have belonged to one of the poor, old people he talked to. He tried to keep himself out his columns. When he used his story, it was to illustrate the struggles of thousands of people. He consciously wrote to make sure readers didn’t think he was writing to get anything out of it.
He never questioned writing about his own journey. He was the only columnist who lost his house. If he didn’t tell the story, who else would?
The word research strikes either fear, mystery or disinterest into non academics who hear it. Aware of this, I avoid using it or slur through an explanation of what the word means for my project. Watered down for mass consumption, my research project can be described: I’m interviewing reporters and editors at the paper about what it was like to report Hurricane Katrina while they were dealing with their own Katrina-induced problems.
Whoa. So you get to talk to Chris Rose? Yep. Jim Amoss? Yep. What are you going to ask them? (Breathe.) Well… some journalists strongly adhere to the idea that journalists should be extremely objective and keep their personal experiences and biases out of the reporting and writing process. Let the story stand on its own. If a reporter is a member of the local Kiwanis club, he can’t write about the upcoming pancake breakfast. When Katrina happened, every journalist was affected to some degree, so how did they report “objectively?” And how has that changed their newsroom in the last few years.
I’ve interviewed the executive editor and managing editor, and both have been terrific to talk to: insightful, articulate and helpful for thinking of questions to ask others as I go. I have two more interviews on Tuesday: one who reported during Katrina and is now an editor and another former reporter, turned columnist. Questions will focus more on individual stories and experiences than broad observations of how the newsroom has changed. Interviewing journalists is both inspiring and terrifying. Stories from the job are exciting for someone who wants to go into that line of work. On the other hand, these people aren’t new to interviews. What if I don’t ask the right questions? How embarrassing!
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