Reporting for details in a pandemic: How to enlist sources as a guide
The limitations to on-the-scene reporting caused by the pandemic have made scarce the details that enrich stories. The gemstones of journalism are there, but reporters must search harder for them.
Washington Post enterprise reporter Jessica Contrera and Indiana University professor and narrative editor for the USA Today network Kelley Benham French discussed how to mine for the right details during a virtual conversation Tuesday hosted by the National Press Club Journalism Institute. Both journalists have deep experience with narrative stories that show rather than tell with sparing but effective use of details.
The five senses are hard to use directly in reporting during this time of COVID-19, so French and Contrera advised reporters to enlist their sources to describe the details.
French imagined a story about a nurse coming home from the ER, being unable to hug her child and telling a reporter “It’s the hardest part of my day.”
“I’m just trying to take that generalization and break it into pieces and say, ‘How does it feel in your body when you can’t hug your kid? What are the steps that you go through before you can help your kid? Explain it to me,’” she said. “It’s breaking that quote into like 500 pieces and then choosing the most important one.”
Contrera said in pre-COVID-19 times, she would simply follow a nurse into the ER. Now, she says she explains to them: “I would be there when you walk into a patient’s room. I would be able to see everything you’re seeing, smell everything you’re smelling, be able to watch the expressions on your face, on your patient’s face. And I can’t do any of that. I need you to help me.”
She said she asks sources or the subjects of her stories how they are holding up before interviewing them. When they ask her in return, she gives them detailed, candid answers. “I think it’s important, right now especially … to model vulnerability.”
Both suggested checking back with sources on the details that will appear in a story.
“We’re not making them editors of our stories,” French said. “We’re making them more aware of how they can help us tell their stories.”
Among their other insights:
Look for the details that best describe the story’s purpose
French: The biggest part is getting people to understand that every detail has to have a job. Details can do different kinds of jobs. There are details that reveal character; there are details that reveal status; there are details that trigger emotion; there are details that help connect people to other people who are different from them; and there are details that show ways people are unique.
Selecting and identifying details always comes down to a clarity of vision and a focus of what you want the story to do. That has to come, ideally, when you are still reporting. You have to have the idea of what you want to show while you are still reporting so that you ask the right question that gets you to the right details.
Contrera: It’s hard to know them in the moment, though. I’m looking, or asking, or just trying to feel things. If you feel it in your gut you know it’s a good detail. …
I’m often asking ‘why?’ You can write down a detail like that this person is wearing a cross around their neck. You probably end up throwing that away. Unless you ask, ‘Tell me about what’s on your neck?’ They might tell you that that was given to them by whomever you are writing about….If the cross has purpose, then it’s worth keeping.
Be stingy in your use of detail
French: It’s a constant winnowing, but the narrower you can get with your focus, the more detail you can include in your story. To have a story that is rich, evocative and emotional you have to eventually arrive at a tight focus.
That really helps with the selection and the reporting, and then you can get down to ‘I’m writing this scene and I need to explain these five minutes in time to this reader.’ Because five minutes on a page is a long time. You only need half a dozen great details to make your story work.
Conterra: Especially now. Right now I feel everyone’s capacity for reading, especially heart-wrenching stories, is just lower. So I’m trying to make my stories tighter. I‘m trying to choose my details more carefully so that in the precious time they have given me to read, I’m giving them more bang for their buck.
Use the phone as an intimate reporting tool
French: If I had a choice I would never do it by Zoom, if I could help it. (A phone) is just two human voices, connecting and everything else is drowned out; you don’t have to worry about what you look like… but you have to ask people to help.
‘What’s on your cell phone? What text messages have you received or sent today that you would feel comfortable sharing? Look back over the photos that you took on your phone that day, do those jog any memories for you? Who else did you talk to? What did you say? What did they say?’ …
I’m a big fan of bringing in other artifacts and documents and images, and even asking people to help: ‘So when you drive home from work, could you just open up the recorder on your phone and just talk into it as you drive and download everything you remember?’ They can decide later if they want to share it with you.
Advice for young journalists entering the profession
Contrera: You don’t have to wait until you’re at the publication you want to be at, or you’re in a position you want to be at, to try to do the types of stories that you want to do. There’s no other way to learn how to do narrative immersive journalism than to just go do it now… Especially now when, when we are being really, really challenged, you can learn so much. I’m learning so much about how to do better interviews, how to earn people’s trust…. Every time you do it you get a little bit better.
French: The young people I work with are super Type A and they really want to do a good job and they really want to grow up and be Jesica Contrera. And they worry that they don’t know what they’re going to be doing when they’re 45. … I guess my advice is just, this is fun. It’s one of the most rewarding things you’ll ever do. And if you do it for six months, it’ll make you better at any other thing that you do in your life.
This program is one of an ongoing series of free conversations. Click here to see our upcoming programs, or to watch a recording of a previous event. Please contact Journalism Institute Executive Director Julie Moos with questions.