A special way for us to help
The original plan was to send one of our reporters down with a local Red Cross volunteer team to chronicle the relief efforts through the eyes of Triad helpers. As we talked about it, though, we realized that we would be putting the reporter in a tough ethical spot: she would want to help those she saw as much as -- and probably more than -- she would have the need to write with the traditional journalistic detachment.
Heck, we can get plenty of stories about the relief efforts from the wire services, we decided. But if we sent a reporter as a volunteer to write what she saw and did and felt, we could contribute a special angle to your understanding of the tragedy down South.
Amy Dominello, who reports on growth and development issues for us most of the time, is going through the required Red Cross volunteer training course today and will write about that in tomorrow's paper. We hope she will be dispatched to a Gulf state site early next week.
We don't know how long she will stay; we'll determine that when she gets down there. We're also unsure how she's going to file stories -- that, too, will have to await her arrival. (In case you're wondering, we are paying her way and we're not taking the place of another volunteer.)
We like the opportunity to help our neighbors in a direct way and to help tell the story of what's happening to you. As stodgy, traditional journalists, it's rare we get to participate in both worlds. (And yes, I know I'm using the universal "we" when Amy is doing all the heavy lifting.)
Update: Well, I've just been told that late Friday night, the Red Cross called us back and said that Amy could not both volunteer and write about her experiences after all. Seems it is against their privacy policy. So she's going to be a traditional reporter there with, we hope, a group of local volunteers. I think we could have worked around the privacy issues pretty easily, but no go.
Comments (12)
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Very impressive. Nice example of a how a local paper can give insight you won't get from a wire service or the national news. Might even be better if she gets sent to Mississippi or Alabama. Some of those places have been just as devastated as N.O. yet there has been an understandable dearth of coverage.
Posted on September 3, 2005 10:05 AM
That is great! Good luck to the lady.
Posted on September 3, 2005 2:51 PM
If she has any kind of web access, a blog will let her file as possible, and you can collate and edit that into material for other formats. Setting up a free blog at Blogger takes about 2 minutes and is so easy even I can do it...just a thought.
Thanks for doing this.
Posted on September 3, 2005 6:42 PM
We had planned to have her blog it, Ed, but we were unsure she is going to have much access to power. She is prepared to dictate, just like the old days!
Posted on September 3, 2005 9:06 PM
I'd think much more of her and your newspaper if she went as a volunteer to help instead of a reporter.
Posted on September 4, 2005 11:32 AM
5,000 People
Saving $5/day on lunch
$125,000 saved in a week
$500,000 saved in a month
The need will go on beyond what we donate today....let's make a small sacrifice and continue to support our fellow Americans.
I will be posting brown bags with this message all over my town...you can too.
http://www.geocities.com/brownbagforrelief/My_Relief_Page.html
Posted on September 4, 2005 2:18 PM
Looks like we're trying to hook up with a church group to go so that Amy can go as a volunteer worker.
Posted on September 4, 2005 7:31 PM
So you're going to use a church group to get around the privacy policy? Hmmm... Bad idea. Churches should certainly be as concerned as the Red Cross about protecting the privacy of hurricane victims. I'm surprised you found a church group that agreed to it. I hope they'll rethink it. I agree with JP, I'd have much more respect for the N&R and its staff if you were more interested in helping than in writing about helping. Seems exploitative to me. Way.
Posted on September 5, 2005 11:33 PM
Can't you have her write about her experiences and only use first names? Or use psuedonyms. I think that both the volunteering and the writing about the experiences are valuable and can be done without compromising journalistic integrity. If not, then send her as a straight volunteer, no reporting.
Posted on September 6, 2005 2:00 PM
I think we'd all like to help, but the first purpose of the newspaper is to provide information to its readers. Sending reporters to volunteer without them writing would be a nice thing to do, but falls outside of their jobs and outside the purpose of journalism.
Missy, we aren't hooking up with the church group to get around the privacy policy. We hooked up with the group because they had a clear date of departure, destination and role.
Posted on September 6, 2005 3:02 PM
There are a lot of folks who are doing stuff that falls outside of their job or purpose in this hurricane. So you won't get stories coming out of it? Her beat is still going to be here when she gets back. Do something that doesn't fit inside the business model, something that doesn't bring any benefit to you. It's called sacrifice and that's what's going to make the difference for the people of NO
Posted on September 6, 2005 4:05 PM
If reporters (TV, print, online) hadn't reported the news from NOLA/Miss./Ala....how would we have known how bad the situation had become/still is? That these folks needed our help, our money and our prayers and will likely need them for some time to come? By osmosis?
Posted on September 6, 2005 4:18 PM