I'd like to share a little story about answering the newsroom tip line. Follow along.
When we're in the newsroom, the tip line sort of takes turns ringing on all of our desk phones. It's kind of like a Russian roulette of who's gonna pick it up AND what's going to be on the other end. Sometimes I get calls from Santa!
Yes, Santa Claus actually called me, showed up on the caller ID and everything, to tell me about a message he wanted to send to children feeling uneasy during this time (but really it was a message for all of us). My colleague Robyne wrote about it. https://fm.kuac.org/post/santa-comforts-children-amid-pandemic-demonstrations
And sometimes I get calls like I did today, from a woman very upset with our (lack of) coverage re: police in Anchorage. She was also upset that we didn't have any "minority" journalists in our newsroom (lol) and after telling her my name she said "you're probably just an intern"
I wasn't really offended. She doesn't know me and I appreciate that my newsroom doesn't tokenize me as a "minority" journalist+ I think it's important that we continue to take those calls/emails, and respond to and engage with the community we cover.
Of course, I didn't say all of this to her because I couldn't get a word in edgewise lol. She was very passionate. But it did make me think about our audience, and how someone who really cares about their community likely just wants good coverage.
I've been really proud of the work that our newsroom and our network have been doing to help people make sense of this moment, even as we're all living through it ourselves. Of course, there's room for improvement. That's why I stayed on the phone. We want to be better!
All this is to say, keep in touch with your local newsroom and local journalists! Send us questions and tips and we'll do our level best to make sure you have what you need. But also, we're working really hard every day and it's nice when people engage the work we've already done
Anyway - happy Friday-eve! 🥂
You can follow @mayowaaina_.
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