In the 27th minute of my 30-minute conversation with Charlottesville Tomorrow CEO and editor-in-chief Angilee Shah, I asked her what she thought an aspiring journalist needed to know about becoming a journalist and one working in non-profit news.
She had a great answer.
So many of the journalists I've interviewed in these last four years have embraced the struggle, whether it's a Muslim journalist covering a Trump rally, a bilingual reporter trying to write stories in two languages, a Black reporter trying to stay mentally composed when covering breaking news in high-crime areas, or a journalist whose own father was murdered now trying to create something positive in his dad's memory. Or even a reporter at Angilee's own paper dealing with the aftereffects of covering the Unite The Right rally.
And they stick with it or find other paths in journalism to pursue, because they know just how important the work they're doing is. They hope for a better world. My admiration is with them.
On Angilee’s website, she describes herself as “journalist, editor, dreamer.” That seems appropriate. Here are three other highlights from my chat with her:
* We talked a lot about her "scrappy as hell" newsroom is trying to connect with its Virginia community.
"We do a lot of intentional listening and relationship building, so we have a lot of pathways for community members to get in touch about what they're doing.
Our (contact us) form on our website is real and real people answer every single message we get. We point people there in part because it helps us, carry the load. Our reporters are generally accessible and know a lot of people. We try to focus on stories that come from the community up."
* She explained the value of a degree from Berkeley in cognitive science.
" How do systems work? How does information move? How does it get processed? That level of abstraction combined with my intense interest in individual people and their lives has been a great combination."
* She had a lot to say on what journalists are getting wrong when it comes to covering immigration:
"These are very complicated processes … The political rhetoric around immigration wants to make it really simple. I think anybody who's gone through our immigration system knows that it is not as simple as. Documented or undocumented. Legal or illegal?"
There's lots more good stuff in this episode from Angilee, whom you can follow on LinkedIn. Hope you'll give it a listen … and keep struggling!
PS: Please support radio stations impacted by the government’s awful budget cuts