(Jesse Collings is a multimedia journalist at the Arlington Advocate in Arlington, Mass.)
“I think timely reporting on major stories can lead to some positivity. Earlier this year someone attempted to burn down a Chabad in Arlington, which was also home to a family with small children. I reported on the story and a few days later there was a large rally against antisemitism and hate in Arlington, and I can probably say that by informing the public about the incident, it led to more people being motivated to take action.”
- “In my experience, the real strength of freedom of the press isn’t that the press will report on anything without any constitutional interference, but simply that they CAN. For instance, just yesterday the Arlington High School Building Committee released information noting that the new AHS building was currently $30 million over their original budget estimate…the committee had to know that the headline “New high school already $30 million over budget” would not play well to the public. In an ideal scenario, they would have never wanted to disclose that….However, they knew that eventually the press would find out…So instead of trying to hide it, they produced a press release and came out honestly about the situation…In a society that doesn’t give as much freedom to the press, they easily could have avoided having to do that, but in this country they have no other choice but to come out and be honest, no investigative reporting required.”
- “To me it is impossible to really quantify if my reporting leads to direct action by others; I would like to think that it does but I have no way to really prove it. If I do a story on the food pantry needing donations for the holiday season, I assume that at least one person read that story and decided to donate. The same could be said for a story about reducing pollution or a fundraiser for a local charity…”
- “I think in today’s day and age people assume that all journalists have some form of agenda or bias in their reporting…The reality is that most members of the media don’t have any specific agenda or angle they are trying to produce. My goal as a reporter is to produce well-written articles that I think people will want to invest their time in reading; as a non-resident of Arlington, I honestly don’t care that much about most stories I cover, because my job is not to try and sway people one way or another, it is to inform the public in a balanced and fair manner. I think in the age of television news, people have mistaken punditry for reporting and opinions for facts; but real reporters and journalists are not constantly trying to convince the public to believe in their personal beliefs.”
(Edited by Stevie Powers)
