Welcome everyone. Good morning. Thank you so much for joining me. My name is Ashton Mara. I Have lots of jobs. I'm a professor of journalism at West Virginia University I'm also the executive editor of a nonprofit newsroom called 100 days in Appalachia And today I'm here to speak to you on behalf of a separate project called reporting on addiction my colleague Jonathan Stoltman who is Somebody who's much more in your space than mine in journalism He had some travel issues today and so was not able to make it this morning I'm so you all are stuck with me. So let's talk a little bit about harnessing your expertise I'm gonna move through these slides really quickly. We don't have any financial disclosures Here is the things that we would hope that you would be able to do at the conclusion of this session Blah blah blah who we are Okay So reporting on addiction and I'm gonna like stand in front of this podium because if I stand behind it You will not be able to see me. I'm Reporting on addiction was launched in September of 2021 officially But Jonathan and I began our work together actually in April of 2020 there was a news article put out by NPR that said that Appalachians have been That our communities have been decimated by a drug epidemic and we don't care and I was like, wait a second. I really care So we reached out to Jonathan who at the time was finishing his PhD at West Virginia University Specifically on the language of addiction and how that impacts people who are in treatment and I was like Jonathan I'm I'm gonna need some help talking through the language of this story And taking ownership of this issue So we worked on that story together and Jonathan and I thought well there's a lot more that could be done in this space So for about a year and a half, we met with each other every Friday for three or four hours during the pandemic So it was all virtual And we came up with this idea to start this organization That would teach journalists how to use the science that would introduce them to the science Give them some guidelines for reporting in this space and then we kind of figured out that we can't just fix that problem We also have to talk to people like you about why it's important to talk to journalists and local journalists in particular So we did some focus groups and we talked to folks who are working in the space experts and academic researchers clinicians We did that that group and talked to them about what they felt the need in journalism was Then we spoke to what we call our community members those are people who are in long-term recovery folks who are We had folks who are peer recovery specialists We had a federal drug court judge on that panel talk to us about what they felt They needed to see change in journalism, and then we talked to journalists themselves So you may have heard of other groups kind of doing this work in the past What they have not done is asked journalists what they need or taken into account the difficulties of what's happening in the field And so that's where we're a little bit different I'm not an expert in addiction science But I am a journalist and I do understand what that job is like so we really take that into account Hopefully so that we can make change in this space So this says to write things down, but I'm actually gonna ask you to just shout them out for me This is not a very big root work or excuse me room. What is any word that comes to mind when you hear addiction? stigma trauma Shame Oh God so good any words Disease oh, thank you Criminals yeah Few more anymore Drugs pretty straightforward, right war on drugs Absolutely so when we do this exercise with journalists These are the words that we don't hear and we got some of them here with you, right? we hear words like criminals like despair like death and Overdose right what we want journalists to start to think about are these words that recovery is possible That true that addiction is treatable. There is hope that this is a chronic illness It is lifelong and that this is a disease of the brain. And so we're attempting to teach them about that in particular So this is a quote that Jonathan really loves and I do too Perhaps the greatest challenge to expanding access to evidence-based treatment is stigma and a lack of public knowledge about treatment efficacy I just realized I'm probably blocking you. Can you see it? Okay. Okay, you can tell me to move if I need to Um, so what we know about the way journalism works right now And I am gonna do a lot of just like teaching you about journalism today. That's really the point here So student journalists are the ones who are getting their training right there in my classroom. Oh, I apologize. I'm hitting microphone They're in my classroom and I'm teaching them how to do the work right the basics of the reporting process I teach them how to write how to do these stories on radio and television and social media That's where they're getting a bulk of their training and then early in their career they are going out into these mostly local and regional newsrooms where they are taking on these stories for themselves for the first time and Often in those spaces they are relying on senior journalists and editors to help them through stories that they've never encountered before The problem is those senior journalists and editors have never been trained on how to do stories in this space And so we find that as they get into that mid and late career senior reporter They've never had the intervention of knowledge in this space Early career journalists are relying on those folks who don't have the skills and expertise and we're just perpetuating this cycle, right? So we are attempting to intervene with journalists in all of those spaces in in the classroom I am working with professors on a route on curriculum that I've created to help them teach students how to do this reporting We are training early and mid and late career journalists actually in their newsrooms and going to those kinds of conferences So we are really working to combat stigma from the ground up and from the top down and we know that this is the long game right, so This is not where I am supposed to do this part of the talk My colleague Jonathan who's not here today usually does so I'm gonna go really quickly But I'm also gonna make the assumption that you don't need me to teach you this that these are things that you probably already know So think of this as a level set But if you do have questions or you want to talk through anything Please just like yell out because I would be more than happy to do that. So a little bit about stigma I think that we all know this right stigma is one of those sticky terms that it feels like oh I get it when you say it, but I don't actually know how to define it. But it is that mark of a Disrepute it is that mark of shame right and they're both internal and external forms of stigma There are also forms of stigma that are very different based on structures, right? So that public and social stigma that is pervasive within our communities that structural stigma that somebody might experience and within the health care system during their course of treatment or Barriers that might exist to treatment that might also be a result of stigma We have that self and internalized and that family or courtesy stigma That is the result of being near or related to or in relationship with someone who is experiencing stigma I will say that This may be the case for some of you It is definitely the case for journalists who feel really strongly about covering this topic that they do experience that courtesy stigma Especially in small and local newsrooms that just because they have chosen to cover this topic and to try to do the best they can They then experience a level of stigma themselves and then we put that nice little fancy picture on the other side because it's really important to keep in mind those Intersectional elements of stigma and how they are experienced So it is one thing to be a middle-class white guy who is experiencing addiction in your community It is a very different thing to be a woman a woman who is pregnant who is also black and lives in Appalachia It is a totally different ballgame, right? So those intersectionalities are really important here Again that kind of pervasive belief. We are really focused on public stigma in particular because we have this kind of We have these beliefs that people who use drugs are those criminals, right? They are immoral They are making a choice to do this thing and that then results that stigma itself Often is perpetuated in the stories that we're telling in the media And the narratives that we choose and that then leads directly to discrimination in our communities So I'm not gonna hire you because you are in recovery or I'm not going to house you Because you are an active addiction, right? And so stigma in and of itself is really terrible but the result of that stigma is action through the form of Discrimination and I think that we know that the result of those actions is often death, right? And I try to really really stress that to reporters That yes, you may think that what you're doing is maybe just not telling the best story But if we continue not to tell the best story We it leads to action in our communities and those actions result in death and we should be taking that really seriously I wanted to ask about something you pointed out You're talking about on the one hand addiction on the other hand you say people who use drugs which are Overlapping things. Absolutely. Most people who use drugs are not addicted and Like to say they're they're to blame for their behavior Well, people who use drugs and are not addicted, I mean, they are responsible for their behavior Absolutely, absolutely Absolutely, I think that that's I think that's a really great point again I'm not addiction scientist So I don't know that I can speak to the nuances of those what I will say is I tend to use those terms Interchangeably and actually you are probably correct and I should not do that I should be considering that language a little bit more especially because I'm going to talk to you all day about using language So, thank you for that and I think I'm gonna do my best to Hi welcome To be more clear in that language okay, so Let's keep going So I think we probably all recognize when this happens in the media and what it looks like But we wanted to pull a couple of really quick examples for you So that you could see some of the things that we are trying to teach journalists not to do So this headline in particular federal government allows program to pay substance abusers for staying clean That is the exact opposite of what we're trying to get across in that brain disease Model and that focus on disease, right? And then the born addicted is something in particular that Jonathan tells a wonderful story about how when he was working in the clinic as a PhD student People magazine was like sitting on the desk and he picked it up one day and that's what he opened up to in his clinic And just the shock of that picture, right? I think we all recognize like and feel that shock and the result of a photo like that is oh my god Like what is that mother doing to that child? What kind of person would do that to their child, right? So it's not even the headline that is like factually incorrect Because in the medical definition of disease of the disease that a Sam has come up with babies cannot Cannot continue an action Even despite the harmful consequences, right? That's a really important part of the definition a baby literally cannot do that but then on top of it just like Y'all have been around babies They all cry Like they all do right that's just like what they do. So it's it's misleading Right. It's misleading and it's in these conversations that I have with journalists It is ethically a really poor decision to use those kinds of headlines and those kinds of images So we are trying to get them to stop doing that Absolutely Absolutely, absolutely and that's This is where the disease model comes in in particular and that we're trying to educate folks on because you're absolutely right What is the opposite of clean those are the questions we're trying to present to the journalists what is the opposite of clean? Do you want those people around you? No, you don't want people who are dirty around you, right? and so instead of bringing people in Getting them access to the resources and the treatment that they need the words that we are Using are literally pushing them to the margins of our society, but they're not Trained in the impact of that right? They're not trained there yet so here is one more example that is also from West Virginia where I'm from and where Jonathan worked in particular with Stephen Patrick about an example of I'm gonna move back here just for a second of a headline that even though Stevens Who is an addiction scientist at West Virginia University? even though everything he wrote in this opinion piece was immaculate and so wonderful and really focused on hope and the Work that he's doing to create change in his community. He didn't have any control over that headline. He didn't write it so it's it's also we use this I use this example so that I can also say that even when Even though I'm gonna try to convince you to work with a journalist They don't necessarily have control over every single aspect of their stories and sometimes that manifests in headlines But Stephen did reach out to that journalist and say look I have a problem with that headline and here's what it is. And could we work to change it? And that's the difference between Shaming someone on Twitter and approaching them from a place of empathy and education to make this reporting better Which is what I'm gonna ask It does say that it does say opioid addicted newborns I'm sorry. The one on the right is the is the fixed is the corrected one So on the left is what was initially printed. I should have been more clear about that I apologize on the right is when he went back to USA Today and asked them to update the headline and what they were able to transition it to Through a place of learning, you know, this is why there's a problem with that headline and they agreed to shift So We are working to reduce stigma by by teaching journalists about shifting in their language and taking all of those individual words into account We know that the evidence shows we can reduce stigma if we focus on person first language So a person with a substance use disorder But it works. It's we see it across the field right a person who is homeless or a person who is unhoused a person who is Unhoused a person who is formerly incarcerated We use that person first language in a lot of spaces And so we're asking journalists to keep that in mind when they're working in this space We're working with them to shift towards solutions. We all know the problems We know them and we continually see them reported on in our communities, but there are solutions We just don't ever get to see them so we're working with journalists to think through solutions narratives to be to Include empathetic narratives that humanize people and don't just focus on the worst moments of their disease for that shock Value and the emphasis of societal rather than individual causes of addiction So again, if we come back to that ASAM definition, it is the fact it is the result of all of these things, right? genetics and also Community experience and lived experience all of those things So I've moved through that super fast because you probably didn't need me to but do we want to talk anything about stigma before we Really jump into journalism and I try to convince you That even though we do bad things you should help us Okay, all right, so we're gonna dig into journalism itself So you all are experts in this space? You absolutely are and Sometime I walk sometimes I walk into these rooms and everybody's like, yeah Otherwise, I wouldn't be here and some people are like absolutely not My boss is an expert and that person should talk to journalists, but I am NOT you absolutely are If you went to school and studied this thing in the eyes of a journalist You are an expert if you have a PhD. Whoa, you are a super expert I am telling you that is how our our kind of understanding of expertise is very basic So when a journalist approaches you and asks you for help for their story Journalists have obviously Well, I should not say that some journalists have gone to school for this thing Other have have come into the field through various routes Some of them are health care reporters And some of them are not because addiction is not only covered by health care reporters, right Addiction is not only an issue for our health care field. It is it is an arts and culture issue, right? It's a military issue. It's an education issue So it's not just going to be the health care reporter or even the crime Reporter that is approaching you and asking you to help them with their stories. It's important to keep that in mind Because you have to level set and understand how much they know and they may literally know nothing They may know absolutely nothing Journalists do not want to harm their communities. This is at the center of all of the work that we're doing at reporting on addiction. I Genuinely believe and I know it to be the case That we do not wake up in the morning and go to the Charleston Daily Mail and say what can I do to make? Charleston worse today Nobody's doing that The problem is we do not have a lot of things that we need to do this reporting correctly. One is time. I Have worked journalism jobs where by 10 a.m I knew my story and my editor needed the complete story the written piece with two interviews and photos by 4 p.m There's not much time Right and often in that time, you know I've worked plenty of journalism jobs or I started the day and they were like come back with six things To put on the six o'clock news because you're the only reporter working today. I've done it I've filled a six o'clock newscast by myself before in television. It's not great. I didn't do my best work Sometimes we don't have a choice Also because we don't have very big budgets I think that you all know this that more and more the industry is shrinking Journalists are getting laid off. We're being asked to do more with less Constantly and then there's that additional layer that there isn't many there aren't many resources for us to do this kind of work There really isn't any training that exists So unless we have been able to seek out those people in our communities and build relationships with them people like you We often don't know what we need in order to do this kind of reporting So we have limited access to all of that training limited access to the science as well Think about the things that you may have access to every single day I have access to the WVU library system where I can go look at any academic journal that I want to write and that's only Because I'm employed by West Virginia University I have never I have worked in news for I worked in newsrooms for 12 years. Never once did anybody say Oh, we have access to this scientific database. Never it doesn't happen so we don't have the resources that we need and yet it's our work that can truly impact our communities and shift public policy That's my role as a journalist And I cannot tell you as a statehouse reporter for a long time and I cannot tell you how many meetings I sat in with members of the Legislature up in a tiny committee room in the back of the Capitol and nobody else was there But me and the and the senator would hold up the newspaper and say this story was in the newspaper today So we have to do something, right? We do journalists can make change in their communities But if we don't have the resources that we need or the training that we need or access to the people that we need Sometimes it is bad policy Right is bad policy that's being passed in our communities. So we are really asking you As experts in this space to help improve this reporting and I'm going to teach you how to do that So, how does a journalist even find you you get that call or you get that email? How did they find me or on the opposite end of that? I would like to get that call and nobody ever sends me an email and nobody ever calls me What can I do to be available in my community? so first they are doing research and off and maybe perhaps finding your research because Maybe your organization or your university put out a press release about your recent findings They are often finding you through those kinds of things, right? We're just scouring the internet for any names that we can find associated with this thing But recognize that you may have done research in a very very narrow space And a journalist is thinking that person knows something about addiction, so I'm just gonna call them So oftentimes they're gonna find you through your research But it's your expertise in the field at large that they're more interested in than the findings of that particular that particular Piece of writing or whatever it is that you've published, right? They often find you on social media So if you are in these spaces, that's fantastic Although these slides have were submitted before everything happened with Twitter And so now it's like use your best judgment, but LinkedIn in particular is a space that journalists feel like Professionals will put themselves out there and we can find them easily there So I would recommend if you haven't looked at these professional pages in a while or you don't have them Consider going back and creating them because I can't tell you how many times I'm just typing in topics in LinkedIn to find individuals very quickly Maybe if you know this or not the use of hashtags allows you to insert yourself in conversations that are already happening So if you're not currently doing that and you are working in a particular area You know if what you do in particular is work with pregnant women, right Finding hashtags that are already relevant in that space and using those across social media platforms Allows you to insert yourself in a conversation that's already happening and journalists will often just click on that hashtag and look at what people are posting to find individuals to speak to and Then link tree is another way that you can you can organize information about yourself when tree isn't the only one there are lots of them, but it is basically an account that allows you to Put a link in your bio and then that sends them to a list of links so that you could send them you could Aggregate all of your social media Accounts, you could have your bio on your organization's web page You could use it to keep track of your most recent research Organize all of those things into one space so that as a journalist is looking they have the resources that they need And know that they can reach out to you for what they're working for When a journalist reach out reaches out to you and asks for your help They should tell you what their deadline is if they do not you should ask Because often it is a very quick turnaround You do not have a responsibility or a requirement to speak to a journalist But if they've told you their deadline And you're not in the middle of a day where you're seeing lots of patients or at a conference or whatever it is, right? And you see the email, you know, it's not gonna work for you Just tell them no like that would also be great A lot of us are just kind of looking for a not today, but come back to me later. That'd be great That would be really helpful If you do have other folks on your team or just other people that you know in this space that you could point them to Just saying that I can't today I've got a lot going on But I have this friend who works over at this place and they might be willing to talk to you You don't even have to go through the process of like here's their email address and phone number and their bio and all we don't Need all those things like just give us a name and a place and we can find it So helping them move toward other experts in the field is a really fantastic way to start building a relationship with the journalist This one we're gonna come back to a little bit later But if you're in the process of communicating with the journalist working with them on a story And you send them to another person, but you know, there are some red flags with that person's work Most of you are thinking like I wouldn't send them to that person, but you never know They also it is also totally appropriate for you to say who else are you speaking to on this story? and if you know that that person that they've responded to you with is a Iffy in the work that they're doing you do have a responsibility to say that and You don't have to say like that person sucks Don't talk to them, but like keep in mind these things as you're talking to that person, right? Recognize that we generally don't have the education in this space to see those red flags for ourselves. So The example I like to use and may not be applicable in this room, but I think we'll still understand it is In Appalachia, there are a lot of community treatment centers Trying to fill that space and I do believe that a lot of those people who are doing that are Attempting to help their communities in some way, but when you go to a community treatment center and they say we don't allow medication here That's a red flag that a journalist often doesn't know right and And the answer to the why question why don't you allow medication can be a lot of really good things Well right now we don't give medication because we haven't been able to work out the insurance reimbursement with Medicaid We're really trying to like that's a different answer than Because you can pray and it'll be fine, right? The science is different there and science is a little bit different, right? And we as journalists have to have to ask those questions So, you know, there's a red flag in their story coming toward them Please say something about it because we don't actually have the expertise to do that ourselves The journalists if you've agreed to the interview, right? You've decided to take part in this story The journalists what we hear a lot from experts in this space is the journalists are dumb And they are not prepared and they come to this place and they ask me There's a bill in the legislature and they come and they say how do you how do you understand that bill? What is it going to do? Journalists are not all dumb and they are not always unprepared the medium that we work within dictates how the interview is going to go and So I interviewed legislators for 10 years about all kinds of things, but I worked in radio and So every time I turned on the microphone, my first question was, you know, you've got this bill that you're sponsoring Can you tell me what the bill does? How does it work? I Knew how the bill worked. I had read the bill 15 times I understood every bad and good implication in that bill, but it's radio I've got to have that person's voice on tape in Television it's the same. I've got to have the video of you talking So remember that if they're starting with those questions that you feel like they should already know to the answer to Oftentimes it's because it's the way that journalism works It's how them it's the medium within which they work that dictates how the interview goes so the other thing is deadlines right and the reality of this industry and so a journalist may have Asked you to do an interview two days from now that morning breaking news happens that journalist gets pulled But another journalist reach out reaches out to you and says I'm still gonna step in and come and do this interview or take on This story right and that's up to you to say whether or not you feel comfortable with that process but if you do recognize that that journalist may have been put on that story 15 minutes ago or an hour ago and They didn't have as much time to prepare So, yes, I understand that like journalists are dumb and they're just wasting my time but there are these considerations that the deadline may have dictated that or Breaking news may have dictated that somebody else is now taking on the story who didn't have time to prepare Or the medium within which they are working is going to dictate the questions that they're asking for you If the journalist has communicated to you or you have asked and they've responded with what their deadline actually is and it is tight Please help them with that story in that interaction Recognize this the stress of the situation of having to turn around a complex piece of journalism in a very short amount of time And if you have other ideas, that is a great way to build a relationship with them. Just maybe do it afterwards Right in that situation in the interview situation when a journalist is asking you things that are very specific to their story And you try to push them on to other topics what they're gonna see that as is I'm really stressed and I've got to get this story done and this person doesn't want to help me and they're never gonna come back to you But every single day I have to do a story Every day and so if you follow up with me and say I really thought that was you know I really loved the interaction. It was great to meet you. I had some other story ideas Do you think we could have a phone call tomorrow morning and talk through those things? They're going to say yes I have to have stories. That's my job. And if you have ideas for me, I would love to take them but Recognize the situation that they're in right? It's high pressure high stress The ultimate goal that you're trying to get to is building that long-term relationship with them And then if the opportunity presents itself push them towards solutions in that interaction I teach journalists every I teach student journalists every single day that the very last question you ask is Do you have anything else to add or is there anything that I missed and that's where you should start talking about solutions That's where you should start presenting those ideas Because in that situation it may not make it into that first story But again, it's a great opportunity to do a second story and to do a follow-up and to do more in-depth reporting in that field Recognize that when you're speaking to journalists, there is this kind of level of Explanation that we are asking of you. I Teach student journalists that our writing needs to be at a fifth grade reading level That's who I'm communicating with in the general public It is not because I can only read at a fifth grade reading level, but I have to assume that my audience Needs that kind of plain language. I don't like to say dumbed down, but it is a little bit to understand those stories So you as you're having your interaction with the journalists should recognize that this is the level of communication that they're looking for How would you explain this to a fifth grader? Not a teenager and not a college student and most certainly not a graduate student or your peers How can I really pare this down? Because our goal is to communicate this with our communities And so that's the work that we are attempting to do on the back end I wanted to give you an example of how journalists build quotes and to kind of take it out of the addiction space So as we're speaking to you about this topic about whatever topic it is in particular recognize that there are times when we are going to paraphrase the things that you're saying and Then times when we're looking for direct quotes that we can pull into our stories and those direct quotes are always going to be The emotion and the heart of the things that you're saying. That's what we teach journalists to do, right? So here's an example from a story from my publication About the American rescue plan and he was speaking to an expert in I think North Carolina who was working on the ground with it with American rescue plan money to house people in their community Emergency funding was made available in the pandemic through congressionally approved American rescue plan. But while that funding was quote unprecedented and huge and very very Necessary Looney said it's essentially function as a band-aid We've got all this subsidy money Looney said but we still don't have places to house people We still don't have places to house people that made me feel something That made me understand the problem So all of this information came from that individual But he is my journalist here is picking and choosing the things that are really cutting to the heart of that story unprecedented and huge and very very necessary That makes us feel something a little bit more. It helps us understand the context of this Is this problem of this issue? So as you are working with a journalist as you're doing an interview Beforehand think about what are those places that I really need to understand and need them to understand the science But I need them to understand the emotion and the impact of that science Okay. So so at this point do we have any thoughts or questions? I'm going to work into more specific tangible tips Yeah, please Yeah. Are they only asking that it's been known? Yeah. Well, that's probably a different problem. That's a time problem. Are they always only knowing that it's been an unreasonable ask? Yeah. So we tend to get these questions a lot. And I want to say first that I do understand where you're coming from. Because it is a building of trust. And trust in a media climate that is difficult, right? And your area of expertise is very complex and complicated. And you don't want people to get that wrong. You own this thing, right? I'm so afraid that someone's stupid that's going to use it. No, no, no, no. I get that too. And sometimes it's like, but I'm not the boss. And my boss is going to see this. And I don't want to get fired. I totally get that. This is going to come later in the slides. But I'm going to talk about it anyways. Because I do feel like this is the biggest place where people have concerns. So there are a couple of ways of thinking about it. If you tell a journalist that you're not going to participate in their story unless you can read all of it before it publishes, which I recognize is not what you said, but just. They are going to say no. And they are going to end the conversation and also end the relationship. And this is why. You have ethics that govern your field and dictate the work that you're doing every day. I do too. And that is an ethics issue. Ethically, I cannot share my work with you because I am trying to protect that work from outside influences. In this space, you are an expert, right? And as a journalist, I will often recognize that the work that you are doing is important and also deserves maybe some reflection. Most journalists just in that straight interaction are going to say, but what I've been taught is no. In many instances, if you ask them just to see the part that is yours, they will allow for that. It depends on their editor. So also recognize that the individual journalist doesn't get the final say. Their editor does. And that editor might say, absolutely not. There's no way. But if you are concerned and you want to see just the part that you are involved with, a lot of journalists will account for that and will allow for that. But I think that they need the explanation. And it is not like, my boss is going to fire me if you get something wrong. The explanation is, this was a really complicated topic. And I just want to make sure that we're on the same page or that what I said was actually helpful for you. Just put it back on them. I really just want to make sure that what I said was helpful for you. If you'd like to share it or if you wouldn't mind to share just my parts of the story, if they don't do it, it's because they forgot or they just got overwhelmed. And in some instances, they might have gotten overwhelmed because of breaking news. And even if you send a follow-up, they might just be literally out at a shooting and can't deal with it. But sometimes it's just because they forgot. And it is OK to follow up. I have some recommendations for language about how to follow up. But I really think it's, in working with a journalist, recognize that if that initial interaction is, I will not do this for you unless I can see everything you wrote before it publishes, you're pushing up against journalistic ethics and boundaries there. But if it comes from a place of, this was a really difficult topic, and I just want to make sure that I did a good job of helping you, they're mostly going to be like, yeah, you're right. I'm so sorry. Can you help? One hundred percent. have you had an experience where you had a journalist who felt Because you were going to talk about it on Oprah the next day? I took that personally, to mean that we needed a psychiatrist to talk a lot about this. You know, unless they want us to. So, I think that's actually a fantastic point. The first thing I'm going to say is Oprah's not a journalist, and we have to... I think that that is my fault, not my fault. It's journalism's fault that there is not a clear understanding in our communities of what is and what is not journalism, and we have to fix that. That's not on you to fix. I'm not asking you to fix that, although you could say things to journalists about what they... But Oprah's not a journalist, and I mean, Anderson Cooper is not doing journalism on CNN. That's not what's happening there. CNN and MSNBC and Fox News, that's not journalism. That's entertainment about news, and I think that that's a really important distinction to make. I love that you went on Oprah and you represented for your community, and I think that's fantastic, and I'm not saying don't do that. What I'm saying is recognize who is asking you to participate in their stories, and do some research for yourself about that news outlet, about that journalist in particular. And we're going to talk about vetting journalists here in just one second, but this is the reason why I want to get that point across really clearly, because what I'm asking of you is not to hold space for the New York Times or the Washington Post or for NPR, because I actually think a lot of work that they're doing in this space is shit. Sorry about the language, but it is. But the way that you can create change is to build a relationship with the local TV station or the local newspaper and start changing the way your community thinks and talks about this issue, because the truth is, this is from the Knight Foundation, every year they do a state of trust in local news report, and the truth is people trust those local media outlets far more than they trust that national news. You have a place, a trusted place of reliable information, we're doing our best, of reliable information where we are attempting to make change. And so what I'm asking of you today is really to hold space for local journalists. Do not wait for the New York Times to call you and think that's the only news outlet that I'm going to talk to, because it is much more likely that that journalist has an ax to grind. I can tell you that as an Appalachian. In 2016, I watched the New York Times and the Washington Post, I got phone calls from those journalists asking, can you help connect me to a coal miner that got laid off and is now going to vote for Trump? And you know what my response was? No, I can't help you with that. But I can connect you to all of these other people in my community who are going to vote for Trump or for Clinton, and here are all of the different reasons why. And they didn't want that, because they had decided what the story was before they came to my community. New York Times and Washington Post and all this, they have decided what the story is about addiction before they ever called you. And that's why I'm asking you to make space for local journalists. Because those local journalists will become regional and state journalists, and then they will make their way to the New York Times, and we've got to play the long game here. We just do. It is just how it works. Where did journalism stand? I know there was a law that happened that allowed that kind of blurring of space between news and entertainment. Yeah, it happened in the first Bush administration, I believe. Where are they in terms of where they are now? I don't know. Absolutely. There have been various different social pushes to kind of reinstate those laws. Yeah. Where is the journalism model? Yeah, there was a congressional law passed under the first Bush administration that no longer required the media to hold space for both sides in their reporting, essentially, which is good and bad, but it allowed for the creation of commercial television, for the 24-hour media cycle, for the creation of CNN in those places. Where we currently stand, and I think you would talk to a lot of journalists who would want to reinstate regulations like that, but I just don't know that we have enough power to make change in that space. And we are coming out of a really bad media climate, where we are focused on kind of the rebuilding of trust. And those are complicit in the breakdown of trust in our communities, but I haven't seen a huge push toward changing those. Although, I would love for that to be the case. So let's talk through a little bit more. So pitching yourself, again, I'm asking you to think about local, state, and regional news in particular. If you want to pitch yourself to a news organization, here are a couple of things that you can do to make that process a little bit easier. The first one is just like, I don't know, read, or watch, or listen to their news. Understand the kind of work that they're doing and the audience that they're reaching, which is most likely the community that you live in anyways. But that will also allow you to see either what is currently happening or what's on the horizon for them. The results of your city council elections might not be that huge in your life, but for your local newspaper, we're busy. And now is not the time, three days before the election, to push us, to pitch us your story, right? We just don't have the space right now. And so you can be much more effective if you're paying attention to the news of that outlet so that you can see when that big breaking news or those huge kind of cyclical stories are done and create space for yourself. You need to explain to me why my audience cares about this story. So if you're pitching yourself to participate in a piece of journalism or you're pitching an op ed, it needs to be very clear to me as an editor why the people that I serve care. And I don't need an opus. But I need a sentence or two that it's really important in this community because why. And then include information about your current pitch, but also strategically place your bio maybe near the end. Because what's going to happen is the journalist that you're reaching out to or the editor you're reaching out to may not have time for your pitch right now. But what I'm going to do is say, oh, here's a person. I'm going to save it in this folder because three weeks from now, I'm going to have a reporter who needs to do a story. And now I've just got this bio. I know they can work in this space. We're going to call you back and look for a source in that story. So strategically promoting yourself at the end of that pitch helps them come back to you in the future. This is a little bit more about vetting the journalists themselves and recognizing who are journalists that you can work with and grow in understanding in this space and who probably already has the ax to grind. In the same way that journalists are vetting you, you should be vetting that journalist. Who do they work for? They should tell you that in the request. It should be very clear. And you want to take a look at that news outlet's website. And if you cannot find, I'm skipping down a little bit, but if you have never heard of this media outlet, but you're interested in this story, and so you go to the news outlet's website and you cannot find an about page or a mission statement, that should be a pause for you. There are lots of news websites that look like news. But every journalistic media outlet that has value will present their values and their missions to you openly and honestly. If you cannot find an about page or a mission statement, that should create pause for you. If you see that there are stories on that website and they don't have anybody's name attached to them and they don't have a date, that should be a red flag. That is a major red flag. Because what are the two things that are important to me as a journalist? That you know that I did the work and that I was first. If my name and the date or the time that it was published is not on there, why would I do that journalism? I do the journalism to create a reaction in my community, to stir up some stuff, right, and create harm. That's generally what's happening on those websites. And then the final one is an address or a physical location. You can almost always find those things. I say with a caveat, because if you go to my news organization's website right now, you cannot find our current physical address. And that is because the main topic that we cover is white nationalism and domestic extremism. And if we put our address on our website, we have received threats to ourselves. We have received credible threats that we have taken to the FBI. So their recommendation for us was, don't put your address on the website. And we're like, oh, good idea. So most news outlets, especially if you're working with legacy media, of which I mean radio stations or newspapers that have been established for a very, very long time, the Tampa Bay Times, right, those will typically have their physical address. But recognize that the type of work they are doing may call for some safety for those individuals. You should be able to easily check their social media pages if somebody has reached out to you. And on those social media pages, you should be able to see their stories and their past work, right, and get a sense of the type of work that they are doing. If by the time you have gone through these things and you're still uncertain, it is totally appropriate for you to ask to speak to their editor. I'm just not sure about this. Could I have your editor's phone number? Because I'd really like to talk to them. And that's definitely an appropriate ask if you're working with a freelancer who is not full time in that news organization, so you just want to get a sense of the media outlet. It's totally appropriate to ask for that. In the moment, if that journalist is like, my story is due in 10 minutes, it's not going to go very well. But you have to protect yourself at the same time. So it's definitely appropriate if you're just feeling iffy about it to ask to have that conversation. Some more additional things that you can do before the actual interview. I have had the experience where I've reached out to an expert, I have scheduled an interview, and they have sent me five 70-page research reports to read in advance of our interview. And I said, thanks, and never looked at them, because I do not have time for that. What you can do, though, we have a one-page style guide that discusses journalistic ethics and also language in this space that can be used as a primer for journalists who are about to cover this topic. We did not just decide these things would be great. They came from those focus groups that I discussed with you at the very beginning. They also came from the Associated Press style book. And the AP style book is like my Bible of journalism. These are the rules that I have to follow. But often, the rules of covering addiction don't get followed, because I should have brought my book. It's this thick. And so sometimes, they're just not looking at them. And also, newsrooms tend to have the addiction style guidelines were updated in 2016. And every newsroom I've worked in had an AP style book from the early 2000s or late 90s. I just weren't in there, right? So this one-pager incorporates that, incorporates those AP style guidelines. It gives them kind of a primer on language. Before you even sit down to do the interview, the other thing that you should consider doing is thinking about, what are the three main things that I want to get across in this interview? And it's totally fine to write them down. I would not write a script for yourself, but a couple bullet points to say, these are the things I want to make sure we talk about. And it's fine to have them in front of you and have them with you, because the journalist is going to have writing in front of them, most likely, and it'll be on their phone where their questions are. Again, they're going to get to that, do you have anything else to add question? And this is the place where you definitely should go back to your three main points and say, actually, I was thinking we should talk about this for a minute. So those three main points, that also gives you the space to really get that information down into that fifth grade reading level. It's difficult to do on the spot, but if you do have the time. And generally, when a journalist is asking you to do an interview, they're really asking you for 15 or 20 minutes of your time. And sometimes we think, I don't have an hour to commit to this. They don't have an hour to commit to it. So distilling that message down, even if you've got 5, 10 minutes to just think about it really quickly, is going to help you move more quickly through the most important points as well. And then just respond to their requests quickly, as much as you possibly can. I know that we all have a lot of responsibilities in our day-to-day work, but if you can even take the time to say, I just can't today, that really helps them move on. If you have the time to say, I can't today, but I'm going to forward, I'm looping you in with a colleague from this organization, it really helps them. And it starts to establish that you are a person that they can trust. I can come back to this person in the future. Yeah, they couldn't talk to me today, and that's all right. But I know that they're interested in the journalism. So we also have a database of experts that we have vetted. And the vetting process is not super onerous, but we are only allowing people who are willing to talk about the disease of addiction and not some alternative form of, I don't know, addiction theory. That's not even right. So we have vetted these folks. These are people that journalists can sort by location and also area of expertise. Hopefully, that QR code works, because we would love if you would volunteer yourself to be on this database. But the way that you could use it at the same time is just say, I can't today, but I know of this resource. Here's a link for you. That's a huge help to a journalist in the moment. I'm really hoping that QR code isn't dead. And then during the interview, again, keep it simple. The reporters are not dumb, but they are asking questions based on their audience and the medium itself. It is totally fine, and I encourage you to say things like, did that make sense to you? Do I need to boil it down any more? Young journalists in particular are terrified to admit that they didn't understand. I've been in journalism for more than a decade, and my favorite thing to say is, I didn't get that. You're going to have to help me out. I have no problem telling people that I don't understand. And often, I tell people I don't understand, even when I did, because it's a great way to approach an interview. Young journalists are terrified. They are terrified to admit to you that they didn't understand. So it's fine. Please say, did that make sense? Because it also helps you grow. It also helps you grow in your interviewing skills. Actually, I didn't get this part. And then you have that time to then, after the interview, reflect and say, OK, my explanation of this thing didn't go so well. How can I boil it down even more? It also reduces that miscommunication. We had that question earlier about, I want to see my quotes before they come out, because I'm worried that they might have been misquoted or misinterpreted. And that's all valid. But if you do it during the interview, you reduce that chance of miscommunication. And then continue to ask the reporter question throughout the process. I think this may not be true for all of you. But in some instances, we find people who feel like, especially when I talk to people who are in long-term recovery and consider talking to journalists, feel like they don't have the power in the situation. You have all of the power, because you own the knowledge. I don't have the power in that situation. I can do nothing without you. So remember that you own this situation. Ask that reporter questions, too, to make sure that they are understanding and getting the things that they need out of the interaction. After the interview, please follow up. Again, offer to review. You can offer to review the entire article. You can offer to review your section of the article. Recognize that that offer of help is different than a demand of approval. And the journalist is going to respond to those very differently. That was a really complicated thing that we talked about. I would be more than happy to just take a look and make sure that everything came across OK, that I did a good job. As soon as you put it on yourself, the journalist thinks, oh, they're doing that not because they think I'm an idiot, but because they want the story to be good. It's very different. In the follow-up, and you should follow up, because what we're asking of you is to start building relationships with local journalists, you should follow up with just a simple thank you. You should also follow up if you are concerned with those three main points. I want to make sure that we just don't forget these three things. And then ask them to use this final sentence. It is also on that one-page style guide that I'm going to ask you to share with journalists as well. Over the summer, I think it was at the end of the summer or maybe early fall, when they changed the 988 number, every story, every story said, if you are someone you know, every story about suicide does this. And a lot of stories now about mental health in particular are finding ways to point people to resources. So recognize that a journalist might have been asked by their editor to do a very specific story. You presented them with solutions. My editor is saying I can't do that in my story right now. This is still a solution. And it takes very little time and very little space. This sentence that we're asking journalists to use, I'm going to ask you to support journalists by pointing them to this sentence, does two things. It gives people hope. Recovery is possible, even if your story, and oftentimes it is. My story is required to be about the latest CDC overdose death numbers. And that's all we've got space for. And my editor said nothing else, no fancy, just numbers. This is still hope. And then on top of it, journalists are often asked to be a resource for their community. I build relationships with sources. Sometimes those sources need help. And the first person they can think to come to is me. She talks to lots of people in the community. She knows what's going on. I'm going to go to her for help because I can't find a bed for my family member. That's not my job. And I'm not the right person to help you with that. So this also lifts the burden for journalists. There is a place that we can point people so that they can get to folks like you, so they can get to the treatment that they need and the resources that they need. You may also consider using this in your own communications. That'd be fantastic. But there is hope, and there is treatment available. So a couple of key takeaways, and then I would love to take questions from you. Stigma is a really big problem in the media. I think that we all know that. And the result of that is a lack of access to treatment and ultimately death. But we as journalists cannot fix this on our own. We need your help. And we need your help in particular at the local and state and regional level because you are the experts of your community. You can tell us what will work in your community that your political leaders are not doing, that your community leaders are not doing. You can make a change. You can. You really can. We're going to ask you to call those reporters in rather than calling them out. Building relationships, educating those journalists that are in your community, that is the biggest way that you can create change. Recognize that journalists are failing in public in a way that is not asked of you. If you make a mistake at work, who knows? Hopefully just the people around you, right? If I make a mistake at work, it's on the front page of the newspaper, and everybody knows. So recognize that they are in that position. And when they do make a mistake, if you can work to educate them so that they can do better next time, you are going to have a lasting impact and really create change in this space. Help journalists find you using social media, updating those LinkedIn pages, bragging about yourself in social media. I mean, I know that that kind of feels uncomfortable. For a lot of us, it can. But sharing yourself online, sharing your work, being proud of your accomplishments, that makes it easier for us to find you. Please do that. Talk to the audience and not past it. So distilling your message to those three main points, remembering that journalists are really trying to get at that fifth grade reading level, and that's what we need help from you to do. And then as often as you can, present that journalist with solutions. Because we know that when the journalism is focused on solutions and not just the problems, we can shift the way our communities think about this topic. Again, that final sentence I'm going to ask of you all, if you can push people to use that, whether it's in your own work, in the press releases from your organization, your university, or just presenting, pushing journalists even just to our website to use it. That can make change. And then finally, let's just talk. Please find us. Our website is reportingonaddiction.org. I have a couple of my cards up here that I'm willing to give to anyone, but we're so grateful for your time today. If you have questions, I'd be happy to take them now. Are you willing to share your slides? Absolutely. I don't. Yes. We had to do specific slides for this, but I have these slides in a different format that I would be happy to send you. OK, I'm going to have to take a look at it. We've been going through a website revamp, and so I'm hoping that it's a simple solution. And if not, I might just take your information and follow up with you, if that's OK. And anybody else, because please. I think you'd probably say he's a journalist. Anderson Cooper is a journalist. His show is a... Yeah, yeah. And I think that's a great point. In moments of crisis in your community, you should allow space for the journalist to do the immediate story, right? But a couple of days later, if you know there's a deeper issue there and you can speak to that issue, they need your help. That's when they really need your help. And they don't know who to ask to do that story about the mental health crisis or whatever it is, right? In that moment, they're doing the best they can to keep up with the news. They want to do those deeper stories. I promise you, your local newspaper, your local TV station, your local NPR affiliate, they want to do those deeper stories. And they often don't know where to go. And if you put yourself forward, you know, a couple of days later as like, we should really have a conversation about this thing, I promise you they will bite. Those are the things that they really, that's the meaningful work. And they recognize that, but they need your help to do that. Absolutely. And so what I do is all God's children got issues. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that made me think that the story that journalists aren't doing really are the impact to families when they lose a loved one to overdose. Or we're not really doing those stories. And that's something that you all could really pitch to your local news outlets, and they would want to do immediately. Immediately. What is the impact, mentally, emotionally, and how that relates to physical? And then. Also the child's opiate overdose. Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you. I'm terrified of you. or boundary issues, and that's where I think, but I think we're missing the boat with that approach as a student. Yeah, I had a colleague of mine from West Virginia University stop in here, Jim Barry, who's fantastic, right beforehand, and said, you know, I had a mentor early in my career that encouraged me to speak to journalists, and I had to work through that fear, but I was lucky that I worked through it early in my career. I would, the reason that we want to point you toward local is impact, right, and trust, but there is another benefit there in that sometimes they're also green, and if you feel nervous in the interview setting, they do too, and if you establish a relationship with them as they're green, they are much more willing to grow with you, it's a little bit less pressure. The other tip that I didn't think through is if you are in a university community, and you're thinking, I've never done an interview before, or I'm terrified of interviews, I'm not good at interviews, go to your local journalism school, and say, I'd really like to get some practice, do you have students who are in an interviewing class, or in a basic reporting class that needs some practice interviews, or even just stories that they're just gonna submit to you for a grade for class, low stakes for you, an incredibly valuable experience for them, and then you get to practice that interview process, and in that process in particular, you should record yourself. You should record yourself and listen back. There's no reason that the journalist you're working with, the student journalist, wouldn't say, yeah, absolutely. Record yourself and listen back, but in local news, you're definitely gonna find those people who can grow with you too, and if you're just like, I don't know if I'm ready for this, find some student journalists. They will immediately take that opportunity to speak with you, yeah. Sure, I get that. Have you communicated to your media department what you want to talk about? Yeah and and that's a I mean that is a question that is really about individual institution and it's about privilege right and and where you are in your career and who you are in your career it's a it's a privileged question but I would say if you feel like you're not being served by your media department currently that's the first conversation and their job is to make sure that you're getting out there in the way that works for you and getting getting speaking to the community in the way that you want to that's their job right their job is to protect you from things that are if I mean part of what they're doing is thinking about the institution and how the institution is going to be going to look in those stories but part of it is also protecting you and your time and of your responsibilities but if they're not giving you what you need the first conversation is hey I'd really like to talk about the things I'd like to work with the media on because their job is to pitch you to local journalists and they're getting if that is the entry point for journalists to your university hospital then they're getting those requests all the time they should have you at the forefront of their mind absolutely they all are sure sure I think that's, so I mean it's also about your level of comfort. You know a great place to start is to find a journalist at an organization within your community that you trust who's covering this topic and just ask them to go to coffee. What kind of stories are you interested in? What does that work look like? What are the goals for your organization in this space? If they, then they have an entry point to you, they feel okay about saying, hey I'd like to do this story, and then at that point you do have some control to decide whether you're gonna tell your comms department I'm doing this interview or not tell them and just see what happens. But I do think if you can start to establish that relationship with the journalists themselves, it's a good way for you to also control or take back some control from that media department. But also if they're not serving you, then they need to know that. They need to know that. Yeah. It is having those established platforms is allowing journalists to find you more easily. Now, that doesn't mean you have to invest a lot of your time. It means standing up the accounts and making sure they're up to date in terms of contact information and that kind of thing. And then what I would recommend is posting regularly. And by regularly, I mean like once a week or once every other week. And it can be very basic. It can be just like, sign up for our newsletter. Link. But that signals to the journalists that those pages are continuing to be used and that they do exist. But most of the time, we're looking on social media for contact information even. Just like that you are established as an organization on those sites. But I definitely agree. I wish social media didn't exist sometimes and that we didn't have to deal with it. But it is what it is. But a lot of journalists are just, that's the first place they're going to go, to find sources. So I don't think it needs to be an incredibly large time investment. But every other week, just like a basic, here's our newsletter or here's our latest press release even kind of link just allows the journalists to see that you're still up to date, that you're still there, you still exist. Yeah, yeah, it's a really difficult situation. Okay, final question? Absolutely, that's a perfect sentiment to end on. I want to thank you all so much for your time today. I did a really poor job of planning out my schedule and I have to run to the airport, but I'm gonna leave my cards up here in case you do have questions or additional thoughts or are worried about getting the slides. There are two different cards up here, I recognize that. One is my university and is my editorial for 100 days. Both of them will get to me, please, if you need one or just interested in taking one, please do, because I would love to keep in touch. I would love to talk to you more about this, but thank you all so much. Thank you.

Reporting on Addiction

Ashton Mara

journalists

addiction

person-first language

empathetic narratives

solutions-oriented reporting

journalist training

limited resources

tight deadlines

trust

ethics