Before reporting
Through weekly meetings, Soraya Keiser and Anna Pearson inspire their staff on The Clarion, setting a spark for new stories.
By Alanna Voelker
Anna Pearson sits in The Clarion office with the newspaper staff, cramped into the small room sitting around in a circle laughing, listening to Blue Over You by Mason Ramsey, and debating the questions of the day — one of them being “Start, Bench or Cut, Amelia Earhart, Harriet Tubman or Cleopatra?” The questions help Pearson and Editor-in-Chief Soraya Keiser build a community of more than just work. The Clarion is a place for people to share their ideas and be themselves.
As the managing editor, it is Pearson and Keiser’s job to foster the success of The Clarion, Bethel University’s student newspaper. With the last production cycle of The Clarion starting at the beginning of April, the two of them needed to influence the rest of the staff to put story pitches forward that they truly cared about, so they held one of two weekly meetings on Thursday, March 28th, to foster those new ideas.
“Journalism should be writing about things that you actually care about,” said Pearson. “Because if you don’t care about it, are other people going to care about your writing?”
There are six production cycles in an academic year, three per semester. First, each staff member must begin to brainstorm pitches to present to Keiser and Pearson. The two will go over all the pitches and decide which one could become fully fleshed stories. When they have decided what story ideas have the most potential, they will assign each story.
“You encounter a lot of people that are different from you, but you all share the same passion for reporting and telling the truth and just kind of getting stories out there.” — Aiden Penner, freshman staff reporter
A reporter, photographer and designer are put on each story, and they will have three to four weeks to pull it together. There is a draft and photograph deadline set for each story. Section editors will then do edits and send them in for production night, where the staff puts together the final layout and look of the finished paper before sending it off to print.
Before any of this can happen though, Keiser and Pearson have to create a spark and fan the flames of story ideas and inspiration. To do this, The Clarion staff meet two times a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, to create an environment of inclusion, fun and inspiration.
“You encounter a lot of people that are different from you, but you all share the same passion for reporting and telling the truth and just kind of getting stories out there,” said Aiden Penner, a freshman staff reporter. “You encounter opposing ideas with you, but you share one common purpose, it’s a great thing.”
After having fun at the beginning of the meeting, they move on to what they are there for — to report. Keiser and Pearson go through brainstorming prompts to find story ideas and to see what their reporters are passionate about.
“Open the notes app again, two minutes to answer, what annoys you? What do you love to complain about? What could be done better? Ready?” said Keiser.
Questions like these spurred ideas and emotions from the reporters. The staff’s passions shone through as they were able to air their grievances about Bethel and topics they felt should be talked about more. Good stories are started with emotion and ideas, and through these weekly meetings, Keiser and Pearson can draw out these ideas and fan them into story pitches, starting the production cycle over once again.
