Culture in a newsroom can often be tense and difficult to navigate. Terence Samuel, Board Chair of National Press Foundation and former editor-in-chief at USA Today, spoke with NPF’s Widening the Pipeline fellows about how to build trust with audience and create a positive culture in the newsroom.
“You have to create an atmosphere where everybody understands that we’re here to do great things,” he said. “I think you just have to create an atmosphere where collaboration is key.”
Samuel emphasized the idea that journalism work is about the faces behind the stories and what they have to share.
“What is special about [journalism] is that it is very human work. I mean, what you’re doing is telling stories that people live,” Samuel said.
Building trust when writing these stories is vital. Samuel explained that even though he reported on communities he was not always from, he learned about the people themselves.
“The way I had to cover it was to get to know those people, get to know what was important to them and tell their stories over and over again,” he said. “Once you demonstrate that you care and are as careful with their stories, I think that’s the way you go about it.”
An important factor in this too, is that some segments of the public do not always see themselves accurately reflected in media. It is important that news stories reflect all communities, according to Samuel.
“The only way to fix that is to have people who understand those stories and can tell them,” he said.
Samuel encouraged reporters to embrace their gifts and find people with similarities that can fuel them as well as differences that can teach them.
“When I talk about finding a tribe, it’s not just people who can support you, but people who understand you,” he said. “We’re in a world where the skills that young people bring to the newsroom are very much absent in some veterans and they need to learn from each other.”
Access the full transcript here.
This fellowship is sponsored by the Evelyn Y. Davis Foundation and Lenovo. NPF is solely responsible for the content.
