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Clay Collins: Welcome to 鈥淲hy We Wrote This.鈥� I鈥檓 this week鈥檚 host, Clay Collins. Vox pop. Vox Populi. 鈥淭he voice of the people.鈥� Gathering examples is a standard tool in journalism. It鈥檚 about collecting many perspectives to tell a richer, more relatable story. Like all good journalists, the Monitor鈥檚 national political correspondent, Story Hinckley, is someone who can walk up to anyone, establish her credentials and ask away. She joins us today to have some questions fired at her. Welcome, Story.听

Story Hinckley: 贬别濒濒辞!听

Collins: So vox pop isn鈥檛 part of every story that you write. What goes into deciding that in order to tell a particular story well, you need to report the views of individuals who are in one way or another, stakeholders in the story.听

Hinckley:聽So I think it depends on what the story is, right? I was recently in Washington, D.C., at the Capitol covering the speakership race in the U.S. House of Representatives. So that鈥檚 an example of a story [for which] I really needed to talk to congressmen and political analysts. But especially when the Monitor sends me out into the country to do reporting, I really make it almost a requirement of pretty much all my stories that I need to get some reporting just from average voters who live in the place. If I see stories as being able to translate the true pulse of a place [then] I鈥檝e got to know what more than just the politicians and other bigwigs are thinking.听

Collins: When you鈥檙e gathering different perspectives, how do you know when you have enough representation of different sides and that they鈥檙e equally well articulated?聽

Hinckley: I mean, obviously at the Monitor, that is something we take really seriously. And I don鈥檛 think that being fair in a story necessarily means the story is divided 50/50 between two opposing viewpoints. I think you need to always keep in mind what the point of the story is and give more of a share to answering that.听

Collins: Right and not falling into, you know, what鈥檚 sometimes called 鈥渂othsidesism.鈥� You wrote recently about the challenge of covering campaigns in particular. How do you go about earning trust, especially at a time when the media has been painted as, you know, suspect at best?聽

Hinckley: So I recently wrote about that story because I was in Pennsylvania covering the gubernatorial election there. And, you know, I鈥檓 used to reporters getting put into pens and and really regulated at a lot of political events. But at the event for this Republican candidate, I mean, there was security that followed me to the bathroom. I mean, it was really crazy. And so I wrote about how as people distrust the media more and more, it simultaneously makes it more difficult for reporters to do their job, to get good vox pop. So, you know, I wasn鈥檛 able to walk through the crowds at this candidate鈥檚 event and ask people, 鈥淲hy do you like him?鈥� You know, I wasn鈥檛 able to do that because they kept us in this back little box. So, and that adds real value to stories, I think. But to answer your question, I think that a good interview 鈥� the person has to trust you, right? Because they鈥檙e talking to you about their political beliefs, which can be really personal. But I think that it鈥檚 really helpful for me when I鈥檓 on the ground in a place because looking people in the eye and having a conversation with them face to face really, makes them see that you鈥檙e a real person and really make it clear that what I want to have is a conversation and I want them to be free to tell me whatever they鈥檙e thinking, positive or negative.听

Collins: The act of just rolling up on someone you don鈥檛 know and talking to them, I remember from my reporting days, and it鈥檚 sometimes just kind of ... awkward.听

Hinckley: When young reporters, reporters new to the Monitor asked me, you know, 鈥渉ow exactly do you get yourself to do that? That seems so scary.鈥� I always tell them the story that when I was an intern at the Monitor, I had reached a point where I was like, OK, look, I got to go get some real interviews for my first real on-the-ground reported story that was in Boston. I went out on the sidewalk and I just walked through the whole city of Boston for almost two hours. You know, I passed hundreds, thousands of people [and] didn鈥檛 get the courage to, like, go up to one of them. You know, some days it鈥檚 really easy and then some days it feels harder. When you鈥檙e at, it鈥檚 easier when you鈥檙e at a political event, you know, like a rally or a campaign event, because the people that are there are kind of in the mindset of politics. The harder one is when I, let鈥檚 say, I鈥檓 doing a profile on a congressman and I need to go to his home district and really see why people support him or don鈥檛 support him. So I鈥檓 in a place in a small city in America where I鈥檝e never been and just walking around and interrupting people鈥檚 really lovely Sunday brunches, just trying to, 鈥淓xcuse me, do you like Congressman...鈥� And most of the time they don鈥檛 even know who I鈥檓 talking about. And most of the time I鈥檓 really pleasantly surprised by how many people will talk to me. But that doesn鈥檛 mean that it鈥檚 always pleasant.听

Collins: And the best quotes, I mean, especially on politics, the best quotes are obviously people presenting views that they鈥檝e formed based on their lived experience. In October, you wrote about Latino voters describing a shift in thought that they had had. But these days, opinions so often come pre-formed, and the trap in the echo chamber era is you hear a lot of echoes. So how do you get past that and get to a deeper layer?聽

Hinckley: The power of the echo chamber never really ceases to amaze me. You know, I鈥檒l be in south Texas working on a story about how Republicans are seeing more and more support among Hispanic voters. And I will hear almost verbatim the same phrases and catch phrases that I hear among white working class Republicans in central Pennsylvania. So to really get beyond that, I think you have to spend time with the people because, you know, for example, they鈥檒l say, 鈥淚 like Donald Trump because he ran this country like a business.鈥� Right? You hear that from Republicans across the country. But I spend more time with them and I say, 鈥淥K, how do you think he did that? And did you see things improve economically for yourself when he was president? If yes, OK, then what did that look like for you?鈥� So that鈥檚 where it gets interesting. And I think I鈥檝e learned over my years doing this that in terms of vox pop, most of the time quality is much better than quantity. You鈥檝e really got to keep digging in one person鈥檚 mind. And I鈥檓 not a pollster, right? Pollsters survey large groups of people. That鈥檚 not what we do. As a reporter. I have to really try to understand better, OK, you think this 鈥� but why?聽

Collins: That approach that you just described, It sounds as though that鈥檚 a way of challenging someone鈥檚 conviction about their views, you know, maybe even adding better information without, you know, challenging the view holder personally. And that seems like it鈥檚 an element of respect on your part.听

Hinckley: In my opinion, as a reporter, my job isn鈥檛 to change interviewees minds. My job is to get a full, accurate, fair understanding of what they鈥檙e saying to knit into this larger narrative and picture to help my readers understand where people are at. And try to find ways to frame when I am pushing back, to frame it in a way that鈥檚 not confrontational but still can try to highlight how other Americans are seeing the issue.听

Collins: Hmm. So you work in the service of readers. Do you think the right blend of good vox pop, the 鈥渜uality over quantity,鈥� as you described it, can help readers see and consider other perspectives better and maybe even improve the quality of national discourse

Hinckley: Yes, definitely. I mean, I kind of think of it as you鈥檙e putting a face to a policy or a face to a number. So, for example, the story that we were talking about earlier with Hispanic voters in south Texas, you can read and understand all the numbers, but to really understand the why, why is it happening, you have to be there and talk to the voters. What people remember, I think, in stories are people. People like reading about people. And so that鈥檚 what I think drives a story to make it readable, but then also make it memorable.听

Collins: Well, thank you so much, Story, for taking some time to talk about how you do your work.听

Hinckley: 厂耻谤别!听

Collins: Thanks for listening. For a transcript of this interview in our show notes, which include links to some of 厂迟辞谤测鈥檚 work, go to CSMonitor.com/WhyWeWroteThis. This episode was hosted by me, Clay Collins, and produced by Samantha Laine Perfas. Jeff Turton and Alyssa Britton were our sound engineers, with original music by Noel Flatt, produced by the 海角大神 Science Monitor. Copyright 2023.听