Days turned into months, months have now turned into a year of the coronavirus in Saskatchewan. Like so many people, members of our news team have had to adapt how they do their jobs to keep you informed.
Here, in our journalists’ own words, are some insights into how pandemic storylines and storytelling have evolved.
Kyle Benning — Video Journalist
The pandemic has ultimately changed my job as a video journalist into one as a mobile journalist. In news, you have to be adaptable and on your toes, in case a breaking story comes up. Working from home has forced us to change the way we tell our stories and get them to our audience.
Rather than starting the day in the office and spending time writing and editing in the newsroom, everything has shifted to work at home or even from locations where news events are taking place. Rather than having two-screens in an edit booth to work on a story, I’m on the road with a laptop editing a story from the car.
Instead of speaking into a microphone in a sound booth, I’m using the microphone from my camera and telling the story from the scene.
While the process has had to adapt, our stories remain just as impactful as they were before March 12, 2020.
Roberta Bell — Live Reporter
In the beginning, our pandemic coverage was about getting people the basic details that they needed as quickly and as clearly as possible. We were gathering information up until our newscasts went to air and found ourselves going live a lot more often to make sure we were up to date on where the virus was, how quickly it was spreading and the constantly changing public health orders.
We knew it was an uncertain time for people because we felt it, too. But as it became clear this was not going away, reporting became more about painting the big picture and juxtaposing all of the elements that were unfolding, but without the same direct access to the people and places that used to shape our stories.
Dave Parsons — Shooter/Editor
Before the pandemic, the ENG photographer and a reporter would travel in the same vehicle, were able to stand within six feet of each other and gather elements of a story with greater creativity.
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As the pandemic evolved, more and more of how we do our jobs was not how we once did. We started travelling to the same story location in different vehicles, keeping our distances while masked and using a microphone stand to distance ourselves from the interview subject.
Additionally, there have been many more online interviews that change the level of creativity available to an ENG photographer while out in the field.
Dave Giles — Online Producer
Over the past year, we have published more than 1,700 stories covering the pandemic — but the way we cover the news changed and evolved over that time. This involved changing the way we covered stories and turning to new technologies as many of us transitioned to working from home — which also meant changing workflows.
That didn’t stop us from getting news out in a timely manner. We had to ensure, first and foremost, that people had the information they needed so they could keep themselves, their families and their community safe.
The latest daily updates from the province were critical in our storytelling, but we also had to find ways to go beyond the headlines. We also realized that not every story could be covered.
Through daily meetings, we were able to balance the need of getting critical information out while telling personal stories of people going above and beyond to help their neighbours, friends and the communities where they live.
Kellah Lavoie — News Manager
As the pandemic wore on, the way we decided to cover and present the news changed. We started with a focus on the numbers — how many new cases we saw each day, but that changed to how our viewers were impacted and where those impacts were seen.
The goal has always been to tell the stories that impact our audience and what they care about.
I think that’s why we’ve seen such an evolution in our story-telling. As the pandemic wore on so did the concerns, which is why we have gone from focusing on case counts, to deaths and now vaccines and variants.
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