The quickest way to lose your audience is to try to over simplify somebody's experience make any one person seem like they're perfect, or like theyre evil. I think it's not a way to move the conversation forward. In terms of building sources, developing expertise really helps becauseyoow, people who are risking their job by talking to a reporter don't want to kind of teach them. Try to just lay the stakes out for people really clearly, and that usually helps. And then when it comes to connecting with immigrant communities, i think it's sort of acknowledging, hey, i'm an outsider, and this is an imposition,. It would be very generous for you to give me any
Caitlin Dickerson is a staff writer for The Atlantic covering immigration. Her latest article, on the secret history of U.S. government’s family-separation policy, is ”An American Catastrophe.”
“Interviewing separated families, I’ve found, is just on a whole other scale of pain and trauma. I’ve watched people have really intense PTSD flashbacks in front of me. I never wanted to risk asking a family to open up in that way if I didn’t know that I’d be able to use that material. The worst thing you can do is waste someone’s time in a way that causes them pain.”
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