Rule #9: Give something back

Among the hard-and-fast journalism ethics rules is the prohibition on paying sources. But the journalists I talked to acknowledged that sources often make sacrifices in order to share their stories with journalists, and several of those journalists have looked for ways to directly or indirectly give something meaningful back to the source or their community.

Step one, they say: Recognize the source’s contribution. Filmmaker Jade Begay says she often sees journalists, especially those from larger outlets, act as if they are giving the source something by listening to them, without appreciating what the source is giving them:

I think there’s all kinds of ways that we can… [come] from a place of gratitude, of understanding that someone’s story is not something to be just taken and extracted and then shared with the world… Especially if we’re doing storytelling on something that’s really vulnerable or really sensitive, someone who’s experiencing some sort of crisis or environmental disaster or whose community is under attack… their sharing the story with you as a journalist is actually a huge act of vulnerability, so even just coming with that understanding that what people are sharing is really important and it’s an honor to receive that.

Rory Linnane, who reported the Kids in Crisis series for USA TODAY-Wisconsin, agrees.

I don’t want to assume that someone sharing their story with me is going to be more helpful to them than it is to the audience. I think overall they’re giving something by spending the time with you and by making themselves so vulnerable in the public eye… I think it’s important to start from that point where you realize that they’re giving something. And so I guess my main goal from there is to make sure that if they’re sharing the story that I truly believe that it’s going to have a positive impact, and I work as much as I can to do that, and that I am minimizing harm to them as much as possible.

Sometimes, says Linnane, the interview itself might have that positive impact, providing the source an opportunity to be truly heard.

I think a lot of times interviews can be very therapeutic for people if they’re handled right, especially people who are grieving loss and haven’t been able to talk about their loved one in a while or haven’t felt like anyone’s — you know, a lot of the time people are scared to ask people who are grieving, and so they’re kind of relieved to be able to talk about it and feel like it’s doing something good. And I think, especially for students, I think it can be this really powerful step in accepting themselves as the world accepts them… It can be a really important confidence builder.

Independent journalist Lewis Wallace recalls receiving a message from a source who said that “being listened to was like a gift from God,” but he adds that that feeling depends on seeing their story accurately reflected, and it isn’t universal.

Alejandro Fernández points out that while sources might benefit emotionally from sharing their stories, journalists benefit from those stories in a much more concrete way. He recalls making calls to immigrants locked in debt to a bond company for a story on the company’s questionable practices:

We [the journalists] were pretty sure we had an interesting story and that at least our editor was happy with it, and we were happy because we were going to do a podcast with Radio Ambulante, so we know that professionally, we are doing something interesting. And in other cases maybe we had some good clicks … and we had a good response. Those are more concrete results that I don’t think that the vulnerable people, the victim, is going to see. And that is very weird.

And that is like an unfair way, an unfair agreement. Because we have the minimum thing that we are going to get, but they don’t. They can even get in trouble when they expose their stories. And so it is unfair. I know it is unfair. And I don’t know how to solve this.

Recognizing this, a few journalists mentioned ways they had tried to compensate sources non-monetarily for their time and hardship. After working with inmates for months to produce their own radio stories, Lewis Wallace wrote letters of recommendation for the amateur producers.

The radio station I worked at was pretty traditional in terms of journalism ethics, and so there was definitely a line where we wouldn’t have, for example, paid people … [Writing the letters] was just sort of an idea that I had. I thought, ‘Well, they went through this class and they produced these things and I was their editor, and I would write a letter of recommendation for any other community producer who I’d worked with. These community producers are in prison and right now they don’t have the use for a letter of recommendation, but maybe in the future they would, so wouldn’t that be a nice thing to do for them? You know, a way to show them that we appreciated their work, which they were essentially producing free content for our station.

Rory Linnane, knowing her young sources would be applying to college soon, offered to serve as a reference. She says some of the young adults wrote about the experience in their college application essays. And for some of the sources, the opportunity to share their story publicly in an outlet reaching audiences statewide helped them find other speaking engagement or activism opportunities.

But Jade Begay says journalists shouldn’t rule out the idea of making material offerings to sources, though for those working in traditional newsrooms, this one is still non-negotiable. Begay, herself Indigenous and a former senior producer of Indigenous Rising Media favors giving her sources small, meaningful offerings as a sign of reciprocity. When she interviews members of another tribe, for example, she tries to find out what they use to pray — tobacco, for example — and brings that as token of appreciation. In other cases, she’ll use her photography skills to take headshots that she shares with the source for their own use.

But, she says, she thinks journalists and media makers should consider paying sources directly:

Even in documentary films, you can’t pay your characters. I know why that exists, but I find it so hard because people are offering something. They’re offering time, and if your documentary is about somebody’s struggle, you know they’re going through a hard time, that they’re struggling. So how can we shift the assumption that just because we’re offering someone compensation for their time [means] that we’re having them say the things we want them to say? Can we just trust somebody’s story? I think there’s a lot of unlearning and relearning in those questions. In both film and journalism worlds, we have to take deep looks at why those things exist.

Lewis Wallace agrees:

On a more personal level, I’m open to discussions of compensating people, especially where they are stepping up into a more co-production role… I think the line between ‘I’m a professional journalist and you’re a source’ is kind of arbitrary… And if we’re really doing the work to try to do that harm reduction and address the power dynamic between journalists and sources, then those questions should come up, and that’s healthy and they should be engaged and not just shut down.

Community organizer Alfred Marshall, who organizes people struggling to find jobs, says the opportunity to make a little money for being interviewed would be a welcome change. He’s been interviewed regularly and has also helped journalists connect with other members of his community. He argues that compensating sources for their stories would acknowledge the source’s need, recognize the value of their contribution and justify the risk they’re taking by telling their story.

“Sometimes that be a flag on your back: ‘Don’t hire him’ or ‘Don’t trust him, he’s a person that like to talk.’ Now you riding around with that on your back, that you’re a guy that speak out … It kinda haunt you because that clipping is gonna be there,” he says.

Marshall recalls something that happened at a backpack giveaway event he organized through his nonprofit after-school program, Us Helping Us. In New Orleans, all public schools require students to wear uniforms, and buying those uniforms can be a major financial burden for struggling families, so, in addition to giving away 150 backpacks of school supplies, Marshall’s group raffled off 25 $75 gift cards for families to buy uniforms. But, he says, those who didn’t get gift cards were upset.

I took two of those angry mothers and I asked a reporter to come in and tell their story, how the school system is not supporting them in getting uniforms and how these young women are struggling to get the uniforms. So the reporter did the story, they aired it, but the lady still struggles. Nobody came and said, ‘OK, I’m gonna help you get these uniforms.’ … [but] the reporter in some kind of way was able to connect her with some other agency… that came through to help the lady out to get two uniforms.

So if it’s not a direct [payment] from them, it should be a connection where it would ease the burden on one after telling these stories, because I’m telling you my story because I’m hurting and I need support. I’m looking for help, that’s why I’m giving you my story… Like the people on the border seeking asylum. They’re seeking safety, freedom. And that’s why people tell their stories.

Before our conversation, Marshall wasn’t familiar with the prohibition against paying sources. He argues that if the journalist seeks sources through a trusted member of the community — “someone that’s hearing the cries of the people on a daily basis” — the monetary transaction won’t compromise the interview.

But, says Marshall, monetary compensation is only a short-term solution:

The paycheck is, ‘Change my condition.’ When I’m telling my story, I want to see a change happen. And it just don’t come with me getting a little money for my story, but it’s a big picture thing, meaning that the system need to change itself and reward people. And that’s the change and that’s the paycheck that people really look for.

This, says Rory Linnane, is the kind of outcome her USA TODAY-Wisconsin team was looking for with their Kids in Crisis series, and they got it. Then-Superintendent Tony Evers at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, citing inspiration from the Kids in Crisis series, created a major mental health funding plan, and much of it was approved in the last budget cycle. Linnane also notes that Hopeline, the text-in crisis helpline that Linnane’s team included with its stories, reports seeing an increase in texts each time a story runs.

“And, in general, I think it’s just led to bringing down stigma and starting more conversations about mental health,” she says, noting that the community events they held across the state trained more than 100 people in suicide prevention approaches and offered information on local resources.