By Alyssa Gomez

My days are numbered before I am on air at my first news station and there is one daunting question that continues to remain unanswered, should I ever be in the situation that so many reporters have found themselves in. I have wondered how do we, as journalists, approach reporting on mass shootings in America that does justice to the people and brings them humanity? How do we respectfully report and differentiate each situation, so it does not flash across the screen to our audiences as “just another mass shooting?”

Ismael Estrada had just spent the last year in Uvalde, Texas when he graciously answered my phone call.

He explained to me how he covered many mass shootings prior to Uvalde; Newtown, Parkland, and Santa Fe. In the wake of a mass shooting, many news outlets spend weeks in town, seeing how they recover, and if the perpetrator is caught. And then they leave.  No more news coverage.

ABC Network wanted to take a different approach with Uvalde and Estrada decided to be one of the reporters who answered the call. He dedicated the past year to telling not just the story of the mass shooting, but what happened in the year that followed. How does a small town of only about 15,000 recover from losing the innocent lives of children? The first question I had for Ismael was: how do you get them to not only talk to you, but trust you with their stories?

Estrada worked to gain the trust of eventually what would be five Uvalde families, following them in their day-to-day lives throughout the year.  “It took some patience, and it took some persistence to get them to crack the door open to me,” said Estrada. In the beginning stages, there was not always a camera and Estrada explained  that much of the time he spent with the families was just getting to know them, whether over family dinners or other gatherings. He gained their trust and got to know their stories before approaching them with a camera in that difficult time.

It was an act of patience, an act that is admirable in an industry where we rush to every story we produce. I have found that being prompt to release pertinent information is vital in this industry; but being factually correct is even more important. More than that, when dealing with a story that is so sensitive, respect should be the utmost priority. Estrada’s approach to the Uvalde families was a display of respect and humanity that every journalist should strive for when approaching stories of this kind.

“It’s not the kind of thing you can just check in on because you don’t build the trust with the families…there needs to be an investment made to really truly understand the families and get to know them because that is getting to the heart of what this gun violence is doing in America and unless you see it on an everyday basis – you see what a smell, or a song, or a laugh or a moment or anything, can do to a family – you don’t truly understand what this does to the fabric of the families.”

There is so much you can learn about journalism in school, yet I don’t think anyone can be prepared to cover something as tragic as Uvalde. I hope Ismael’s year in Uvalde opens peoples’ eyes in the same way it has mine. It is not only an excellent display of journalism, but a lesson in humanity, integrity, respect and how we can always change our approach to tell a story with justice.

 

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