Editor’s Note: This is the second piece from my interview with a couple members of the Rice University’s student newspaper, the Rice Thresher, about their experiences and coverage of Hurricane Harvey.

Anna Ta, a sophomore from Spring, Texas, and Emily Abdow, a junior from Ellicott City, Maryland, are the paper’s news editors and coordinated their coverage as they also braced for the impact of the storm. Once the storm had finished dumping 50 inches of water in the area, and “the whole shock wore off” (to quote Emily), they had to pour a ton of resources into telling the story even as the city of Houston remained under water.

Here are a few of their recent stories in the aftermath of the hurricane:

• Professors Make Changes in the Wake of the Storm
• Tearing down to build up: recovery efforts
• Off-campus students shelter on campus

Late last week, they were nice enough to share some thoughts on what they did, why they did it and what they learned in covering one of the country’s largest natural disasters. (One fix to note from the last post is that the students’ newsroom was NOT damaged by the flooding, but they couldn’t use it to coordinate coverage because flooding made it too dangerous to get there. That’s on me.)

Today we look at what happens when the national media moves on to a newer hurricane and you are still there, looking into what all of this means to your readers. In addition, Emily and Anna were nice enough to do some reflecting on what they learned (and wanted to share with other students) through this experience.

As always, the errors are mine, not the students, so please contact me with any necessary changes or fixes.

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Major news stories bring out major news outlets that create major coverage. Once the big bang is done, they tend to leave and move on to the next big thing.

In some cases, critics refer to this as “helicopter journalism,” in which the media fly in, drop down, gather some stuff and fly out. My favorite reference to being on the ground in spirit only was the term “toe tap datelines,” which meant the source did most of the work from the comfort of a newsroom, but showed up on the scene long enough to gather a few details and add an exotic dateline to the front of a story.

In this case, it’s a bit hard to blame the media in some ways for leaving, as they had another hurricane to cover, but it still leaves the question, “What happens when the bright lights go out and the big names go home?”

In the case of Hurricane Harvey, the staff of the Rice Thresher has more stories to tell about clean up, recovery and how students are trying to return to “normalcy,” if such a thing is possible.

“This upcoming issue we have three stories about Harvey,” co-news editor  Emily Abdow said. “One is focusing on the students at Rice whose off-campus apartments were flooded and who have been trying to be students while dealing with the stress of finding a place to live. Another is focusing on all the scheduling conflicts which have arisen as students try to re-plan social events they’d invested a lot of time and money into organizing. A third is about how the Rice Harvey Action Team, which organizes volunteers to go out into the community, is being handed off to a student organization by the administration.”

The stories focus on topics of interest to the audience: Students and their environment. They also show that even as the national news is closing off its coverage with “And now, the recovery begins…” the local journalists know people are still affected by this storm in ways that haven’t been dealt with.

“As the media and the campus moves on, we recognize that even though you can drive through the streets now, all those people were affected aren’t magically going to get completely better,” co-news editor Anna Ta said. “We’re covering those in the Rice community as they have to simultaneously get back into school/work while trying to figure out living/transportation/etc. in the aftermath.”

Even as they continue coverage of Harvey, both editors said they know it can’t be “all hurricane, all the time.”

“We’ve definitely got a few more Harvey related stories planned for future weeks, and I think one or two a week will serve as a reminder that our community, including students and staff, are still dealing with the aftermath without driving people up the wall with endless coverage,” Abdow said.

“It’s a mix, and we’re hoping that will allow us to cover Rice as comprehensively as possible,” Ta added.

In terms of their own experiences with this, the students had a few thoughts they were willing to share with the readers who might find themselves covering a giant story

Emily Abdow:

One of my biggest takeaways from the hurricane is to never forget to be a reporter. At first, because I was such a part of the story, I almost forgot that my role is also to tell the story. Another takeaway is that college journalists have a unique perspective that no other major media outlet has. The Washington Post covered how the Rice University football team finally returned home after being unable to fly into Houston from Australia during the Hurricane.

On campus, we have the ability to talk to those students and tell their stories in a way no one else can. Even though my Facebook feed was inundated with coverage, we had the ability to add something unique, the student perspective. That brings me to my last takeaway: there are so many angles and sides to a story. Harvey was one event – albeit a very major one – but there are so many stories that we can tell about all the people who were part of it and we are continuing to tell those stories.

Anna Ta:

I guess, even when everyone and everything else stops – classes, events, work – you have to keep going as a student journalist. Don’t get swept up in the same kind of coverage everyone else is providing. Tell the stories only you can from the angles that matter to your community.

 

To continue following the coverage on Harvey and all other things Rice, visit the Thresher here.