Crimson White journalists experience the other side of the questions

National media have paid much attention to how colleges have handled the pandemic. It’s a newsworthy topic, of course, though I suspect some of the attention comes from the appeal of presumed narratives such as “Irresponsible College Kids Break Rules” and “Colleges Endanger Lives to Play Football.”

CW photo editor Hannah Saad on CNN

The best way to report the subject is to send journalists to campuses for several days. Alas, too expensive and time consuming for many news organizations. So, the next-best option is to talk to smart current students who are witnessing and even reporting on events. That’s why several staff members of the University of Alabama’s independent campus news outlet, the Crimson White, have appeared on various national and even international news programs lately. Very cool.

CW photo editor Hannah Saad (full disclosure: former student of mine) appeared on CNN Newsroom with Anderson Cooper and talked by phone to The Paul Finebaum Show. Media began contacting her after she tweeted photos of large or unmasked gatherings on and off campus during UA Bid Day.

CW news editor Reid Bolling (full disclosure: former student of mine) also appeared on CNN, once pre-recorded with John King and once live with Brooke Baldwin. CNN took an interest after seeing a CW story she wrote about students being moved out of their dorms to make way for students with COVID-19.

 Kaddyja Jallow, a CW culture writer, was interviewed on BBC Radio, which spotted the “UA ‘24” in her Twitter bio.

“Doing media” isn’t as easy as it seems, and it’s always eye-opening for journalists when they become the interviewee instead of the interviewer.

The CW journalists told me they knew the planned general topics, but not the specific questions they’d be asked, which is customary journalistic practice. They were mostly satisfied with their answers, they said. Hannah said she got good advice from my department colleague, Dr. Chris Roberts: Just say what you know; don’t predict future events. That’s good advice for lots of pundits in the media these days. 

Hannah said she wished she had given a more thorough answer to a good question asked by Finebaum, who is an adept interviewer: Would her reporting on care-free behavior end up adversely affecting students? Live formats don’t give much time to think, though.

 Hannah also witnessed the national media’s tendency toward unnuanced views of local issues. Coverage from national outlets focused on the lines of scofflaws outside Tuscaloosa bars, but Hannah thought the more interesting angle was the decision to have a Bid Day and how that helped to create the images that reached the nation.

CW news editor reid bolling on cnn (we like the shirt, reid)

 It’s easy to get nervous, of course, when millions of people are watching or listening. Reid, talking on her laptop in her kitchen, and Hannah, talking from the CW newsroom, couldn’t see their CNN hosts, which they both said made the experience easier. Kaddyja, talking to BBC Radio on a FaceTime audio call from her dorm room at 8 a.m., didn’t understand something the host said to her. Thinking she had muted herself, she asked her roommate for help. But she wasn’t muted. BBC edited that part out. 

 Reid has only one regret. She realized later that she wore the same shirt for both of her CNN appearances. “I promise I have more than one nice shirt!” she said.

 So these were educational experiences for these college journalists in ways both small and large. And when they’re national journalists, they’ll bring a little extra understanding when it’s their turn to interview a college journalist about who-knows-what hot issue on college campuses at that moment.