In February, I interviewed Kat Friedrich who had recently taken to Twitter to extol the benefits of using storytelling techniques in the notoriously dry subject of energy reporting. Friedrich had mentioned that she had been inspired by her editor at Midwest Energy News – Kari Lydersen.
Naturally, I checked out Lydersen’s work and was immediately hooked. The former Ted Scripps Environmental Journalism fellow is indeed a master of narrative story telling – her Discover Magazine story on the Ebola outbreak titled “The Ebola Explosion” was named Top Science Story of 2014 and her piece for In These Times titled “Remembering the Deadly Donora Smog” captivated from beginning to end. Lydersen’s impeccable attention to detail and her predilection for reaching far back in history make her stories both delightful and highly informative to read.
Note: I’ve underlined what I found to be the most interesting parts of this interview if you’re in a hurry but I strongly recommend that you read it all the way through when you get the chance.
[Estimated reading time: 6 minutes]
The beginning of your “Ebola Explosion” piece starts with an anecdote about how the ebola epidemic began. How did you get all those details in order to write the anecdote?
That was sort of an easy one because there was already so much great reporting out there and I was lucky to get some really long interviews with scientists that were there. It’s a stereotype that scientists stick really close to their technical research but I was fortunate that the ones I talked to were willing to share their stories. I probably read a hundred articles or something ten or more academic papers. You don’t necessarily have to do that much research to be able to tell the story yourself. I also did a bit of easy investigative work: like I would use Google earth to get a better feel of the places I haven’t been, you look up the weather…it’s all so easy now with the Internet. That’s something I learned from working with a story on climate change with another reporter…he was really good at looking up those little details that weren’t crucial to the story but really added something extra to the story.
I noticed that you love to give historical context to all your stories – do you do that consciously?
I definitely do that consciously. Sometimes I use a current news angle as an excuse to tell a piece of history. Sometimes the history is more interesting to me than current. We’re so ignorant of the history and you can learn so much from it. I live in Chicago – and I’m amazed by how much I don’t know.
For an energy story, for example, all it takes is a couple of graphs and you can get the history of a neighborhood or an industry.
Speaking of energy, energy reporting, especially for trade publications, can be especially dry. Is there a freedom to do narrative journalism in energy reporting and if so, how and why?
When possible it’s really great to get story telling into an energy story. After all, human beings are going to read the story. Sometimes it needs to be in moderation. If there’s certain information that needs to be conveyed, that’s most important. People might not want to wade through a story to get to that bit of information. There are so many types of energy stories that lend themselves really well to storytelling: those are the stories that are about some sort of controversy – oil refineries, pollution, impacts on the environment…the David versus Goliath type of energy story. Then there are other articles more about policy or technology which don’t lend themselves as well to storytelling and you might just leave it out. But even technology pieces can be more accessible if you tell the story of the developers or the start up company that started it. Policy and politics pieces also often have colorful characters and might make the story more accessible to someone might otherwise not pick up your article. But again, it all depends on the article and the outlet.
What if you don’t have the space for a full-blown narrative? How do you employ storytelling techniques or add a little bit of color to your piece?
Narrative could be virtually impossible to do a few short lines so you can add in a few fun quotes or a colorful detail about one of the people involved as a little bit of reward for the reader.
How do you get those details when you’re conducting your interviews?
It depends on the person – if it’s a policy expert or a lawyer I don’t bother – they’re not characters in the story. If it’s the scientist or developer or a regular person I would ask the more personal questions like “When did you first get involved with this?”, “How or why did this become a focus for you?”, or “Where do you see this going?”. I might also ask them where they grew up or what motivates them.
I think some people are a lot better with that than me at getting people to loosen up or joking around with them. The main thing I would do is kind of make clear or exaggerate the extent to which I’m a layman and I need them to explain in layman’s terms and that helps a lot. That helps me get what I need. I repeat to them in my oversimplified terms of how I see their work and ask them whether it’s accurate or not.
So it’s a lot of putting your ego aside and playing dumb.
Exactly.
A lot of reporters I talk to say that they “know” when something is going to be a good story. What constitutes a good story to you?
Compelling characters, controversy, and a rich history. Sometimes it’s just that wow factor – like with biology…biology never ceases to amaze me.
How do you structure your narrative based stories?
I usually do fall back to chronological order. When I was at the Chicago Reader the editors there drilled in to me how valuable it is to be clear in your chronology how letting it unfold is usually the best way to go for news writing.
What’s a rookie mistake you made when you were starting out?
Jumping around a lot. That’s where I’ve learned to be pretty tied to chronological narrative. Sometimes jumping around can work if you’re a great writer but it can also be a mass that confuses the reader.
What advice do you have for energy reporters who want to start adding some storytelling elements to their reporting?
Firstly, it would depend on the piece I wouldn’t advise people to do that all the time. I would encourage them to go back to the beginning and ask yourself when did this start? What was the landscape figuratively or literally? Where did the people who are now involved come from? Those are the questions that can set you up for a finding a good narrative and telling it.
What would you like to see more of in environmental reporting?
There’s a lot of great environmental reporting out there…I personally really like the stories that include both the science and the ongoing battle and policy debate. Like if you’re writing on what’s happening with tar sands…combine the social context with the technology. There are a lot of stories that are just one or the other. But you combine different facets of the issue you can get a more unbiased, richer, and fuller picture.
For more on Kari Lydersen, visit http://www.karilydersen.com
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