Reporters suffer hard times, too; sharing them with readers can make connections through our common humanity

Many reporters have experienced unemployment
and homelessness. (Photo from PovertyUSA)

For journalistic integrity, reporters train to suppress their personal views when addressing a topic. But in uncertain times, many reporters have lived their own versions of trauma, such as homelessness or addiction, and they have shared their experiences with their audiences as part of an unfolding story of shared humanity, reports Bob Sillick of Editor & Publisher. "Because of the severe contraction of the news industry and the uncertainty of working as a freelancer, some journalists have experienced poverty and food insecurity. Becoming part of the story is often critical to their articles being published. The financial and distribution support of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project is helping those journalists recover from the trauma of being without a job and sometimes homeless."

Alissa Quart, executive director of EHRP, told Sillick, "For some of our pieces, the journalists report about hard times they've experienced. Many accomplished journalists have had to receive food stamps and unemployment or have been homeless." Sillick reports, "Lori Yearwood is one of those journalists who have lived through crises. She was an enterprise reporter with The Miami Herald for seven years. . . A series of traumatic circumstances caused her to become unhoused for two years. After she found a place to live, she started to freelance for EHRP . . . becoming a team member and reclaiming her position as a full-time reporter again." Yearwood told Sillick, "Instead of writing only from the perspective of the victim, who is often portrayed as being solely disempowered, I emphasize the more comprehensive story about the coping mechanisms and the resilience that it takes to negotiate these horrendous circumstances in which people find themselves."

Anne Elizabeth Moore is another EHRP-supported journalist who, after years of professional writing, had an extreme health crisis. She told Sillick, "I experienced a quite severe and financially devastating illness. I applied for an award from an organization that was giving free houses to low-income writers in a permanent residency program." Moore used her experience to grapple with her situation. "What's tricky writing about poverty is so much of our culture doesn't allow for honesty about economic security. You must pay very close attention to identifying those who are struggling financially. Have a conversation with people experiencing poverty, but not in a judgmental way."

Sillick recommends adding humanity to any reporter's quiver of writing tools. He writes: "Reducing poverty and food insecurity to numbers can cause everyone to lose sight of the human stories and the circumstances those people must endure." Still, Sillick offers some "baseline" numbers:

• In primary families with children younger than 6, 16.1% were in poverty, and 15% in those with children younger than 18.
• According to the Agriculture Department, 10.2% of all U.S. households were defined as "food insecure" in 2021. Approximately four percent had very low food security. That number rose to 6.2% in those families with children.
• Food insecurity in Black and Hispanic households was greater than for all households, or 19.8% and 16.2%, respectively.