When Lance Roller submits a story to the News Decoder, it is often about people struggling to succeed or get the recognition they deserve.
He wrote about a movement that wanted to gain recognition for Black heroes of World War IIHe reported on the Fights Olympic medalists have when they return home. And he wrote about the challenge that artists of color face in getting medical book publishers to more diverse illustrations.
The challenge for Roller is finding experts to help him tell these stories. Roller is a US-based researcher, data analyst and freelance journalist. He joined News Decoder as part of a journalism and health impact fellowship at the University of Toronto.
He came across the story about the medical illustrators during a panel discussion he was taking part in. “It was a topic that had interested me for a long time,” he said.
He realized that the speakers on the panel would have a great understanding of the issue of diversity in medical illustrations and the problems that arise from this lack of diversity. He decided to contact them, but tried two different approaches: he tried to contact them directly, but also asked the panel moderator to put him in touch. “The moderator was kind enough to do that for me, and I was lucky – everyone was willing to talk about it.”
Many ways to find sources
To find more people, Roller does research and tries to find contact information of people who have written about the topic. Then he contacts as many people as possible.
“Just get in touch and ask,” he said.
The hardest part of writing a news story, Roller says, is getting people to make time for an interview. “Everyone has extremely busy schedules and people work in different time zones and countries,” he says. “So finding the right time to do the interview is usually one of the hardest things to do, at least for me.”
The other challenge he faces is that he has too much information to fit into a 1,500-word article. “Especially with a story that you really care about, you have to figure out what makes the shortlist and what doesn’t,” he said. “You want to say everything, but you have a certain number of words to say everything. So you have to figure out what can stay and what can go.”
But material he doesn’t use in a story doesn’t have to go to waste. He knows he can save it for another article. “That way you can make multiple stories out of all the information you have,” he said.
Journalists believe in themselves
One tip Roller gives to aspiring journalists is to be persistent.
“When you pitch stories, the reality is you’re probably going to get more no’s than yes’s. But that shouldn’t stop you from pitching that story,” Roller said. “Don’t underestimate how far the power of believing in yourself can take you. So stay true to yourself. Just keep going and you’ll eventually get the story and get where you need to be.”
News Decoder spoke in depth with Roller about his story about medical illustrators. You can watch the full interview here.
In a story like the one about medical illustrators, he tries to find out how a problem affects different people.
“Everyone in the medical, scientific and academic community: It’s a problem for all of those communities,” he said. “But the people who are actually affected are those who identify as people of color.”
Roller said one should think about the psychological aspect when someone looks at images in a peer-reviewed journal.
“Maybe you’re thinking about a career in STEM and you don’t see anyone who looks like you,” he said. “You may be wondering: Do I belong here? Is this a path for me? Can I do this? Because one of the things I learned from this story is that people tend to believe what they see.”
