Health Inequality Reporting with Vicky Gayle (TBIJ)
"When I listen to people’s life stories, they’re trusting me with a piece of them"
Hello folks, welcome to another special edition of Inside The Newsroom! Today we’re joined by Vicky Gayle, who covers health inequality for The Bureau of Investigative Journalism in the UK.
Vicky has previously reported on how most UK GP surgeries refuse undocumented migrants, how Covid-19 killed those receiving care in their own homes, and how thousands of those carers are paid below minimum wage. While she’s based in a small town outside of London, much of her experience and advice can be applied to other towns and cities facing the same problems.
We talked about how larger national news outlets can help fill the current reporting gaps, her most difficult topics she's had to cover, and how she copes with said issues personally.
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Okay, let’s do this thing. We’ll speak again Friday!
Introducing Vicky Gayle 👋
“When I listen to people’s life stories, they’re trusting me with a piece of them”
Daniel: Hey Vicky, welcome to ITN! Thanks for doing this.
Vicky: My pleasure, Daniel. It’s a pleasure of mine!
Daniel: Let’s get straight to it… Local health reporting is no different to any other local beat in that it’s suffering from the centralisation of advertising revenue and consequent budget cuts. What is it about local communities that keep you motivated and inspired to keep exposing injustices for people who need you the most?
Vicky: People actively being part of the change they want to see has always inspired me and made me reflect on what more I could be doing with the privileges I have. I reflect on that both professionally and personally. I think about all the access to information I have, and the tools and authority to hold powerful people and institutions accountable. When I listen to people’s life stories, they’re trusting me with a piece of them and trust me to do my best to help better the situation. That’s when the gravity of being a journalist hits me.
Daniel: In the UK, the likes of Google and Facebook could soon be forced to pay for news, which could mean an extra £200m for publishers. How can the large national news outlets help to fill the gaps?
Vicky: National news outlets need to prioritise coverage and perspectives outside of London, which isn’t particularly new commentary but is what’s needed. The more ‘patch’ reporters there are based around the country and working for the nationals, the more they’ll be able to fill that gap.
However, it’s not good enough to just cover the main towns and cities outside of London. There needs to be a vested interest in doing deep reporting in these lesser spoken about places, rather than showing up for a day of reporting and buggering off again.
Daniel: So much of the UK’s media is congregated in London. You could say the same about New York and Washington D.C. in the U.S., and most other big cities around the world. What have you seen as the main differences from reporting in small vs big cities?
Vicky: I’ve never actually reported in a big city — I started as a trainee in Colchester, which is a town of around 120,000 people an hour outside of London, and where breaking news didn’t happen all that often — and now I work remotely in the West Midlands for TBIJ. But in Colchester we used to talk about how when you work in local news, you’re held to a much higher standard by readers, particularly when you live in the place you’re reporting on.
I was an outsider, so I had a lot to learn about the culture there, and that was important to residents in the different areas of town. Readers also have a lot more access to you because there are less gatekeepers, so when that phone rings, you need to deal with it. News wire services and press releases can’t be relied upon when you’re reporting in a smaller place, so you’ve got to work harder in some ways to find stories and build relationships, but also to sustain readers’ interest.
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Travel Writing and Photography with Anna Mazurek
Making Freelancing Work with Britany Robinson (One More Question)
Culture Journalism and Running a Newsletter Business with Walt Hickey (Insider and Numlock News)
Daniel: Within those local communities, what are some of the most common health issues that most often get neglected?
Vicky: If I reflect on my time in Tendring, which was named England’s most deprived neighbourhood in 2019, there were many inequalities that are sadly common in other coastal towns, and any area that continually lacks financial and cultural investment.
Outside of the office in Clacton-on-Sea, there would always be a group of men and women drinking, and I could never tell if they were homeless or not. I remember parts of Tendring feeling like attaining a better life was out of reach, and that is a catalyst for riskier behaviour and poorer health choices that can affect generations of families.
Where I live now, I see a lot of obesity, poor mobility and what I believe is unmanaged diabetes. Hardly anyone exercises outside, and I feel a lack of community. This exacerbates people’s mental health struggles and social isolation, which in turn damages their physical health.
Daniel: That’s heartbreaking and tough to even read. I guess you must have pretty thick skin to report on such issues. What have been some of the most difficult topics you’ve tackled to date?
Vicky: Reporting on such difficult issues is just part of wanting to represent people accurately and for them to respect our coverage. In our investigation into the deaths of people receiving social care at home, it was important to include disabled people and care workers in our process, so we had to constantly evaluate our working practices.
Toward the end of 2021, I spoke to so many people who had potential leads to investigate within such a short space of time. Some of those conversations were additionally heavy, because I knew I couldn’t act on them at the time, and it just sucks that so many people are suffering and experiencing injustice, but don’t have anyone to help them. I remember one particular conversation — about systemic racism and ableism, and how it affects families with disabled children and disabled parents of disabled children — really did weigh me down for a long time.
Daniel: I think that’s an unfortunate example that, despite the journalist label, we’re all still human beings. How do you deal with the emotional attachment that comes with reporting on such deep issues, and how have your coping mechanisms developed over the years?
Vicky: In those moments I feel heavy, I tell my colleagues over Slack and initiate a conversation. If I need to meditate for five minutes and let some tears out, I do that. Fortunately, I haven’t yet had a story where I’ve been so emotionally invested it’s compromised my ability to do my job — I’m more focused on how I treat the people I’m interviewing to make sure they feel comfortable.
Part of navigating emotional attachment is maintaining boundaries. For example, not over-promising what I can do as a journalist is vital, as is recognising when the support a person might need goes beyond what I can or should give them as a journalist, and when it’s time to pass them to an external organisation.
Daniel: Let’s talk about meditation for a minute, as that’s something I’ve invested my time into lately and the benefits have been unbelievable. What type of meditation do you practice and for any sceptics — as I was just a few months ago — what does it do for you personally?
Vicky: While I don’t practice a particular type of meditation, I try to acknowledge when my emotions are bubbling and try not to let them fester. The key word there being “try”. If I’m feeling those emotions immediately after an exchange, then I might need to sit for a few minutes to give space to what I’m feeling. Sometimes that’s all the time I need, I know other people will find whatever works for them.
Journalism is an overwhelming job and I manage a lot outside of work too, so stress often builds up in my body. If I don’t expel that energy it leads to passive-aggression, not breathing properly or eating enough and bad sleep. And none of that helps me be my best self at work or outside of.
Daniel: Okay, last couple and let’s switch it up slightly with some data journalism. I’m a vocal fan of incorporating data into reporting wherever possible. How do you use numbers to make your stories more powerful and longer-lasting in the minds of the readers?
Vicky: For me, data should aid readers’ understanding of a topic rather than just showing off an elaborate data analysis. So provided the data is relatable, succinct and illustrative, it will stick in their minds. I like data being used as an entry point to a story led by compelling narratives, which means streamlining a lot of the number crunching. Unfortunately, a lot of the excess data is only read by your colleagues.
Daniel: I get asked all the time where to find good data that can yield rich stories. Where do you start and what do you ask yourself when looking for data? What are some of your go-to sources?
Vicky: When I first started using data, I would blindly look for a story within any dataset, or try to force a story out the stats. These days I tend to start with what I’m trying to uncover and then ask myself what evidence I need to substantiate my hunch. It might mean we have to create the data ourselves, like what we did for our work on undocumented migrants’ and GP access. Or the data might be in the form of documents rather than statistics.
I usually encourage people to start familiarising themselves with datasets about their interests on open data portals like NHS Digital or the national government website. Then begin to uncover what data is missing and think of innovative ways of how to get hold of said data. Where I go for data really depends on what subject I’m scoping. Googling what I’m after often does the trick as well.
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