Essential coverage of an invisible enemy
Along with the health-care workers, first responders, cleaners, grocers, truck drivers and many others working to keep society healthy and stocked with essentials during this global coronavirus pandemic, there’s another role I’d add to the list: journalists.
Our streets are near empty. The parks are bare. Our front page is full.
Journalists are on the front line covering our communities. Without their work we would be left with gaping holes in information, misinformation or no information at all.
Newspapers and their websites, such as the Waterloo Region Record and therecord.com, are deemed an essential service by the government. We are grateful to be working and able to report in the interests of readers who need valuable information about the pandemic and its effects. We are grateful for the print and online subscribers who help fund our mission.
We have all experienced how quickly information moves and how it can be interpreted or misinterpreted. It is a time when orders are mistaken as directives and suggestions interpreted as law. Credible and confirmed information is crucial.
We are experiencing two outbreaks in the COVID-19 pandemic: one in the general population and a second one affecting long-term-care homes and hospitals that serve high-risk patients. In Ontario, there isn’t a central repository for collecting data about COVID-19 deaths at long-term-care homes and hospitals so journalists with our parent company at The Toronto Star built one. The link that contains local information is in COVID-19 stories on therecord.com.
At The Record, journalists are working every day to explain the pandemic. Most of our staff are working remotely to tell you stories but two of them — photojournalists David Bebee and Mathew McCarthy — are covering workers on the front lines to show the story of the pandemic.
At the start of the outbreak, reporters Laura Booth and Anam Latif had the idea to create a series called Our Essential Neighbours. They started to document the stories of everyday people who are providing an essential service. Their stories, along with contributions written by coworkers, and the makeshift portraits captured by Bebee and McCarthy are hallmarks of The Record’s coverage of the pandemic.
The portraits captured by the two photojournalists are a visual news story. Bebee and McCarthy take necessary precautions before they go on assignment and don’t put themselves or others at risk. They make sure they are at least two metres from people when taking their photos. Finding the subjects can be difficult and working at a time of pandemic poses many difficulties. Their news portraits capture a time and place and tell readers the story by detailing the concern, love and anxiety in the eyes and body language of the people who are helping us all. These are environmental portraits that we will all look back on.
Says McCarthy of one of his photos: “I liked the photo of outreach worker Jessie Tanguay. She wore her PPE and it covered her head to toe. We set up a table at the back of the van that is used to keep people back. She stood up on the back of the van — elevated, separate. I liked the photo because I thought it successfully illustrated that she went from someone who was known for her smile and hug until COVID-19 turned that on its head. ‘I feel like I’m a vending machine instead of an outreach worker,’ she said.”
Bebee credits members of the public for his inspiration. He says people’s patience and understanding of physical distancing, as well as being willing partners during the photo shoots, eases tension and makes his job less stressful. He also gives credit to a long telephoto zoom lens.
We are ending week six of this outbreak. In that time, I have received many letters from readers thanking the journalists and others who work at The Record to deliver the news and information in print and online. I’m heartened by those letters and I thank you for sending them. I share in their praise and continue to be in awe of the work this newsroom is doing for the community.