Winthrop Alumni and Deputy politics editor at Buzzfeed Ryan Brooks spoke with students at an event hosted by Winthrop Society of Professional Journalists.
Brooks graduated from Winthrop in 2017 with a double major in journalism and political science. He started at Buzzfeed after landing an internship the summer directly after college. After the three month internship, he was hired as a full time employee.
The journalist shared his opinion about the importance of community and how it affected his experience beyond Winthrop and South Carolina.
Brooks started the discussion asking students what their definition of community was.
“For me, it’s kind of like a group of people coming together,” one student said. “Or like a group of people around you who kind of you just exist with. And as you go through things, oftentimes they go through them as well. Whether like, I guess, I guess, in some senses community can be a much tighter knit group than these people who live together. But you don’t have that common connection of, like, the things in your area or in your life like you want to do that at the same time.”
Brooks shared his response saying, “It’s definitely the people you’re closer with the people that you sort of, like, see every day, but it’s people that share some with a common characteristic or a certain location or some belief system or just shared background, but you can sort of relate to that there.”
Brooks shared his experience surrounding the importance of source building.
“Making connections with sources where they feel comfortable enough with you to give you bits of news that you can report out like scoops, or like having that your ear to the ground and like a community so that they give you stories that like you might not have seen before, or you might not be paying attention to,” Brooks said, “But having people that know that community, well, it’s talking to them constantly, like they’re going to give you sort of like the information or point you in the right direction when you’re on the ground there.”
Building community and trust he says are “extremely important to get them to trust you enough to give you that information, because they’re putting themselves at risk by giving you that stuff half the time, especially in sort of like sensitive areas.”
Brooks shared that Buzzfeed reporters recently worked on a story covering FinCEN files, which are financial records that came from the government.
“And that took months and months and months to build up like source trust and building community with those people, and sort of like being in the network with them and know what they’re talking about. … And that’s something I’ve learned from a ton of the reporters here too,” Brooks said.
Brooks wrote an article called Generation Free Fall about the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on Gen Z and Millenials’ lives.
“During our lifetime, the US has always felt like it was in crisis. I talked with nine young millennials and Gen Z’ers about what the coronavirus pandemic means for their futures,” The blurb for the article reads.
“Whereas initially, as a young reporter, we discourage first person, but as you get more seasoned, and you understand that your perspective, it’s part of the story. And you have the freedom to write that way. In an organization like Buzzfeed that’s okay. Can you talk a little bit about changing from third person to first person? And was that an adjustment for you?” Mass Communication Professor, Guy Reel asked.
“It’s an adjustment for sure. Like, you don’t want to make yourself a part of the story most of the time, but like, you have to know that like the way that you view things and the way that like you’re listening to like the people, your subjects, and the questions you’re asking them are formed by like, your own life experiences, too. So like making sure that like, you’re putting that sort of like, feeling like in there and like explaining that away, like not explaining it away, but like explaining, like, how, then like how you’re viewing the story is extremely important, I would say BuzzFeed is just the place that like does a ton of experiments anyways, like just like makes it a great place to work as an early reporter.” Brooks said.
While many of his reporters are flying around the country, he makes sure to maintain community through sharing not only what stories are being worked on and they want to work on but also apprehension about upcoming pieces.
Brooks gave insight into the position of editing.
“And it’s just like, I would say, the job of an editor is just, honestly, one, making their work look great. But like, also, like, push them to the point where they know that they can get across the finish line and try and adapt to you. It’s a very different set of skills than just reporting. I would say, and I’m still getting used to that. But it’s like, very fun.”
