To Publish or Not to Publish

My most recent story on suicide resources in Flagstaff did not turn out the way I wanted it to. I had a deep emotional investment in this story and wanted it to help people that need to know about resources for suicide prevention/awareness and bereavement, locally. I cried a lot because it was really hard for me to hear about suicide, mental health issues and violence over and over again, but I kept going and was determined to make it a really good story.

Then, I found out from the person who works for Campus Connect whom I wanted to interview, Jill Sawyer, just before we were about to do the interview, that if I wanted the interview from her then, I couldn’t publish the story. (She said Campus Connect needs at least two weeks’ notice and the questions beforehand to make sure that responses are approved by higher-ups for publication). I was struggling, then, with whether I should find other interviews in a limited amount of time and maybe not get them because of the short notice, as well lose Sawyer’s perspective for the story, or take the opportunity to do the interview, fulfill the requirements of the story for the class, and not make much of a difference despite my efforts.

I chose to do interview with Sawyer and write the story fulfilling the requirements for the class. However, I think if I knew that the story was going to have a chance of being published, I would have put more effort into bugging Native Americans for Community Action for an interview and would have reached out to more people for more rounded-out interviewees and perspectives in the story. I hope that maybe another time I can do a similar story and give Campus Connects enough notice for them to approve their responses so that I can publish the story.