Hi everyone. I'm Samantha Guzman, executive editor of Decibel,
and I'm here with multimedia journalist videographer extraordinaire KC Cruz
to talk about some of the best work we've done this year. Hi, KC.
(KC) Hi, Sam.
- So you are the newest addition to the Decibel team.
You just started working with us this summer.
Can you tell us a little bit about how your experience has been so far?
- It's been fantastic.
Honestly, it's been a dream to be working with this team.
Not only is everyone incredible, but also
the mission itself is just something I've always dreamed of working for.
So despite any challenges that are coming as a new college
graduate, it's amazing.
- Ok so let's get to the best of, what has been
your favorite story that you've worked on this year?
- My favorite story that I've worked on this year has been our story
that we did on the Ross Road traffic in Del Valle.
It was called "It's Kind of Stressful", which is funny considering
it was about traffic,
and I think a lot of people would say it's more than kind of stressful.
And so what we did was we just spoke to some Del Valle parents,
especially because they're the ones that encounter the everyday traffic
that leaves them stranded for like an hour at a time in frustration.
And we just wanted to give the opportunity to feel heard.
- So, people may not know this, but our method of storytelling here at Decibel,
we always promise to listen first and then go out and do reporting.
How did that method of listening help you find this story?
- A common occurrence that we have at Decibel is hosting listening sessions
where we speak to residents and community members
in Del Valle specifically, this year at least.
And we gave them the opportunity to just voice
their concerns and stuff that they feel like isn't being talked about enough.
And one of those things was traffic.
And although it seems like almost anybody could talk about traffic,
(KC) but this one was a little bit more personal considering the community
is so tight knit and it was once rural and now it's growing.
So that's how we just decided to, like, take that to the streets
and see what really was going on.
So I drove out and experienced it for myself, being stuck in traffic
for an hour at a time and started asking all these questions of
'Why is it like this, and why hasn't anything been done?'
So asking the harder questions for them because they have to go
about their busy lives, they don't have time sometimes to interact
with officials and stuff like that and find that information.
So luckily, the listening session brought us to that.
- So you had your video that you produced for this story, which featured a bunch
of folks just sharing their concerns about the school's traffic on Ross Road.
But then you also wrote a story to accompany this.
How did you approach each of those?
- So for the video portion of the piece,
we did something called "Voices" where it literally is we talk to a couple
community members, ask them the same questions and see how they all feel.
And collectively, typically you'll see a trend in like, frustration, in this case.
But the way I approached that was,
although you would think that finding community members
to talk about how much they hate traffic would be easy, considering
the area itself is not really well represented in larger media outlets
they were a little bit hesitant to be interviewed and stuff like that.
So I decided to take it to a level where they might feel more comfortable.
So I immersed myself into the places that they interacted
with one another and in Del Valle, specifically its Facebook groups.
So once you connect with them there and make them feel
like you start this discourse with them to make them feel comfortable
that's how I connected with a couple of mothers
and got together through a Zoom like this.
And luckily, I think being in their own setting
made them feel comfortable to really express themselves.
And as for the written story, the way I approached it was writing down
all the questions that they had or common occurrences that they had been through
and just tried to see if this problem was to be fixed, who would it be fixed by?
So it was doing research on
county jurisdiction and City Council members
and talking to the City Council members that represented the area
so that the community members that read this piece
know what is being said and what is being promised.
- So why ultimately did you want to tell this story?
I truly just wanted them to feel
that there was a starting point of them being heard and giving them
the confidence to keep on going and talking to more people.
And what I wanted the most from the story it was never about, like
just getting a story out, but it was about reflecting the community
in their own passionate way.
- So what do you hope our audience takes away from this story,
whether they watch the video, whether they read your piece,
What do you want them to walk away with?
- What I hope our audience takes away from this story is that as a Del Valle
resident or not, that change happens with some form of action,
and that your action as a community member or a citizen
doesn't have to be very ground shaking for you to be heard.
- Truly incredible work, KC.
All right, you can find this story that we just talked about
and a bunch of other reporting at DecibelATX.org
Thanks y'all and have a great day.