Meghna Maharishi ’22 is a news reporter known for her extensive coverage of the Student Assembly. Most recently, she has been reporting on the coronavirus. The newsletter team talked to Meghna on how she approaches and addresses the topic.
1. When a story is time-sensitive, how do you make sure it is accurate and objective?
With time sensitive stories, I do what I’d normally do for any other story: fact-check. Fact-checking is extremely important, and it can be difficult to thoroughly fact-check when writing breaking news. For breaking news stories, I always give my article an extra read before we publish. I check the links, the names and the writing to ensure that it matches whatever reporting I have. I’ve been doing breaking news for almost two years now, so none of this feels hectic. While breaking news can seem like a daunting endeavor, breaking news is something that you get better at the more you do it.
2. Reporting on sensitive topics like the coronavirus, where do you look for sources and how do you convince them to speak with you?
Since coronavirus has been a topic of great interest, I haven’t had much trouble finding sources. Most of my articles have been based on University emails, and since they’re breaking, there isn’t much of an active reporting aspect to it. With my more in-depth coronavirus feature, I was able to get contacts through other Sun editors and Reddit. I never thought Reddit could be a useful resource for finding students — who really have something to say — to talk to. In terms of getting sources to speak with me, I always try to treat them with the utmost respect, since they are taking time to speak with me. I think when you treat your sources with respect, they are more willing to speak with you, and you build trust — which is essential when it comes to doing any sort of news.