{"id":137220,"date":"2020-11-19T15:40:04","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T20:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=137220"},"modified":"2021-08-13T11:58:27","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T15:58:27","slug":"video-vanessa-paolella-21-and-guiding-the-student-newspaper-during-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2020\/11\/19\/video-vanessa-paolella-21-and-guiding-the-student-newspaper-during-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Video: Vanessa  Paolella &#8217;21 and guiding the student newspaper during crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In a time of crisis, a college newspaper can do more than inform, says Vanessa Paolella &#8217;21, editor-in-chief of <em>The Bates Student<\/em>. &#8220;It keeps the community together.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;With the pandemic, students have so many questions, all the time,&#8221; says Paolella, a geology major from Dingmans Ferry, Pa. &#8220;The newspaper has been a really great outlet for us, as the staff, to both answer our own questions and help other students maybe answer some of their own and learn more.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes answering questions means sharing breaking news &#8220;as fast as possible,&#8221; such as when the college announces positive COVID-19 tests or makes an important announcement. &#8220;People need to know, and we use our social media to get that message out really fast,&#8221; she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"color: #009779;\"><em>Video by Theophil Syslo\/Bates College<\/em><\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Vanessa Paolella | Voices from the Class of 2021\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SLTwUOIWHj0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Other times, the goal is to provide a &#8220;deep dive into how students feel about COVID-19 policies on campus, how they&#8217;re doing with the challenges they face building community, interacting with each other, and finding their people.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Journalists, she adds, &#8220;provide information and resources that people would not otherwise have, especially right now with the coronavirus pandemic, where there&#8217;s so much misinformation and rumors.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And like all journalists, Paolella sees her newspaper as a vehicle for driving social justice. &#8220;One of our most important roles as student journalists is to elevate voices that may not otherwise have been heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s so much energy because you have that strong sense of purpose.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We also have a really powerful platform to give voices to issues that students care about but don&#8217;t know enough about, or provide voice to students&#8217; frustrations or concerns on campus,&#8221; Paolella says, such as the in-depth look she offered on the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/thebatesstudent.com\/20109\/features\/rise-in-tuition-evokes-renewed-concern-among-students\/\" target=\"_blank\">whys and hows of tuition and financial aid<\/a> during COVID and remote learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like anyone who feels purpose in their work, Paolella feels the surge of energy, a kind of flow, each Tuesday night as the paper approaches deadlines, and she and her editors work together in their Chase Hall office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re just working so hard to get to our deadline, reading over articles, making last minute edits, putting things together. You&#8217;re working hand-in-hand to get it done. There&#8217;s so much energy because you have that strong sense of purpose.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paolella came to Bates with a single extracurricular focus. &#8220;I thought running was going to define who I was at Bates,&#8221; and it has to an extent, as she&#8217;s a captain of the cross country team this fall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t come in intending to join the newspaper. But as a senior, especially in these hard times, I think that when I graduate, that having been editor-in-chief is probably going to be my most defining characteristic at Bates.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignfull size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1919\" height=\"1279\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/11\/190914_Womens_Cross_Country_Pineland_0826.jpg\" alt=\"Bates takes second place in Bates Invitational with Tufts, Middlebury, and Conn College.\" class=\"wp-image-137278\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/11\/190914_Womens_Cross_Country_Pineland_0826.jpg 1919w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/11\/190914_Womens_Cross_Country_Pineland_0826-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/11\/190914_Womens_Cross_Country_Pineland_0826-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/11\/190914_Womens_Cross_Country_Pineland_0826-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1919px) 100vw, 1919px\" \/><figcaption>Vanessa Paolella &#8217;21 competes for Bates in a cross country meet on Sept. 14, 2019, at Pineland Farms. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Paolella began her <em>Student<\/em> editorship right after completing a summer internship with the Lewiston<em> Sun Journal<\/em>. There, she &#8220;learned how fast the news cycle works, and how important it is to get correct information out as quickly as possible.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That meant turning around a story in just a few hours. &#8220;I would be given an assignment at noon and told, &#8216;We need that for the paper tomorrow.&#8217; I learned to call people up, say what I needed, and get the information together as fast as possible because even waiting an extra day sometimes is just too long.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In how she works with her staff, Paolella sees herself &#8220;as a guide, because so much is done without my help. The meat of the work is done by reporters, editors, photographers, and other staff members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Maybe I&#8217;ll send them a nudge, &#8216;Hey, did you hear about this that&#8217;s happening on campus?&#8217; Or, after reading through a draft, I might say, &#8216;Have you talked to these people? Have you considered this other perspective?'&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She&#8217;s also willing to dive in when needed, especially since the level of support can ebb and flow as students focus on their first priority, academics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Some people can&#8217;t take the time each week, so I do whatever I can do to keep the paper running. Writing articles, being first editor, proofing, photographing, working layout.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Paolella has even been seen delivering print copies on her bike. &#8220;I enjoy the whole process.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a time of crisis, a college newspaper can do more than inform, says Paolella, editor-in-chief of <em>The Bates Student<\/em>. &#8220;It keeps the community together.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":137285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[195,11012],"tags":[12135,8486,12250,12232],"class_list":["post-137220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-politics","category-student-life","tag-covid-19","tag-the-bates-student","tag-voices","tag-voices-from-the-class-of-2021"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137220"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137312,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137220\/revisions\/137312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}