“I am a writer, so I would prefer to have this conversation via email,” was once among my most commonly used sentences. This pretentious, constant reiteration that I, the editor of a newspaper, am a writer was an easy out for tough conversations — and more often than not, people bought it.
Technologies like iMessage, Facebook Messenger and email make it easy to abdicate any responsibility to engage in person, thereby reducing awkward situations. Which sounds great, right?
A previous me would say yes. Yet, being an editor and human striving to be the best version of myself I can be has shown me why in-person conversations are so important.
First, for my fellow reporters reading this, we all know how much better in-person interviews are when compared to one done via email. Email responses are often overly polished or simplistic. They aren’t the raw, human responses that often make for the best stories.
Certainly, there are reasons that an interview needs to be conducted over email, such as cases involving lots of data, but it becomes a crutch after a while.
Second, when we as journalists make a mistake, we need to realize that the error affects the stories of real people. I completely understand why people get upset at the media when mistakes, whether intentional or not, are made.
As reporters, it's easy for us to just reply with, “I am sorry, we will fix it” in an email and call it a day. But we owe our readers and sources our time and ears. Hearing people out in person shows that journalists don't just hide behind whatever medium they're writing.
As a leader of an organization and human being, I’ve seen firsthand how easily digital conversations can confuse or mislead the person I'm talking to.
I can’t tell you how often I’ve been stressed, hastily wrote a message, sent it and felt like an idiot after. Thankfully, I have good friends who are willing to call me out on it. Which can be annoying in the moment, but if you’re becoming too reliant on poorly-written texts to have serious conversations, then your friends are totally right to persistently call you out.
