Lance Roller has interviewed people who vied for Olympic medals, overlooked war heroes and artists trying to change the way science sees people.
When you read a published article on News Decoder, you’re only seeing part of the story. Who is writing it? What went into reporting the story? Why were they interested in this topic in the first place?
To answer some of those questions, we present “Correspondents in the Spotlight.” In a series of video conversations, we introduce you to the professional journalists behind News Decoder, go in-depth on their latest articles, discover their career paths and learn about their writing process — and how they overcome some of the same difficulties that young writers face.
In today’s Spotlight, we speak to researcher and freelance journalist Lance Roller II.
When Lance Roller turns in a story to News Decoder, it is often about people who struggle to succeed or to get the recognition they deserve.
He wrote about a movement to get recognition for Black World War II heroes. He reported on the struggles Olympic medalists have when they return home. And he wrote about the challenge artists of color have in getting medical book publishers to include more diverse illustrations.
The challenge for Roller is finding the experts to help him tell these stories. Roller is a U.S.-based researcher, data analyst and freelance journalist. He came to News Decoder during a fellowship in journalism and health impacts at the University of Toronto.
He found the story about the medical illustrators during a panel discussion he participated in. “It was a topic that I’ve been interested in for a while,” he said.
He realized that the people speaking on the panel would have great insight into the problem of diversity in medical illustrations and what problems come out of that lack of diversity. He decided to contact them but he tried two different approaches: He decided to try contacting them directly, but he also asked the host of the panel to connect him. “The host was gracious enough to do that for me and I got lucky — all of them were willing to talk about it.”
Many ways to find sources
To find other people, Roller does research and tries to find contact information for people who have written on the topic. Then he contacts as many people as possible.
“Just reach out and ask,” he said.
The toughest part of writing a news story, for Roller, is getting people to set aside time for an interview. “Everybody has extremely busy [schedules] and people work in different time zones and different countries,” he said. “So just finding like that sweet spot to get that interview in — that’s usually one of the tough things, at least for me.”
The other challenge he has is having too much information to fit into a 1500 word article. “Especially for a story that you’re really passionate about when it comes to figuring out what makes the cut and what doesn’t,” he said. “You want to say everything but you have like a certain amount of words to say it all. So you gotta figure out okay, what can stay, what can go.”
But material he doesn’t use in one story doesn’t have to be wasted. He knows he can save it for another article. “So you can make multiple stories out of all the information you have,” he said.
Journalists believe in themselves
One tip that Roller has for budding journalists is to be persistent.
“When you’re pitching stories, the reality is you’re probably gonna get more Nos than Yeses. But that should not deter you from pitching that story,” Roller said. “Do not underestimate how far the power of believing in yourself can get you. So stay true to yourself. Just keep pushing and you’ll eventually get that story and get where you need to be.”
News Decoder spoke to Roller at length about his story on medical illustrators. You can see the full interview here.
In a story like the one he did about medical illustrators, he tries to see how a problem affects different people.
“Everybody in the medical, scientific and academic community: It’s a concern for all those communities,” he said. “But the people actually affected are those who identify as people of color.”
Roller said to think about the psychological aspect when someone looks at images in a peer review journal.
“Maybe you’re thinking about a career in STEM and you don’t see anyone that looks like you,” he said. “You may question: Do I belong here? Is this a path for me? Like can I do this? Because one of the things I’ve learned in this story is that people tend to believe what they see.”