Ed Mahon of WITF on finding the ‘human element’ through engagement

Ed Mahon, now with Spotlight PA, was a legislative reporter for WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a partner station of America Amplified. His 2020 community engagement work centered around being embedded in Erie, a city in the northwest corner of the state.

He had covered stories about the city’s education and refugee issues, but wanted to get to know its residents in a different way.

His original plan: “Trying to spend as much time in the community as possible and …  in a way that is not just as a reporter but as a regular person.”

When the pandemic shut down communities in March, Mahon cancelled a trip to find out more about the county’s plan to create its own community college. The pandemic shifted his focus to covering the impact of COVID-19 on Erie residents. 

In May, Mahon produced a story about Andrew Cousins, a rideshare driver who talked about the pandemic’s effect on his income and mental health.

Visiting Erie’s Juneteenth event

When case numbers started to fall around mid-June in Pennsylvania, Mahon decided to make the trip in person. 

By now, protests for racial justice had spread across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s death. An annual Juneteeth celebration in downtown Erie was becoming a protest and demonstration. 

“We weren’t going into that trip with a specific story in mind, we were really trying to just listen to as many people as possible,” Mahon recalled. “So I went to that demonstration on the 19th (of June) and talked to as many people as possible and that’s when I learned about Erie’s Black Wall Street. I thought it was worth doing more reporting on.”

The organizers of Black Wall  Street — all young, Black entrepreneurs — were planning something around the Fourth of July holiday, so Mahon moved quickly to produce a story. He discovered that the group was filling a real need in the community. 

“What they did was they started with a Facebook group as a sort of a business directory for all the Black-owned businesses in Erie and then on Juneteenth, they expanded to their own website and they’re also organizing more and more events,” said Mahon.

Ed Mahon (left) held a Facebook Live conversation with organizers of Erie’s Black Wall Street.

On July 2, Mahon hosted a Facebook Live through a Zoom conference call with three organizers from Erie’s Black Wall Street. He thought having a group conversation was helpful.

“I think it worked out well to have the three of them together, they were more open because they were together. ... I feel like this was very much a conversation and they were feeding off each other and elaborating and feeding off the points the other person was making… there was a lot of good communication … it helped them to be more candid than maybe they would have been if I would have just interviewed them on their own,” said Mahon. 

The interview also resulted in a story.

Tips and advice

The time commitment between day-to-day reporting and engagement requires scheduling and flexibility, especially during the pandemic. 

“Balancing all that has been a constant conversation with my editors and just trying to be clear with them about what I need and why I need it as much as possible,” Mahon said. “So getting time before a trip and after a trip to make sure I get the most out of that trip and also setting time after a trip to make sure that I can follow up with people quickly like we did with Erie’s Black Wall Street.”

Mahon added that Lisa Wardle, the PA Post’s Digital Manager, helped with Facebook Live technical issues and moderated viewer comments, allowing him to focus on the conversation.

Mahon also found that having throughline questions helped start conversations. Mahon used the questions supplied by America Amplified: 

• What concerns you most in the coming year?

• What do you want people to know about your community?

• Where do you get your news and information?

• Describe your voting experience, past and/or present.

“They have been helpful in terms of just going out and talking to people without any set agenda or organizing an event – just go out and hear back from the people about the issues that are affecting their community the most,” Mahon said.

‘The human element’

Since the Facebook Live event, Mahon has returned to Erie to continue the conversations. Mahon said newsrooms considering an engagement strategy should look at where the conversations and relationships can go.

“It was definitely something that would be worth doing more and I think some of these conversations have been really informative in terms of the issues that are most pressing in the community. This approach emphasizes talking to people that might not be the ‘official person’ who always gets quoted in stories but really trying to go deeper,” Mahon said. “It’s that human element in these stories. … A compelling, real person who is affected by an issue.”