Tania Ortiz has been covering South County for Lookout Santa Cruz for about a year and a half. She’s in touch with many sources each week, joins relevant social media groups and shows up at meetings where the public’s business is done. That’s what she and her half-dozen fellow correspondents at Lookout do as reporters embedded in the community.
When a Watsonville teacher’s recent pro-ICE social media post drew community pushback, the connections and goodwill from Tania’s ongoing work enabled her — and education correspondent Hillary Ojeda — to run down a complicated story, one that included multiple voices, including those of parents drawn offline to discuss charged topics with nuance and humanity. The story spread and was cited by other news outlets. Tania listened, she reported and told a story no one else did.
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Hear from Tania directly below about what it took to produce this story and how she approaches her work in South County.
What follows below has been edited for clarity and brevity.
How did you find people to talk with about the Watsonville teacher’s comments?
Tania: Someone texted me a screenshot of online comments overnight, and the next day, when I browsed neighborhood Facebook groups, everyone was talking about it. I asked the person who initially texted me if there was anyone they could connect me with. I said, “Share my number out. I don’t care who calls me.” We needed context beyond social media. I also posted in community forums on Facebook. I got a message from someone who knew a parent with a child in the teacher’s class, and that parent was willing to talk with me. He was very open about it.
How did you get parents and sources to talk to you offline?
Tania: I try to be straightforward and really candid. If they’re comfortable, that makes a big difference. I ask what they’re open to talking about and giving someone options can be empowering.
What considerations did you make about what was included in the article or how the issue was portrayed?
Tania: There were so many accusations on social media, digging up every detail that could be found. But there were still a lot of questions. We knew we didn’t have the full story at the beginning, it was just screenshots and social media posts. At the core, the story is the comment and the timing — a Watsonville resident had just been detained by immigration officials. We decided to keep that angle: what this means for the community and the backlash.
How do you think about your audience for an article like this?
Tania: Whenever I write stories that are complicated like this, I try to put myself in the readers’ shoes and think about what questions they would have. We tried to lay out the facts as clearly as possible. There were a lot of drafts and moving pieces for this story. A lot of people were involved — all figuring out how to share the story for readers. They’re all on high alert. It’s a touchy subject. It’s an issue that deeply affects them. It’s why we pursued this story. It made sense to report that story because of the community’s questions and the time we’re in.