Aliya Hall is a journalist based in Eugene, Oregon. She has been documenting Covid-19 for a Crewell-based paper The Chronicle and normally covers the Southern Willamette Valley, education beats, as well as features, business and city council news in the city of Springfield. In this profile for CFWIJ, she shared about covering the pandemic all along.

She refers to it as “the most stressful journalism experience” she’s ever had, for it has taken a mental toll on her. But Aliya is thankful for still being able to work during this time and be a source of information for the communities she covers.

“The publisher of the weekly paper I freelance for said that ‘Journalism is the first draft of history,’ and it’s a privilege to be a part of it even though it is also a trying time for everyone,” she said.

When talking about COVID-19, Aliya describes the situation to be not as overwhelming as compared with other states in the US. She said that social distancing has been working in Oregon, as there are a little over 2,000 cases.

Aliya has been working remotely for her paper and has not left her house to report. She has been conducting interviews using her phone and the internet.

When asked what it is like for her in terms of logistics, Aliya stated that since she works for a weekly paper, “it’s a double-edged sword”.

“All of my sources are incredibly busy working during this crisis, and being able to have a phone or email interview can be easier for them than meeting in person would be, and we have more lead time to set up an interview. That said, with more information constantly coming in and being updated, it has made staying up to date more difficult, and I’ve had a lot of sources get in touch with me after the interview to make sure I don’t have outdated information from them,” said Aliya.

For Aliya, technology has been the biggest challenge while covering Covid-19.

“The phone-recorder app I use has been overwhelmed with the number of people using it, and hasn’t always been available. So I’ve had to find other ways of recording my interviews, such as putting my phone on speaker and using an external device to record,” Aliya shared about the obstacles she has been facing with respect so far.

Since Aliya is a freelancer, she makes her own schedule and takes time off, when need be - something that helps keep her mind and body fit during these challenging times.

“When I’ve had a really intense day, it’s 3 p.m. and I don’t have any deadlines, I will take the rest of the afternoon off in order to get my head in the place it needs to be for me to return back to the story the following day. Taking some time away from work to clear my head has probably been the best thing to keep myself mentally fit,” she said.

When asked how reporting on Covid-19 is different from the beats she otherwise covers, Aliya said, “The way my local paper has been handling COVID-19 coverage is through the lens of our original beats. So my focus has been on how COVID-19 has impacted those areas and how the institutions are responding. My feature stories have also been through the lens of COVID-19 too. I’ve done stories on how artists are being impacted, how the unhoused population is being impacted and what this means in terms of mental health and increases in domestic violence.”

Given that Covid-19 has affected the way people work around the world, Aliya noted that freelancers have taken a hit, as publications are not accepting pitches from freelancers due to budgetary restrictions. However , she has been focusing more time on the community paper she writes for following the large number of potential stories she can cover. On the other hand, she has also observed changes in the way she conducted interviews for her stories. 

“I live outside of the communities I write for, and it’s been hard not being able to spend time in them or have the face-to-face interviews that I love doing,” she said.