Lisa Gillespie

Lisa Gillespie, 26, is passionate about being an advocate for minorities.  Gillespie is currently the associate editor of Employee Benefits News (ebn.benefitnews.com), a leading information magazine for the ever-changing human resources and benefits world. She produces the daily newsletter, EBN InBrief and reports and writes for the monthly magazine about topics such as health care, retirement, disability and wellness. She uses her passion on covering social issues, translating such topics such as veterans, AIDS and caregivers into the role they play in the workforce. A freelance contributor to the hyper-local news source Patch.com for Takoma Park and Silver Spring, MD, previously, Gillespie was the Managing Editor and New Media Director of Street Sense, a street newspaper that covers homelessness and poverty and is sold by low-income people on the streets of D.C. Gillespie was a staff writer for The Georgetowner and a staff writer at CampusProgress.org, an online news magazine covering lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning (LGBTQ) issues. She combines her passion for uncovering social issues with her journalistic talents in her blog “The Difference Difference Makes” (thedifferencedifferencemakes.blogspot.com).  Gillespie received her B.A. in Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Asheville in 2008 and was Editor-In-Chief of the student newspaper, The Blue Banner.   She currently lives in Mt. Pleasant, D.C.

Gillespie was interviewed by Audrey Kittrell, 22, an aspiring magazine journalist at the University of Iowa where she is a senior pursuing majors in Journalism and Psychology.

Audrey Kittrell: Why did you become involved in journalism?

Lisa Gillespie: I became involved because I always loved writing and because I was an outsider. Sophomore year of high school, I switched high schools and ate many lunches that first semester in the bathroom. It was an immensely depressing time. I later found out about an elective course where you could stay in the classroom during lunch and occasionally get permission to sell ads, newspaper 101. So, I joined The Siren and I was hooked. Then my senior year my uncle killed himself. I wrote an op-ed on the survivors of suicide and a classmate came up to me after school one day and thanked me for writing. He told me his father had killed himself, and it’d made him feel not so alone.  How can you turn that sense of power to include people down? I knew I wanted to be a journalist, and if not telling my own story, telling others.

AK:  How do you define journalism today?

LG: It’s much the same as it was during the “Golden Era.” It’s a bunch of people digging up the truth and informing the masses about stuff they’d normally not know about. Look at any movement where journalists are kept out and censored (like the Occupy Wall Street media shut out). That’s where journalists should be, and the fact that they’re not able to do their jobs says something. There is still corruption, misinformation and injustice. As long as that exists, there will be a market for what we do.

AK: How has technology influenced or affected your career?

LG: I’m 26. I have no idea what it means to not be published online. Even in high school we had an online version of the paper. It’s also made my career possible. Technology and the woman’s movement are tied; 100 years ago, chances are I would not have had a chance to write at The New York Times, let alone any other trade publication. To be a journalist meant you were a man (read The Girls in the Balcony) and technology has pushed open doors.

AK: How will technology affect the future of journalism?

LG: There will always be the broadsheets, but those will dwindle as the baby boomers start dying and Gen Y’s and our children take the reins of leadership. We’re wired to read everything online, and I think it’ll only make the 24/7 news cycle more intense. Hopefully there will be a place for investigative journalism. Someone will be willing to invest money to pay those journalists.

AK: Do you think Patch.com’s hyper-local structure is the future of journalism?

LG: They will be in the small markets, but there will always be the mega-players who cover the national scene and then the trade publications like the one I currently write for. I interned at the local paper in Asheville, North Carolina when I was in college. The summer before I moved to D.C., I talked to someone who worked there who told me that they’d laid off half their reporting staff and the paper was half its size. This is happening across the country. When I started writing for Patch, I’d go to government meetings and most of the officials were so surprised to see a reporter there; it’d been years since there was the capacity from the traditional weekly to send a reporter. Patch is filling a need for that information.

AK: What one word would you use to describe the status of women in journalism today?

LG: “Women.” I think most of us are still very aware of our status as “women.” We are not yet equal–look at the pay gap. And that extends into who ends up taking care of the children at home. If you have two people working, both journalists and they have a baby together, one person usually stays at home for the first few months. If the man in the relationship is making more than the woman, it’s a no-brainer who will keep working, and ultimately keep working on his career.  I don’t know if I’d ever cover a war-zone because of the safety issues surrounding my body–especially after what happened to Lara Logan. Men, generally, do not have to think about that same issue, the issue of rape.

AK: Do you feel as though there is gender equality today?

LG: No. I had a great professor in college who also served as the newspaper advisor. I eventually became editor and on the day we were to address the new staff, he introduced me as “Madam Editor.” I was appalled, but said nothing. He’d never addressed my previous male editor by a gender-specific title. I wanted to be seen as equal to the last guy and this was an unnecessary call to my sex. Eventually, I talked to him about it and I don’t believe it had ever occurred to him that it was strange. He thought it was a sign of respect, but when I pointed out that he’d never referred to the male editor as “Mister Editor,” he saw my point. We’re still on great terms and I count him as one of the best professors I had, but he was so steeped in tradition built by a sexist system that he didn’t initially see what he was doing on the face.

AK: As a female journalist, what can you bring to the table that a male may not?

LG: Whatever identity I have, I bring it to the table. I’m a woman, but I’m also white, middle-class, queer and a journalist. All these things make me different from others. Men also have something they can bring to the table about being a man, if they are self-aware to do so. The knowledge of male privilege held by a man can be an immensely powerful thing.

AK: Has your gender helped your career, hurt your career, or not affected your career?

LG: Who knows? If it has hurt, it’s probably been in an indirect way that I couldn’t possibly know about. Sexism today is not telling us we can’t vote; it’s telling young girls that they shouldn’t be good at math, or not having women in visible roles to be role models. I had an interesting interaction with an editor when I was the college newspaper editor. He constantly tried to talk over me and direct the staff in very indirect ways. He and four other male editors formed a sort of “boys club,” where they would hang out and go out to get food during deadlines. None of the women were ever included. I never talked to him about it, but I wish I had. A college newspaper is much safer place than the workplace to talk freely about sticky issues and to teach people.

AK: What role(s) will women have in future journalism?

LG: I don’t see us going away, that’s for sure. As our society advances, women will have more roles in senior leadership, and that includes at media outlets, which is important because it gives the possibility for young people looking at possible careers. The New York Times finally has their first female editor, and though she says gender does not play into her decision making, it is providing an example for female reporters there and young women everywhere that women can be in leadership roles. Without that, one might think it’s not possible.

AK: How do you maintain a voice for social issues?

LG: It’s in my writing. I just wrote a story about HIV/AIDS and the workplace. It’s totally applicable to the publication I work for, but no one had ever tackled the issue (to my knowledge). I also write about retirement, health care, etc., but it’s all in the framing of the news. A journalist frames what is important that day, so bringing a wide lens is important. An employer might have an HIV positive employee and not know how to deal with the situation and perhaps my story can provide some knowledge for that employer. That’s my hope with most of my stories–that it’ll make someone think a little differently about something.

AK:  How have sociology and journalism intersected in your career?

LG: Half the reason I got into journalism was because of my sense of social justice, though I’d never call myself an advocate. I’m just telling the truth, which journalism should do. I worked at Street Sense, D.C.’s street newspaper for a very long time, which was at times, quite grueling. It’s a small nonprofit and I worked with the homeless every day. If I hadn’t thought I was making a difference informing the public about issues that affect them, and essentially, all of us, I would never have done that job.

This is part of a series of profiles of JAWS members by University of Iowa students. For a complete listing, see this page.