DSS209: Covering Westray in the Media with Jennifer Hatt

In today’s episode of the Dust Safety Science podcast, Jennifer Hatt, writer, publisher and communications consultant, goes over the way that the media has responded to and covered the Westway coal mine disaster. This discussion with Jennifer is the fourth in our series on the ‘Ripple Effects of Westray.’

Jennifer moved to New Glasgow in 1989 after graduating from university. At that time, Westray was, as she put it, “a little blue building and a lot of hope.” She interviewed the Honourable Donald Cameron, who was working to make Westray a reality in the county and stopped to take a photo of the site on the way home.

“There was that sense of waiting for something great to happen,” she recalled.

In 1989 it had been more than 30 years since there was coal mining of any degree in Pictou County. There were a lot of people who remembered the previous coal mining history and were concerned at that time that Westray either wouldn’t happen or shouldn’t happen because it was dangerous.On the flip side, there were those who anticipated a new era of economic development for the county. They were confident that technology was available to make mining safer than it had been the generations before.

May 9, 1992

In May 1992, Jennifer was working for the daily newspaper in New Glasgow. The weekend of the disaster, she was woken by sirens while it was still dark. Since she was about to go on vacation and therefore not working, she went back to sleep. A couple of hours later, her managing editor called to tell her something was going on at the mine and the entire news office was being called in.

Some reporters hurried to the mine site while Jennifer was tasked with interviewing the mayor and former miners and draegermen in Springhill about their experience with mine disasters. The Saturday edition of the paper was held back so that all known details could be included, and the decision was made to print a Sunday edition too- something that had never been done before.

“It took a few days for us to really settle into how the community was feeling,” Jennifer says. “As to how WE were feeling, that took a lot longer still because you’re in work mode – you’re focused on what you need to do.”

While community reaction was delayed (Jennifer remembers getting a call from a woman complaining that her paper was late on that Saturday), once everyone grasped the depth and severity of the coal mine explosion, everyone was shocked and grieving. The feeling would remain long after the international news media moved on to the next story.

Jennifer never went to the media centre that had been set up in the community hall across the road from the mine site. Initially, it was because her assignments didn’t require her to be there. Then, when the story broke nationally and internationally and large groups of media descended on Plymouth, she felt she could do more in the newsroom than out there.

“We knew these people, sometimes personally. Once the story wound down and the news cycle shifted, the visiting media would be leaving and going on to their next story. We would remain because we were a part of the community in which this was happening, and that created a challenge in terms of how we could cover the story.”

Jennifer and the rest of the news team wanted to honour and respect the relationships they had built with local people and organizations over the years.

“It was an important story, but we did not want to be one of those outlets that got the story at all cost. As a result, it was difficult to stay ahead of the news wave because there were outlets who used unique ways that perhaps we would not try to get interviews – staking out rooms, staking out bus stops. That was their job and that was the way they did things. We didn’t want to do things that way… So as challenging as it was, it was also inspiring to be able to do that. We could not only cover the story, but also be there for those that were in the midst of it.”

The Ripple Effect of Westray

Jennifer asked her editor if she should cancel her vacation, but he encouraged her to take it. She went to Washington, DC, and while standing on the subway platform at the airport waiting for the train, she heard the Westville mayor on the radio, talking about Westray and the effect on the community.

“It hit me that you never escape something like that – whether it’s in your memory, whether it’s in your work, whether it’s because you have a direct loss or whether it’s because it’s in the community that you’re a part of. There is nowhere that you can go that it doesn’t touch you and touch others.”

Continuing to Preserve Westray Memories

Jennifer is currently working on a project focusing on the human element of the Westray disaster. Coverage of these incidents often focus too much on the technical and forget that real people were affected by them.

“For me, the power is always in the human element. That has always been for me, the most important story. The opportunity to showcase and preserve the experiences of those who went through this catastrophic event really opened my eyes to the power of writing and books. So I’m pleased and honoured to be a part of that. I think the voices of the people that will be shared in this project really bring home the importance of prudent workplace safety.”

Conclusion

“I think with Westray, the question remains: was what happened there preventable? And we’ll never know the answer to that question. Can we learn from that to make other workplaces as safe as possible in the future? Preserving history allows us to learn from it [and help make] workplaces continually safer for the individuals within it and the communities.

If you would like to discuss further, leave your thoughts in the comments section below. You can also reach Jennifer Hatt directly:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-hatt-529173b/
Website: http://www.ownyourstorynow.com/authorjenniferhatt/

If you have questions about the contents of this or any other podcast episode, you can go to our ‘Questions from the Community’ page and submit a text message or video recording. We will then bring someone on to answer these questions in a future episode.