by Jackie Errera
I had the privilege of attending #TrendThatJawn, a youth vote press conference at Philadelphia’s City Hall earlier this month. There, I spoke with The Philadelphia Citizen’s Executive Editor, Roxanne Patel Shepelavy, about her experience editing and writing for The Citizen and the development of her skills as a journalist.
Since its founding in 2015, The Citizen has offered high-quality, freely accessible articles to its readers, available on a brightly-colored, ad-free, and easily navigated website. Beyond just articles, The Citizen advertises local civic engagement groups, hosts speaker events with local activists, and even puts on its own award show, the Integrity Icon Awards, to recognize high-integrity public service employees in Philadelphia. The site also offers a civic engagement toolkit, so its readers have clear pathways to get involved in the Philadelphia community—whether by hosting their own voter registration drive, running for a district committee seat, volunteering to fight food insecurity, or joining local community organizations.
True to its tagline of “what happened, what it means, and what you can do about it,” the paper focuses on publishing accessible and comprehensive pieces about issues and events that affect Philadelphia and its inhabitants. Targeting individuals who want to see the city thrive, The Citizen has run pieces on the proposed Center City Sixers arena, the possibility of Governor Josh Shapiro becoming Kamala Harris’s running mate, and the January 6 assault on the United States Capitol.
Considering these articles and others that have discussed potentially contentious subjects—the kinds that both journalists and their audiences are bound to have personal feelings and opinions about—I asked Shepelavy if she has ever found it challenging to check her biases at the door when approaching her work. For many young writers, making the distinction between a personal affect and a fair piece of journalism can be difficult.
Shepelavy acknowledges that experience, confessing that often, checking her own biases is one of the hardest parts of her job. Drawing that line can still be a struggle, despite her three decades of experience in journalism, working at The Citizen, at Philadelphia Magazine, and as a freelance writer. She believes that the two most important skills required of journalists are curiosity and empathy. Empathy can be much more difficult to maintain, but that makes it all the more vital to have. While she did say that the audience of The Citizen tends to be more left-leaning, she stressed the necessity of interviewing and collecting facts from individuals on both sides of any issue that she reports on. Especially when tackling an issue she cares very personally about, she said that speaking with individuals who disagree with her and asking them why they hold their beliefs is absolutely key. And that work pays off because Shepelavy could say with confidence that regardless of how much backlash she has received toward any one of her pieces, none of her critics have ever been able to call her stories unfair.
The journalists of The Citizen are providing active-minded members of the Philadelphia community with the necessary information and tools to make a real difference in the world around them. They investigate problems facing the city and write not only about potential solutions but also about the paths toward them. And the Citizen’s end goal, according to Shepelavy? “Ultimately,” she says, “we want people to make change and take back democracy.”
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