Behind the scenes of Pope coverage in Philly

Media Arts and Design
 

front pageJMU journalism graduate Jeff Gammage ('82) was recently part of the Philadelphia Inquirer's coverage of Pope Francis' visit to the city. We asked him to reflect on the coverage.

What was your role in the coverage of the Pope? I was reporting and writing news stories in the lead-up to the pope’s arrival and all during the two-day papal visit. That included anchoring the main Sunday story, which sought to encompass all the papal activities, color and reactions in a single piece. Of course, all of us at the newspaper and website were tweeting and posting to social media throughout.

When you’re tackling a story with so many angles like this one, how do you decide what to cover? I look for individual stories that aren’t being told. For instance, I wrote a piece about how the homeless people who live on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway were being displaced during the pope’s visit, and how many of them weren’t sure where they would go or how they would find food. Also a story about how the massive security apparatus (http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pope/20150929_Papal_pilgrims_complain_of__police_state__security_measures.html) designed to protect the pope caused thousands of people to be stuck in lines for hours, missing the central event of the weekend, the giant Sunday Mass on the parkway.

What most challenged you in covering the story and how did you overcome it? Everything about the visit was challenging, starting with how reporters would get to work if the trains and subways became overwhelmed by crowds. The highways had been closed in advance. Many of us ended up sleeping downtown for three days, to be sure we could get into the newsroom. Access to specific events, like Francis’ meeting with inmates at a city prison, was of course tightly controlled, and worked out with the pope’s press people months in advance. The level of security and the crowd sizes were a major challenge. The newspaper attempted to overcome that by assigning virtually every news reporter to coverage. Probably 50 to 75 reporters and editors were directly involved in covering the pope.

What’s the most vivid thing you’ll remember from covering the Pope’s visit? The peaceful, love-your-brother vibe that took hold of Philadelphia for two days. Whether one is Catholic or not, or religious or not, it’s clear that Pope Francis is a charismatic leader, humble and sincere, and focused on how all of us should care for one another. That resonated across the city. For two days, everyone I met was thinking about issues bigger than themselves.

Jeff Gammage, a staff writer at The Philadelphia Inquirer, was part of the five-reporter team that won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. He’s the author of China Ghosts: My Daughter's Journey to America, My Passage to Fatherhood, and has written widely on adoption for publications including The New York Times. He’s a 1982 graduate of James Madison University, and a recipient of the school’s Ronald E. Carrier Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award.

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Published: Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Last Updated: Thursday, November 2, 2023

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