‘I try to do stories that are sound-rich, that have a human component.’

Maayan Silver is a reporter at WUWM-FM (89.7), Milwaukee’s NPR. She said that one of the ways the station has adapted to a changing digital landscape is by reaching people where they are. For example, listeners who want to hear more about the upcoming election can tune in to hear Silver speak on Capitol Notes, which is one of several podcasts the station hosts. Others include Bubbler Talk, Chirp Chat, Wandering Wisconsin, Status Pending and Project Milwaukee.

Jessica Lambin: What is your role here? I know you said part of it is Capitol Notes.

Maayan Silver: Yes, I am a general assignment reporter, so I can cover a wide range of topics that affect people in southeastern Wisconsin.

Jessica Lambin: Okay. So, working with more of a cultural context, with people in the community?

Maayan Silver: Yes, we like to have stories that are relevant to people here that can impact lives that can potentially change things, make things more equitable, give people information, help people make decisions about their lives, help people learn things. Those are kind of some of the guiding principles of what kind of stories we do.

Jessica Lambin: I did want to know a little bit more about Lake Effect because there’s a component of community involvement and regional issues, from what I gathered.

Maayan Silver: Yes, Lake Effect is a wonderful addition to the media landscape in Milwaukee. It’s a daily interview show, so it’s a series of generally 10- to 15-minute interviews with people about pretty much a huge range of things going on in the community. Anywhere from health issues to cultural issues, to economic issues, political issues… all these types of things. And basically, what’s cool for me as a news reporter is that I have a time limit on my stories, they have to be four and a half minutes, but since we have Lake Effect, I’m able to do more long form story production, so the type of podcasting that you listen to with, you know, a 20 minute getting into a story and sound design and all that kind of stuff. We can do that on Lake Effect as reporters, because there’s that time space for it. So, most recently, I did a story on this community program where they were preventing food waste by collecting food from farmers’ markets. They would chop it, cook it and give it to homeless shelters and recovery shelters and things like that. I was able to do a short story for news, but I was able to do an 11-minute version [for Lake Effect]. So I was able to get into a lot more voices and a lot more aspects of the program. So that’s kind of the kind of thing that you can hear on Lake Effect, in addition to great interviews from producers.

Jessica Lambin: I’ve been noticing that a lot of my fellow peers want to go into investigative journalism. I’m wondering how working here has kind of lined up with the aspirations and expectations that you had going into journalism or media in general?

Maayan Silver: That’s really interesting. To be completely honest, I think as a journalist, you kind of have to know your strengths and weaknesses in the same way you know your strength and weaknesses as a person. You have the same thing as a journalist. I’m not really into data journalism and crunching numbers and analyzing records. That’s really not my cup of tea. It’s not what I’m really great at. So, I don’t generally do that for my stories. I try to do stories that are sound rich, that have a human component. Not that you can’t use numbers, and I research and find information, but it’s not, that’s more my wheelhouse as opposed to investigative journalism, sticking with one story for months on end and digging deep into it. I don’t really do that that often, but I have done series where we take a topic, and we do multiple stories on that one topic, and they can be serious topics, like human trafficking, or they can be more lighthearted topics, like Yemeni coffee shops, and all those, you know, the number of coffee shops popping up in the Milwaukee area. So, it’s really a range. You have to bring yourself to the job of a journalist and be true to yourself in the same way that you be true to yourself in any sort of endeavor in your life. And I think that can be what takes you places, is if you really follow your passions, you follow what your interests are, and a little bit about what you’re good at. That’s not to say that you can’t push yourself and try to learn new things, but it’s nice to kind of know where your space is.

Jessica Lambin: I personally feel more passionate about doing feature type stories–talking to somebody and finding their story and trying to make that sound interesting to readers. Even if it’s somebody who, on the outside, you wouldn’t think that their story would be interesting. But I’ve found that everybody has an interesting story.

Maayan Silver: One hundred percent. And that’s a skill set. Being the kind of person that believes that everybody has a story and wants to connect with everybody’s story. That can take you very far in journalism, because it’s a lot about curiosity. It’s a lot about listening. It’s a lot about kindness and having space for people to share their story. And if you have some of those skills, it could take you very far in different types of journalism. No matter whether it’s print or radio or TV, you know?

Jessica Lambin: What aspects of your work do you find most meaningful?

Maayan Silver: I think the ability to connect with people. It’s kind of like a permission that you have to be able to go into events and situations, and to be able to meet people, and find out what really drives them in life, and what their mission is, why they’re doing what they’re doing, how they’re doing what they’re doing, why they started it. You get to answer questions about things happening in the community that people have always wondered about. So, it’s a really nice way to connect with yourself, with others, with people who are sharing their stories, with people who hear the stories, and I think that’s the most meaningful. And then we also get to do it with voices, and I think voices can tell a lot in the same way that pictures can tell things about a scene that you might not be able to see just reading about it. The voice can tell you things about someone’s intentions and their feelings in ways that just reading it in a newspaper might not, so I think that’s kind of meaningful.

Jessica Lambin: I was also wondering what advice you have for students who are going into media communications or journalism?

Maayan Silver: Yes, I would say follow your heart one hundred percent. If you’re interested in something, that’s the way to develop your skills in it. From a place of authenticity, from a place of, like, you’re doing it because you want to do it, and you want to learn this, and you want to tell this story. I would also say, don’t be deterred by struggles, or when things get hard, just continue trying and continue working, you know, I think when I was learning how to use the Zoom recorder and to edit audio and tell stories, I started with something simple, which was asking my friends about their food memories. It was a safe topic for me to talk to people about things that are meaningful to them, without being super controversial or political or, you know, difficult. And then I would edit that audio together and narrate it. It was just a way for me to continue working on audio stories, even when I was out of Jane’s class. I took Newswriting and Technology with Jane Hampden, as well. So, anyway, I would just say, follow your passions, and stick with it.