Beacon Voices is a new series aimed at describing the reporting process behind some of The Beacon’s biggest stories. In this edition, we talked to reporters who covered the Straight Pride Parade.

Belen Dumont

We met at the Beacon office in the morning to check-in with our editor-in-chief, Chris, and news editor, Stephanie, and they assigned us to individual positions. I began the day by roaming around Emerson College and Boston Common, sending in updates every 30 minutes until the end of the parade. I kept in contact with the other reporters on the scene, and Chris and Stephanie at the newsroom, throughout the day. Sometimes, when they heard about arrests happening around the college, I’d rush to the area. I conducted interviews with protesters along Boylston Street and then followed the parade to City Hall when it passed by the college. I later assisted Anissa with covering the speakers at City Hall. The information I collected went into the live updates, but I’m glad I was also there to assist my talented peers with their own reporting. 

Anissa Gardizy

On Saturday morning, I filmed a video of myself walking through the Common to Copley Square to pick up my press pass for the Straight Pride Parade. For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to keep one, long Twitter thread updated throughout the day while I was following the parade. I figured that there wouldn’t be many sources giving updates from inside of the parade barricades. I kept my Twitter up to date with videos, photos, and text, while also sending updates and interviews to the Beacon editors who were in the newsroom. I also took pictures on my camera and switched out my SD card with Stephanie when the parade passed campus so that the other editors could begin publishing photos. Overall, my experience covering the parade was a great practice in being objective. I’m happy that I was able to ask parade participants questions without unintentionally offending them. I’m so proud of every member of The Beacon who worked all day on our coverage! We had people following the coverage from multiple states!

Parker Purifoy

We all started off the morning in the office at 172 Tremont Street. Chris, Kyle, Aaron, and I stayed in the office and sent our reporters into the field with specific instructions about the day. We would listen to the police scanner and send reporters to locations of conflict, edit and publish updates, and go through photos as they were being sent. Our goal was to give our audience the best picture of what was happening with the parade, at City Hall where the protests were, and on campus. When something would happen near the office, one of us would sprint down to check it out and take pictures. While I have covered rallies and big events like this before, I’ve never been the editor in those situations, so it was pretty cool for me to watch how everything was playing out all around the city and to get the information from our own reporters. All in all, I think it was a really successful way to share the day’s events. 

Jacob Seitz 

I was originally covering a protest of the Straight Pride Parade that happened before the parade actually started at City Hall. I was roaming around the protest, interviewing protesters, organizers, and any Emerson students I could find. I would find a spot to send in updates every half hour when we had updates to give and space to give them. After the protest ended around 11:30 in the morning, I walked up to the corner of Tremont Street to the barricade by the Boylston MBTA station to get a good vantage point of the parade and watch it go by, taking pictures of my surroundings and live-Tweeting the whole thing. As the parade passed, I followed it down Tremont Street to City Hall, then stood with the protestors by the Holocaust Memorial. I was updating my editors, watching scuffles with police, and following them closely. After things died down, I went back to the newsroom and compiled all our reporting into the article with my colleagues.