We have had to change a lot of our processes and our stories may not get told in the way we had originally hoped, but we are committed to telling the stories of our southeastern Ohio communities despite the difficulties faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
I am Emily Thompson, I work on the Social Media and the Clutch MOV teams. While the social media team is going as strong as ever, the Clutch MOV team has hit some speed bumps working on our VR profile of Marietta's Main Street West.
My team had originally planned to visit Marietta on March 20, to shoot for our VR profile. However, Ohio is now under a “stay-at-home order" through May 1, and Ohio University moved to online instruction for the rest of the semester on March 13, so we are no longer able to visit the community.
Although our interviews were conducted over the phone or through emails, we are excited to get to know our contacts at Main Street West and learn more about what they do for their community.
Since our VR profiles cannot be completed as we had hoped, we are each working on place-based stories about where we are spending self-isolation/quarantine. I was lucky enough to be able to stay in Athens for the remainder of my senior year so keep an eye out for a look into how Athens is being affected by these uncertain times.