Digital voice recorder used by Heather Haddon

2011

Metal, plastic

Overall: 4 × 1 3/8 × 5/8 in. (10.2 × 3.6 × 1.5 cm)

Gift of Heather Haddon

2016.40

Digital voice recorders are one of the documentation methods that journalists use while conducting interviews. Heather Haddon, a longtime resident of Long Island City, purchased her Sony ICD-UX512 on the recommendation of a colleague soon after she began working at the Wall Street Journal in October 2011. Initially, Haddon’s beat was New Jersey politics and life. Her coverage of Hurricane Sandy in October–November 2012 and Republican Governor Chris Christie’s response to the disaster helped her to transition to national politics. She used the voice recorder to help break the story of the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal (also known as Bridgegate) in which Christie appointees conspired to create traffic jams in Fort Lee, New Jersey, in early September 2012 as a means to punish Mayor Mark Sokolich for not endorsing Christie in that year’s gubernatorial election. Haddon used the voice recorder during her reporting on the 2016 presidential primaries for the WSJ—with a particular focus on the Republican race—covering almost all of the candidates, several of them through one-on-one or small-setting interviews. They included Chris Christie, Donald Trump, Rand Paul, Jon Kasich, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson, George Pataki, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Martin O’Malley, among others.

DescriptionDark red digital voice recorder with Sony logo at top; two built-in microphones on either side; display window with "STOP" and "RECORD" buttons below; circular control button with symbols for play, review, and fast forward; top has microphone and headphone jacks; back has speaker, strap hole, memory card slot, battery compartment, and USB port.

ClassificationsSCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY