Please tell us about your interest and experience in journalism. Why do you think you would be able to do great local journalism on day one? 300 word limit As someone who grew up reading local journalism, I have grown to recognize its importance in America. My hometown of Adel, Iowa has a population of around 4,000, and I grew up reading articles from our county-wide paper, the Dallas Morning News. Later on, the summer my freshman year of college, I worked my first reporting position in Perry, Iowa, covering local news in a town of about 8,000. When I moved to “the big city” for college -- also known as Lincoln Nebraska -- many of my articles for class or the student newspaper would have a local focus on Lincoln or the smaller surrounding …show more content…
My latest enterprise story, “The Oil Bust Was Actually Good for a Town Called ‘Shale City,’” describes a small city in North Dakota whose population’s growth follows the booms and busts in the oil industry. As much as I admire newspapers like The New York Times or The Washington Post, they lack the ability to capture much of the local news that matters to people all over the United States. They don’t have reporters covering town hall meetings, or making small talk with business owners and residents daily. And because of that, certain stories get overlooked. I believe I can do great work at Report for America because most of my journalistic experience has been in local journalism. It’s how I learned how to gather sources, nail down interviews and report in a clear, concise manner. I hope I can continue to cover local journalism in Report for America. Why do you want to be a Report for America corps member? 300 word limit I want to be a Report for America corps member because I believe in the importance of local journalism, and it’s painful to see local newspapers fighting so hard to keep …show more content…
I hope to be part of the solution to this issue through Report for America. I went into journalism for the same reason most reporters did, to make a difference in the world. I don’t think many would go into a field with such low job security and salaries if that weren’t the case. While this can be done at larger, national publications, I believe it’s the local outlets I believe working our way up from local publications is the best way to re-establish journalism and its place in democracy. Not only is the job right for me, though, but I believe I am the right person for this job. I am an experienced, aggressive reporter who cares about the future of journalism. I can write clearly and concisely, and I can pitch and create a stories in a variety of forms, from enterprise stories to multimedia projects to data-focused pieces. I want to work at a publication where I am encouraged to use all of my talents, and I believe Report for America can provide me with that