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5 Journalism

Journalism and Reporting

This chapter will discuss the field of journalism. “News analysts, reporters, and journalists keep the public updated about current events and noteworthy information. They report international, national, and local news for newspapers, magazines, websites, television, and radio” (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024). In this chapter we will learn from a successful professional in the field of journalism.

The following is an interview with Katie Honan, a successful journalist and reporter for THE CITY, a local New York paper.

Transcript: A Conversation with Katie Honan: Exploring the Role of a Journalist (2024).

Introduction: In this interview, Katie Honan, Reporter for THE CITY, describes her career path and profession.

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Doreen Kolomechuk (Interviewer): Good morning. Today I have the honor of speaking with Katie Honan.  Katie is a New York City reporter currently working at The City, a nonprofit and independent news site. Katie previously covered City Hall for the Wall Street Journal, working on local and national stories including the COVID-19 pandemic. Her reporting on New York City’s and New York State’s response to the pandemic won a Newswomen’s Club Nelly Bly Award for Best Byline Front Page Story.

Before the Wall Street Journal, Katie covered Queens at DNAinfo New York, which was the city’s leading online news site. She wrote thousands of groundbreaking stories for DNAinfo, where she shot all of her own photos and also did additional video pieces to complement stories. Katie joined DNAinfo from NBC 4 New York in 2013, where she was the station’s first social media editor and also worked as web editor.

While at NBC 4, Katie Honan won two local Emmy Awards, one national Emmy Award, and an Edward R. Murrow Award. Katie graduated from St. John’s University and CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, where she was selected as student speaker at graduation. Earlier in her career, she worked in film and television production, working on sets throughout the city. Welcome, Katie! Thank you so much for meeting with me today.

Katie Honan: Thanks for having me.

Doreen Kolomechuk: It’s really such a privilege and an honor to have the opportunity to speak with you today to learn about your career path and to gain some insight on how people might be successful in your field. To start, please tell us about your current position at The City.

Katie Honan: I’ve been here since August of 2021 and we’re a nonprofit site. My focus is, you know, I tell people I just cover New York City. My focus is on a lot of government and politics. I’m usually working out of City Hall, covering the mayor, covering the City Council, covering other elected officials. I also have the opportunity to write other things as well. I mean, one of the things I like about where I work is that we have the flexibility to sort of, as long as it’s in New York City and is relevant to our New York City readers, we have the opportunity to write about it. So that’s my main beat at The City.

Doreen Kolomechuk: Interesting! So what’s a typical day for a reporter, or is there a typical day?

Katie Honan: Well, I get asked that a lot and it really can depend on what is going on. I usually start my day at City Hall. I try to get into work before 9:00 AM. I like to get in there early and I kind of see what’s going on in our newsroom. We have to  put in by at least 9:00 AM what we’re going to be working on just so our editors know. It is a very self-directed place which is another thing that I like about it. I’m sort of letting my editor and the editors-at-large know this is what I’m working on; this is what’s happening today. “Do you want me to write about this? I can have a story today.”  And also, I’m kind of laying the expectations of when you can file something, like daily, meaning I file it that day, or this is something that will come in a couple days or weeks or however long it takes.

So that’s where I’m working from. You know, because I cover this current mayor, Mayor Eric Adams, he does a weekly press briefing usually on Tuesdays. So, if you’re looking at a day like Tuesday, I get into work, lay out what could happen that day, ask, you know, my colleagues, “Is there anything specific you want me to ask? Is it something relevant on a story you’re working on?” The briefing is usually 11:30 to 12:30. Work on that, and then, you know, again, it all is kind of defined by coverage. I could point to a day like yesterday; it was a stated meeting of the City Council. I went to an event earlier in the morning, then I came to City Hall, kind of offering up to my editor what I could possibly write and then we kind of talk it out through that.

I also record a podcast for work. We usually record those Monday mornings. So, I feel like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday for me are pretty busy. Thursday, Friday, again, barring any breaking news, they’re more quieter days. But yes, that is sort of the typical day. It’s not a nine-to-five job. You really do have to sacrifice a lot of your own personal time because things happen, and they happen at—they don’t happen between nine and five. Sometimes I need to go to an event in the evening. I need to go to a town hall that the mayor is hosting. I need to go to community meetings that are usually in the evenings. I’ve kind of worked out this schedule where I like to write in the mornings. So, I kind of do a lot of work in the early mornings because I’m more of a morning person. But then at the same time, you know, if there are days when things are really quiet, I could take a longer lunch and kind of reclaim the time that way.

Doreen Kolomechuk: So, one of the challenges is the fact that you kind of always have to be available in some sense?

Katie Honan: Yes, the job, when I lay out the challenges of journalism, and I think you can look at it very broadly, at the industry as a whole, right? It’s very unstable. Unfortunately, a lot of things are in flux. I’ve been laid off twice; DNAinfo shut down, and the Wall Street Journal closed their New York section. These are the things you know getting into it. So yes, that is the challenge—the inconsistency and the uncertainty of what could happen. Then, of course, you’re working longer hours. You know, you’re in this competitive field, so if you’re working on the same story and a colleague in another outlet gets it, you feel really lousy. And also, some of the situations you get yourself into, you know, where oftentimes I tell people that the people I cover, they’re elected officials, they’re politicians, right? So, their role and the people who work for them, particularly in the communications office, you know, their role is to make their boss look good. My job is to write the truth, and sometimes the things are at odds. So, you kind of need to have a thick skin and sort of sharp elbows.

That being said, you know, I find such a camaraderie within my other journalists, whether it’s people I see every day or people I see infrequently. There’s a shorthand and a really deep understanding to what it’s like to be a reporter. And that’s—it’s, you know, I’ve met journalists from all over the world, and you kind of have the same similar personality types and expectations. So that’s the benefit of it. You know, I really love working with my colleagues, both at The City but then also at other outlets, all of us covering the same things. We work together, and we’re probably more helpful with each other than the movies would—you know, obviously I’m not going to give up a story that I have and share it with people, but we try to be very helpful, whether it’s sharing, you know, “Oh hey, I missed the mayor on this, here’s the audio,” that kind of thing.

Doreen Kolomechuk: Oh, that’s really great to hear because it does seem like it would be something that is kind of very solitary, you know, working within your own mind. So, it’s good that you have that camaraderie and an ability to have colleagues.

Katie Honan: Yes, I’m a very social person. And I think if you have reporters who are at odds with each other and are fighting, I mean, the only people who win from that are elected officials. And, unfortunately, the people who lose out are the public, right? I mean, I think they would probably love if I spent more time fighting with a colleague at another outlet than actually looking through documents and talking to other people. So, we sometimes can find ourselves in really combative situations, and I find it’s good to back each other up in those circumstances.

Doreen Kolomechuk: Very, very interesting. From the perspective of a person who’s like getting the news, I don’t really think about that aspect of it. What attracted you to this field?

Katie Honan: It’s funny. I worked in TV production before. That’s what I went to undergrad for, and I always wanted to be like a TV writer. I worked briefly at The Late Show with David Letterman. I was an intern there and that was different. I thought maybe I want to do comedy writing, but that was something that always seemed to elude me in terms of permanent jobs. I worked in film production and TV, worked on two movies in kind of production assistant roles. Then when I went to journalism school, I kind of said, “Okay, this will be fun to do but maybe I’ll go back to production.”  I never did because I really loved my classmates, loved what I was learning.

I think for me, I’ve always been very nosy. I mean, you could say inquisitive but no—I mean, I’m inquisitive, but I’m really just nosy and I’ve always loved talking to people, and that’s kind of the big skill. I also think even as a young kid, I’ve always had this real sense of if I found something maybe unfair, it really bothered me. You know, like my friends didn’t seem as bothered by things at school. I’d say, “Hey, don’t you think it’s unfair that  the fourth-grade class gets this, but we don’t get this?”

Doreen Kolomechuk: Even that early in life?

Katie Honan: Right! Some people didn’t seem as bothered by it, but I was really affected by things that I felt were unjust. And I know in the third grade, it’s something as simple as, like, you know, lunch equity or something. So, I think that helps as a journalist. Depending on you, there’s so many different kinds of journalism you can do, but I think just this desire for information and maybe even righting a wrong, I think that helps. That, and I grew up in New York City, and I really, I’ve only covered New York City, and I only want to cover New York City. I have no interest in national stuff or going to Washington. I don’t really care about that, unfortunately. I just care about New York. I grew up reading the paper with my family and watching TV news, especially, so all the factors kind of came into play.

Doreen Kolomechuk: Yes, it seems like it’s been lifelong for you.

Katie Honan: Yes, I still love television and films, and I think, oh, maybe, you know, I could switch, but at this point everything that I’m doing in terms of the journalistic aspect of it is what excites me more.

Doreen Kolomechuk: What was the first article you’ve ever written? When did you start to publish?

Katie Honan: It’s funny. We didn’t really have a robust student newspaper in high school, and I wasn’t involved in college. But I think back to a story and it’s funny. In grad school, at the time there was a partnership that our grad school had with The New York Times, and it was to cover Fort Greene and Clinton Hill in Brooklyn. And growing up, I loved the show Ghostwriter, which was on PBS, and it was about these kids in Brooklyn, Fort Greene in particular, and they had this ghost, but the show went off the air, and they never found out who Ghostwriter was supposed to be.

So, I don’t even know what—I think it just—it seemed local. I think the DVDs were being released, so I found a news hook and a timely angle, and I reached out to the creator of the show. He got back to me, and I met with him, and he told me who Ghostwriter was supposed to be and the whole deep history of it. Then I published something on the Fort Greene local blog, which, you know, it’s even hard to find on the internet now. You kind of have to go through the Wayback Machine. But that was so fulfilling to publish because I was like, wow,—it was something that was interesting to me, which, you know, as a journalist, most of the stuff I cover, it’s not like of a personal interest to me. You’re just covering it because it’s newsworthy. But this was one instance where I’m like, wow, this was something that I loved, and it resonated because I saw a viral TikTok about it on—I mean, on Instagram. I see TikToks on Instagram, and there was a girl running this 90s nostalgia page, and she was finding out about Ghostwriter through my article.

And what I had revealed in my reporting was that Ghostwriter was a runaway slave who helped other enslaved people escape, and then she was killed. This was in the story. And it was a relative of one of the—, she was a relative of one of the characters on the show. That was what the creator told me. So, it had—knowing this deep history and the deep history of the Underground Railroad in Fort Greene—but I saw this viral post, and all these people were like, “Oh my God, this is so great!” So, I commented that I actually wrote that story. It was like my one of my first stories as a student, so it was nice to see it more than a decade later still resonating with people. And, you know, because everyone feels nostalgia. I think I had a few other stories here and there, but that was sort of the first big one for me.

Doreen Kolomechuk: That’s so exciting! And what was your first position out of journalism school?

Katie Honan: So, when I graduated, I had interned at NBC, the local affiliate for NBC, WNBC and at the time, this was—I graduated December 2010, so this was January 2011. I got hired, I guess, by February as their social media editor, and it was the first one they had, which it seems silly because now we’re so used to how social media is integrated into our lives, and especially in how we get and give the news. But at the time, it was sort of this new thing. Most of my job was handling the social media accounts, but also getting reporters online on Twitter, explaining to them the significance of it and how it can work and how it can be helpful.

So, I did that for about two and a half years. You know, I enjoyed doing it, and I loved working in a TV newsroom, but I wanted to do my own reporting, which was what then brought me to DNAinfo. But it was really cool being in a newsroom environment like that.

Doreen Kolomechuk: And you were really a trailblazer. I mean, how did you have that background in social media at that time?

Katie Honan: I think they were just like, “You worked on the—I interned on the web desk,” and they were like, “Okay, well, she seems young.” You know, I think it’s something we all learn. I think that it’s intuitive and not that I was even that young, but I think that’s sort of what led to it. And yes, you know, now it’s like second nature that this would be part of it. But yes, I wanted to report, which was why I left, but it was great. I worked there during really big news events, you know, Hurricane Irene, Hurricane Sandy, a shooting—there was a shooting outside the Empire State Building, the Sandy Hook shooting, all these events. To be in a newsroom for that, you’re covering these awful things, but there is that newsroom environment that makes it exciting. You see how everything kind of—everyone kind of immediately gets into their roles and you see how quickly things can get up.

Doreen Kolomechuk: Yeah, it’s actually amazing that you’re able to do that. And I was also really impressed by the many awards that you have won, the Newswomen’s Club Nelly Bly Award, three Emmy Awards, the Edward R. Murrow Award. Can you give us a snapshot of some of the stories or projects that you worked on?

Katie Honan: Yes, so, you know, the Emmys in particular was sort of a collaborative within the newsroom, right? So, everyone who was there—and that’s those larger pieces. So, it was for the shooting at the Empire State Building and then for our coverage of Hurricane Sandy. That was for the Murrow Award as well. So, those were those stories, and it was sort of this kind of collaborative, like, who worked collaboratively on this. But for the Nelly Bly Award, you know, it was very significant for me because it was part of a big story, we did at the Wall Street Journal about COVID and New York State’s, New York City’s response. And to me, it felt really significant having experienced it, you know, I had COVID early on.

And just working, you know, I think I worked like three months straight, never taking a day off. I live very close to Elmhurst Hospital, so I really was personally in this epicenter, and I found the work we were doing as a journalist—kind of all the things that I spoke about earlier that made me want to be a journalist, like hopping on every day for press conferences with the mayor, you know, just asking questions like, “Why won’t you release data on where the cases are bad? Why don’t you have resources for some people?” It really felt like people were coming to me with questions and when you’re talking to people whose loved ones are dying in awful circumstances and all the circumstances surrounding that, it made the work just feel so much more important than stuff I did in February of 2020. You know, it really elevated the importance of it because it was life or death for many, many people, for thousands of people, and that’s what made it a significant kind of that reporting that we did. I thought that was special that we had that.

Doreen Kolomechuk: Absolutely, absolutely. What skills do you think one should focus on in order to be successful in this field?

Katie Honan: The one thing that people, you know, they don’t tell you this in journalism school, but your reputation is really important. And you could be the greatest journalist in the world, but I think newsrooms, and especially now that journalism is sort of shrinking a little bit, who you know—no one wants to work with a jerk, you know? Like, I think your reputation is really important. So that’s just more of a personality thing, like being respectful, not stealing people’s stories, helping out other people when you can. I’ve had—I’ve worked with jerks, and when people say, “Oh, this person’s looking for a job,” I’m straight up with them.

I think a curiosity about what you’re writing is important and a skepticism too because, again, in my work I have to ask elected officials a lot for information. If I took everything, they said at face value without saying, “Well, you’re saying this, but actually I looked up the data, and that contradicts it. Can you explain?” You need to have skepticism about what people are sharing and why, right? Even if—when I have sources come to me with information, even if it’s the greatest, juiciest bit of information, I have to take a step back and say like, “Okay, who is this person and why are they giving it to me? How could it benefit them?” If they, you know—it doesn’t mean you don’t do the story but being really mindful of who you’re getting information from and fairness as well. I think making sure people have enough time to comment, enough time to react and respond, those are important factors.  For me, it’s the curiosity I think that keeps you going, you know, especially if you’re covering a big place like New York City. You’d walk down the street and find something to write about. Talking to whomever, like I talk to people all the time, and they’re always giving me story ideas. So, I think that’s a really important trait.

Doreen Kolomechuk: Excellent. Now do you get to know these elected officials? There’s a fine line, because, you know, you don’t want them to be like, “No, I don’t want to talk with Katie.” You know?

Katie Honan: Yes, I mean, again, I feel like I’ve always been straightforward with people. Like, I never want to—I’m not tricking anybody. At the Wall Street Journal in particular, they had a real, like, no surprises journalism, which is, you know, giving people all the information, giving people enough time, like, “I’m going to write about this. This person said this about you. Do you want to respond?” And yes, I try to be pleasant with people. I think you need to, depending on who they are and their position, I think you can ask. You know, I even ask the mayor. I can ask him tough questions, but not in a way that’s necessarily super rude or something. Because it’s the importance of my question, not how I’m saying it. So you could say it without being unfair or rude.

You get to know people, and you know there are some people who I knew as district leaders, you know, in unpaid positions, who are now in some of the highest parts of the legislature—whether it’s the City Council or the Senate or the Assembly. So, you do, as you kind of move on in your career, get to know the elected officials.

Doreen Kolomechuk: That’s interesting too. So, it’s a lot of interpersonal skills and networking, I guess too, to get people to open up. I like the idea of a no surprise interview, giving people the time to respond. I think that’s really, really important. You know, not like, “I got you” type of interview, which some reporters like that.

Katie Honan: I think, yes, and I don’t—it’s not like I’m sharing questions ahead of time, but especially if it’s like I’m asking people for a comment, and also if it’s a daily story that isn’t major, you give people time. But if it’s a real long investigative piece where we have really serious allegations, we give people days, and we kind of lay out all the issues. So, it’s just the fair way to do it.

Doreen Kolomechuk: That’s really very interesting. It’s important. What about changes in technology? Changes in society and technology? How have they impacted the field?

Katie Honan: Yes, I mean, they really have now. I think with journalism, there’s a real fear of what AI will do, you know, replacing, whether it’s copy editors, the tasks that human beings used to have. I personally find—I think AI is something interesting to explore, of course. But you see these partnerships that newsrooms are doing. I graduated from grad school in 2010, which means I’ve seen now almost 14 years of the next big thing in journalism, right? “Oh, pivot to video.” “Oh, we’re going to do this.” The shift to social was, I think, destabilizing and understanding how to harness that and what to do with it. “Oh, we’re going to do different kinds of video. We’re going to do vertical video as opposed to horizontal video, because people are going to watch it on their phones.” All these changes, and it’s always trying to catch up. The one thing that’s remained in newsrooms are the people doing the work have some idea of what’s going on. Then there’s always these kind of higher-up bosses—not my current newsroom, but higher-up bosses who everyone’s looking for like a quick fix, big thing, you know? But I also feel strongly that at the end of the day, we need as many people with brains and critical thinking and interpersonal skills doing the job of journalism than just computers regurgitating stuff. So, there’s always that balance, and yes, I mean, the industry, again, in my 14 years, it’s getting smaller and smaller, and there are fewer and fewer jobs. So, it’s just different. And also, you know, what journalism has been looking at is different revenue models, which is what our nonprofit newsroom is looking at.

Doreen Kolomechuk: Well, so would you say that —I’ve heard from people as I’ve been doing these interviews that a lot of younger people are looking at news in different formats. They’re not really reading a newspaper, per se—they’re looking at news on TikTok?

Katie Honan: Yes, I also think there’s a concern about media literacy. People will tell me—I remember seeing a friend of a friend on Facebook complaining about—and he’s an adult, so —I don’t know what the excuse is—complaining that “God, MSNBC, it’s such bad journalism. It’s always just people’s opinions.” And I’m like, “Well, yes, because it’s an opinion! You know, that’s what they do.” People don’t understand, and I also find, whatever people believe in terms of, you know, whether it’s politics or issues, the news, it’s not just regurgitating what you want to hear back to you. You know, I’ve had people say, “Well, why did you ask that person to comment?” You know, just because they don’t personally agree with them. It’s like, that’s my obligation as a reporter. It’s facts. Obviously, you can never be fully objective because we all have our own thoughts and feelings, and that also informs what we report on, yes, to some degree, how we report on it.

Doreen Kolomechuk: So, do you see, let’s say someone who wants to be a journalist and is starting out now—where do you think they’d find the most job openings or possibilities?

Katie Honan: The method of starting at a smaller outlet and kind of working your way up to other outlets, that still exists to some degree. I do fear that what I see now in journalism is there’s almost like this chasm of entry-level jobs and the middle level, and then there’s higher level jobs. You know, you might work in journalism for three, four years, and then when you want to advance—there are fewer opportunities for when you want to advance. That’s the concern that I, that’s one of the concerns I’ve had. Sometimes people ask me like, “Oh, do you recommend grad school?” I had a wonderful opportunity in grad school at CUNY; you know, now it’s called the Newmark J-school—I still call it the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. It’s an affordable way to learn about journalism, but also to network and meet people. But I think, you know, if you’re in college, for that, internships—getting internships as soon as you can, wherever you go to school, it’s important if it is something you want to do. That is where you start building your networking and building your clips and actually meeting people. So that is important—but yes, it’s difficult. I don’t try to lie to people and say there’s an easy way. It’s a difficult industry but I think if you really do have a passion for what it is, I think staying true to that and figuring out, “Okay, I want to share information. I want to write articles. This is what interests me. These are the topics that interest me.” And then continuing to push to find places for it, but it’s not easy. I’m not going to pretend that it is.

Doreen Kolomechuk: Yes, it sounds challenging. And I also wanted to just talk about the networking aspect that you mentioned. Are there any professional associations that you’re a member of or would recommend that students or people interested in the field would look to or join?

Katie Honan: There are, you know. I, at the moment, I’m not currently involved in any. I think it’s maybe just, especially due to COVID, lack of membership. But I think within journalism, there’s a lot of opportunities, especially for fraternal kind of groups such as the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. They have conferences every year. This current weekend that we’re recording is the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference, which is for people with an investigative focus. They have an annual conference, and they always give opportunities to students.

The Society of Professional Journalism here in New York, the New York Press Club, the Deadline Club, these are all organizations that really help with networking, and they give scholarships to students, and they work to really assist students. There’s organizations for Asian journalists, for queer journalists. There are all these different kinds of organizations based on who you are that are really helpful because, you know, friends of mine who are in these organizations, these affinity groups, that’s how they network.

I have a friend who’s in NABJ; he’s been involved since we were, since he was in college. We went to grad school together. You know, it helped him get his current job. People know who you are, they know the work that you do, they know your character as a person, and then it’s very helpful.

Doreen Kolomechuk: Great! How do you keep current in your field? Are there any periodicals that you read, or do you do a lot of — you must do a lot of reading?

Katie Honan: Yes, in terms of what I’m doing, I’m not doing any advanced tech stuff, right? So, I don’t need to keep up to date on that, but I think for me, I’m always reading what my peers are writing, you know, and because I’m always on the hunt for stories, I’m reading city documents, city information to see what could potentially be a news story. But, yes, unfortunately, it’s sort of a bizarre platform now, and it has a weird owner and everything, but Twitter, you know, now what’s known as X, it is still for me the best way to keep in touch because I have my lists of people that I cover: elected officials, other reporters, organizations, city agencies, and seeing what’s going on that way.

Doreen Kolomechuk: Before we close, are there any tips or special words of advice that you would give to someone who’s eager to explore this field?

Katie Honan: You have to really love it, right? I also tell people you need to have something; you know, you can’t be too —this is going to sound weird, but I think you need to love the work you do, but you don’t have to necessarily like love the place you work because the job won’t love you back, right? In that, the job and the official place you work won’t love you back but at the same time, you need to love the work that you’re doing enough to keep doing it when it seems really hard.

There have been times I’ve been so kind of despondent, thinking like, “What’s the point?” Right? I’m writing all this stuff, or, you know, you have to be — you have to get ready for disappointment because I’ve written about people who have been doing objectively bad things, and they’re still in power; they’re still doing things. That can get really disheartening but at the same time, you have to just keep doing it.

I think that’s when befriending, I don’t think it’s a good idea to have all your friends be journalists, but it’s good to develop that level of friendship and, yes, the camaraderie because no one is going to get it more than the people who you do it with.

I think back to those first kind of four months of COVID. I didn’t want to talk to — like, you know, obviously I talked to my family, but I only wanted to talk to my other journalists, really, because who else could understand this feeling of like feeling isolated but like dialing in and trying to get information? Everyone was kind of covering, you know, sad story after sad story. So those are the people I wanted to talk and commiserate with because I found, you know, I guess we were — we were technically essential workers, right?

I would never in a million years consider myself on the level of a nurse or an EMT or a first responder in that regard, but we were on the front lines of something, right? Like, what we were covering, and I couldn’t turn it off. So I think a lot of friends who don’t work in the industry, they didn’t get why I was so emotionally affected by all of this, but my other — my colleagues did. So that is helpful.

Doreen Kolomechuk: So interesting. I never really thought of it from that perspective that a journalist would have that feeling of maybe disillusionment or, you know, just really sadness in terms of what they’re covering.

Katie Honan: I worked with a TV reporter years ago, and, you know, I think everyone has this idea of like, “Oh, I’m a tough reporter,” especially in TV. And I would say, like, “Are you supposed to get emotional about stuff?” She’s like, “Of course!” I think especially when I was a local reporter, like, you’re covering a teenager who got hit by a car and interviewing his family, or you know, interviewing people whose loved ones earlier that day were victims of gun violence. You have to be really mindful and aware of that, that you’re a person. I think to fully detach yourself emotionally actually makes you not a good journalist because at the end of the day, I have to connect with people to talk to them; I have to empathize with them or empathize with what they’re going through.

Especially going back to COVID, I would twice a day tweet out the death and then the sick numbers by borough, I had this thread going. And then I think at one point, I could check back, I forget exactly when; I just said, “I can’t do this anymore.” I was like seeing it go up and up and up. And it would be so — something just snapped in me where I said, “I can’t.” You know, I still covered it, but it was sort of — I just said, “I’m not going to tweet this out anymore.” It was just getting too much for me to do. Again, it wasn’t what people in hospitals felt or anything like that, but it was hard emotionally. And I think we all recognized that, and at least my colleagues and I, we were cognizant of it.

Doreen Kolomechuk: Absolutely. Well, I just want to say thank you very much for meeting with me today. I’ve learned so much, and thanks for sharing your knowledge, your insights, and for reporting and shedding light on things that we need to know about. It’s really a career I can see you’re very passionate about, and it really serves us as a society very well to have people like you in the field. And thanks again for interviewing with me today.

Katie Honan: Well, thank you for your kind words, and thanks for having me.

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Discovering Careers In Communications and Media Copyright © 2024 by Doreen Kolomechuk is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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