Technology and energy reporter Mariah Franklin of the Knoxville News in Tennessee spoke with business growth and development editor Ryan Wilusz about her job.
Here is an excerpt:
Ryan: And that’s one of the most interesting and complicated things about your beat; you’re dealing with big government, big business and sometimes the combination of the two, whether that’s through public-private partnerships or an entity like TVA that is self-funded but still federal.
Mariah: I think most good reporting starts with a conversation. … The best way to go about getting more familiar with a topic is to reach out to one of the experts, and there are a lot of those in Oak Ridge and in East Tennessee, generally, many of whom are really willing to boil down complex science for people who aren’t very familiar with topics like fusion and fission and nuclear, generally. I was really lucky because Knox News has been a leader in TVA coverage and the leader of Oak Ridge coverage for decades now, so I had a wealth of material to fall back on in terms of archive coverage. Also, in terms of relationship building, a lot of that work was done when I got here. People are willing to trust Knox News. And since I’m representing Knox News, a lot of people were willing to trust me.
Read more here.
