Diving Deep into Public Media

By Dean’s Intern Andrew Eversden at Current

Throughout the summer, I have been writing an enterprise story on public radio in Virginia. When I first embarked on the story, I didn’t realize it would lead me down a rabbit hole of Virginia budgets and deep into my editor’s archived notes from state funding controversies in the early 2000s. It turned into an incredible experience handling and organizing bundles of documents at once, and then using them as a foundation for a story. The experience of writing for a niche publication covering a topic I knew very little about has transformed me into a more resourceful and more diligent reporter.

My summer working for Current has been an incredible opportunity to explore the world of public media – a world much more complex than I would’ve ever imagined when I grew up listening to my local NPR station in Phoenix. The most challenging of reporting for a trade publication has been the amount of background research necessary to figure out how the industry operates. Fortunately, the editors are very helpful in explaining the intricacies of oversight and funding in public media, and on many occasions directed me toward helpful sources.

During my internship with Current, I dove into IRS tax forms and audit reports of various public radio stations, and in the process learned how these documents could be the beginning of a story. More than anything, I learned how passionate the #PubMedia world is about the service it provides diverse audiences and communities across the country.