Health Beat Reporter

WHRO Public Media; Norfolk (VA); On-site; USD 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

WHRO Public Media in Virginia Beach/Norfolk area is seeking a Health Beat Reporter to cover health as a local industry, science, policy, and human interest story. You will explore hospital systems, public health programs, and communities facing health disparities, reporting daily and pursuing enterprise features.

The role emphasizes collaboration with editors and local partners, with flexible story ideas around policy changes and community impact, and opportunities to contribute to statewide

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or 4 years equivalent experience.
• Minimum 4 years of demonstrated experience in professional journalism.
• Experience in audio field reporting and production.

Responsibilities

• File regular daily and long-form news which includes digital and broadcast components.
• Engage with the Hampton Roads community to build sources and trust within your assigned beat to ensure a full accounting of the stories.
• Maintain detailed knowledge of assigned beat at a local, state and national level to find enterprise story topics and break local news within the beat.
• Research large quantities of information on one topic and distill it into meaningful, understandable takeaways.
• Work closely with an editor, hosts and other colleagues to determine editorial priorities, share ideas and provide accurate, timely engaging health news to WHROs audience.
• Contextualize and humanize reporting by seeking out a diverse range of local people to center health stories.
• Participate in station events as appropriate.
• Ensure all reporting meets the WHRO expectations of accuracy, independence and fairness.
• Have an interest in and talent for engaging with diverse communities.
• Lead occasional training and/or listening sessions for the newsroom.
• Available to work varied shifts as required by the news cycle.
• Pitch big projects, series and investigations.
• Other duties as assigned.

Skills

Written communication

Verbal communication

Community engagement

Education

Bachelor's degree or 4 years equivalent experience

Job description

The Health Beat Reporter will cover health for Hampton Roads, digging into the topic as a major local industry, a science, tackling consumer protection themes all while keeping human stories at the center of their work.

WHRO's health reporter will think of health as a business, science, government policy and human interest topic, sometimes all at once. The ideal candidate will look for stories in Hampton Roads' numerous hospital systems, emerging public health education programs and in the communities who are living with longstanding health disparities.

The health reporter's primary responsibility is to look for daily stories to document major changes in the local health and health care landscape while pursuing long-term feature stories of interest to the regional community.

The ideal reporter will look for story ideas before major health policy changes and in some cases, uncover and document challenges that may inspire change in the health world. To that end, the reporter may collaborate with the Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO to bring Hampton Roads story to a larger statewide audience with more reporting and sources.

All beat reporters will be expected to produce several daily stories a week and regular enterprise stories.

Supervisory Responsibilities

• N/A

Duties/Responsibilities

• File regular daily and long-form news which includes digital and broadcast components
• Engage with the Hampton Roads community to build sources and trust within your assigned beat to ensure a full accounting of the stories
• Maintain detailed knowledge of assigned beat at a local, state and national level to find enterprise story topics and break local news within the beat
• Research large quantities of information on one topic and distill it into meaningful, understandable takeaways
• Work closely with an editor, hosts and other colleagues to determine editorial priorities, share ideas and provide accurate, timely engaging health news to WHROs audience
• Contextualize and humanize reporting by seeking out a diverse range of local people to center health stories
• Participate in station events as appropriate.
• Ensure all reporting meets the WHRO expectations of accuracy, independence and fairness.
• Have an interest in and talent for engaging with diverse communities
• Lead occasional training and/or listening sessions for the newsroom
• Available to work varied shifts as required by the news cycle
• Pitch big projects, series and investigations
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Required Skills/Abilities

• Demonstrated written and/or verbal communication skills

Education

• Bachelors degree or 4 years equivalent experience

Experience

• Minimum 4 years of demonstrated experience in professional journalism
• Experience in newsroom, preferably local or regional
• Experience in audio field reporting and production

Additional Preferred Skills

• Visual journalism including still photography and videography
• Knowledge of Adobe Audition audio editing software
• Fluency in more than one language
• Data visualization skills
• Knowledge of the Hampton Roads, VA region