The Boyle Heights Beat team is looking for a college level student reporter to join our team! To apply email resume
Boyle Heights Beat Reporter Position
The Boyle Heights Beat is looking for a college student reporter to start in late May or early June to fulfill daily reporting tasks and web and social media posting. The position may continue through the school year. The anticipated time commitment is 7 hours a week but may be adjusted.
What is Boyle Heights Beat?
The Beat is a bilingual community news project produced by high school youth and community-based contributors, offering “noticias por y para la comunidad,” or “news by and for the community.” The Beat is a collaborative project of USC Annenberg’s Center for Health Journalism and Hoy L.A. Boyle Heights Beat offers a unique brand of community journalism, built around neighborhood meetings that youth reporters lead each quarter to solicit ideas and hear concerns. The New York Times hailed Boyle Heights Beat for serving “an ever greater need” for immigrant communities to have their stories heard. The Columbia Journalism Review praised its unique brand of community journalism, lauding its youth-led community meetings, which give residents a chance to help set the news agenda.
Job Responsibilities
- Staying up-to-date with the latest current events about Boyle Heights by reading other local media outlets, attending events etc.
- Scanning breaking news in Boyle Heights or affecting Boyle Heights residents (e.g. immigration policy)
- Investigating news leads/tips
- Contacting, interviewing and researching sources
- Reporting and writing news stories for the Beat’s website with the reader’s perspective in mind
- Writing proficiently and on deadline
- Taking photos
- Posting news stories to the website (Wordpress)
- Adhering to journalism ethics
Job Requirements
- Work experience as a reporter
- Portfolio of published articles or newscasts
- Ability to gather, write and edit news stories and write headlines
- Computer proficiency (MS Office, digital editing, web search, databases)
- Excellent communication and active listening skills
- Mastery of grammar rules and AP style and excellent spelling
- Scrupulous attention to fact-checking
- Integrity
- Understanding of best practices for Twitter and Facebook posting
- Wordpress knowledge a plus
- Bilingual in English and Spanish preferred
The ideal candidate will be familiar with Boyle Heights, as well as the issues affecting the LA Eastside community, such as immigration policy and high housing costs. Must have a keen ability to recognize important news events and quickly turn around a short post (200-300 words). Passion about community engagement is a plus.
