Reporting and Storytelling

Hi! My name is Meghan Kearney, and I’m a junior majoring in English and Psychology. I’m interning in Walla Walla at the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin as a reporter.

The Walla Walla Union-Bulletin is a local newspaper. There are reporters who cover crime, business, education, and more. I’m a general reporter. Each day, I will walk downtown to the newsroom and work on writing projects or attend all-staff meetings, which include the other reporters, the photographer, and two editors. I also reach out and interview multiple people per week.

My editor will send me to cover general events including 4th of July in the Park, Norah Jones’ Concert, and Juneteenth Jubilee. I also go out on my own and find stories to write about. I typically search for people to write Community Q&A pieces about. I have interviewed the executive chef at Walla Walla Steak Co., the lead groundskeeper at Mountain View Cemetery, and the lifeguard managers at Veterans Memorial Pool. I’ve learned a lot about these different jobs and experiences. I especially loved learning about the cemetery, as there is so much history there.

I’m currently working on an article about tours that are offered by the cemetery. They consist of teaching people about the history of the town and the lives of those who are buried there. There are many graves from the 1800s, when Walla Walla was the wild west. There are vigilantes, outlaws, and madams buried at the cemetery, all who have had a significant impact on the city.

This internship has helped to strengthen my writing skills and overall confidence, especially because much of my work depends on approaching strangers and interviewing them. This has also strengthened my skills in being a better listener and asking specific and coherent questions.

My goal with this internship was to challenge myself as a writer and to bring me one step closer to figuring out what I want to do post-graduation. The Walla Walla Union-Bulletin has helped me accomplish both goals. Through academics, I have only written in AP style a couple times and never written a story or written piece in a journalistic style before since there are no journalism courses at Whitman. I was looking forward to expanding my writing skills as an English major to a journalistic style. I now feel very confident in that writing style. I understand when to use certain types of leads, and when the news needs to be directly told to audiences vs. when it can be written more creatively. I also have enjoyed reporting enough to know that if I pursued a career in journalism, I would be happy.