Health Beat Reporter

Job Description

Job Summary:
 
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.
 
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 WHRO’s 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.

Job Requirements

Required Skills/Abilities:

• Demonstrated written and/or verbal communication skills

Education:

• Bachelor’s 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

 
Physical Activities

• Remaining in a stationary position, often standing or sitting for prolonged periods.
• Moving about to accomplish tasks or moving from one worksite to another.
• Communicating with others to exchange information.
• Repeating motions that may include the wrists, hands and/or fingers.
• Operating motor vehicles.
• Assessing the accuracy, neatness and thoroughness of the work assigned.

Environmental Conditions

• Low temperatures.
• High temperatures.
• Outdoor elements such as precipitation and wind.
• Noisy environments.
• Hazardous conditions.

Physical Demands

• Sedentary work that primarily involves sitting/standing.

Disclaimer:
The above information on this description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification.  It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job. The employer reserves the right to change or modify the job description as business needs dictate. 

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