Hun kombinerer undersøgende og fortællende journalistik

Tidligere I år vandt Hannah Dreier en Pulitzer pris, og hen over sommeren skiftede hun job fra ProPublica til Washington Post. Indimellem sagde hun ja, tak til at komme på næste års spadestikskonference.

Pulitzer prisen fik hun for en serie om salvadoranske indvandrere og myndighedernes fejlslagne forsøg på nedkæmpe en ekstremt voldelige bande, som hærger Long Island i New York.

Hannah Dreier vandt Pulitzerprisen da hun stadig var på ProPublica, men fra september 2019 er hun på Washington Post, som anser hende for at være en landets bedste udøvere af fortællende journalistik. Hun arbejder som undersøgende journalist og fortæller her i et mail-interview på engelsk lidt mere om sit arbejde:

I’ve had the most success when I follow a single character through a dramatic situation to try to illuminate a larger structural story. It’s the difference between reporting that harsh immigration policies are undermining criminal investigations and telling the concrete story of a 17-year-old gang informant arrested by immigration enforcement and locked up with the same gang killers he was informing on.

I also find that requesting as many records are possible as early as possible can pay huge dividends months later, when you’re wrapping up a story. I trying to wrack my brain for anything I can request—from police reports to official government handbooks-- as early in the
process as I can...usually before the story has even been approved by my editors.

What keeps you going as an investigative reporter?
For me, the most satisfying feeling as an investigative reporter is having impact. When you see a policy corrected or a corrupt official ousted because of your reporting, it makes the long hours and tough calls feel very worthwhile.

How can small newsrooms in local media with fewer resources do investigations?
All newsrooms can do investigations, and with media shrinking overall, it’s more important than ever that everyone in a small newsroom be a watchdog reporter. Not everything needs to be a months-long project.
Small newsrooms can invest time in backgrounding local officials, and in demanding that local government and corporations increase and maintain transparency. I’ve also found that local officials are sometimes more brazen about things like misusing public money or engaging in nepotism, because they don’t think they’re going to get caught.

Her kan du finde de historier, som gav Hannah Dreier Pulitzer-prisen.

Bio
Hannah Dreier is a national reporter at The Washington Post. She writes features with a focus on narrative accountability reporting. Previously, she worked for the nonprofit investigative newsroom ProPublica, where she dug into how a botched crackdown on the gang MS-13 hurt immigrant
families on Long Island. That reporting won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing, a Hillman Prize, and a Robert F. Kennedy Award.

Previously, Dreier spent three years as the Associated Press correspondent in Venezuela. She told the story of the country’s unraveling from hospitals, ports and food lines. Her Venezuela
reporting won a Gerald Loeb Award, the Overseas Press Club Hal Boyle Award, and the James Foley Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism. She began her career as a metro reporter for the Bay Area News Group, which includes The Mercury News and East Bay Times, and later covered
politics and the business of gambling for the AP. A graduate of Wesleyan University, Dreier is fluent in Spanish and knows which casino games have the lowest house edge.