About the Author – Jennifer Nehrer
Who am I?
My name is Jennifer Nehrer and (at the time of this project) I am a senior studying journalism at the University of Southern California. During my senior year, I am an intern at NBC Los Angeles and a reporter with Annenberg Media’s Investigations Team. Over the summer, I was an intern with the NBC News Digital Platforms Team, where I assisted editors with ensuring NBC News’ stories are appropriately visible online and in the app.
Before NBC, I was a freelance writer with the Times Media Group, which publishes material for 30 local newspapers in Southern California and Arizona. I covered LA City Hall, political rallies and matters as well as feature stories on residents in Los Angeles and Arizona.
At school, I spent five semesters with our campus newspaper, The Daily Trojan. I joined as a Breaking News Writer before becoming an Assistant News Editor, News Editor, News Assignments Editor and finally Data Editor.
I have also worked with The Student Press Report, Poynter, the Student Press Law Center, LA TACO, The Fulcrum, The News Media Alliance and Decode Democracy.
To see my full bio and body of work, go to my website.
Why this Capstone Topic?
Local news has been my passion since I lost my local paper, the Northwest Current, in 2019. After joining the News Media Alliance as an intern in 2020, I began researching the Local News Crisis and found many disturbing connections to other real-world problems such as misinformation and disinformation in the United States. In 2022, I made this the focus of my high school senior thesis project, an 18-page research paper and awareness campaign around the issue.
When I got to college, my interest didn’t fade. I wrote multiple articles on the crisis and still followed developments in the field. It seemed only fit to make my college thesis about the same thing, this time devoting my energy to local news in the state that had been my second home for the last four years.
