Emily Enfinger: the Indiana Jones of journalism

Taylor Blackwell
Aug 31, 2018 · 4 min read

Writing from her car in a parking lot, Emily Enfinger listens to the police scanner for an interesting lead while finalizing another story with her camera in the passenger seat ready for the action.

Emily Enfinger always has a camera on her.

I had the privilege of discussing the journalism and multimedia field with Emily Enfinger. As we spoke, our similar backgrounds and aspirations began to dominate the conversation while discussing specific court cases.

Our conversation started with how she became interested in journalism and crime. She told me about how she was a true crime fanatic way before she considered journalism, for it all began with watching “Law and Order” as a child. Enfinger took this passion for crime with her to college. She said, “Even in college, a lot of my art projects were very true crime based. Then as I started working for the student newspaper and responding to breaking news, I just got a taste of it then.”

This is Enfinger when she worked for the student newspaper at Auburn University.

Enfinger is a journalist with diverse skills, for she is the staff photographer and crime and court reporter for Opelika-Auburn News, and she has her own website. Her mixed skill set is inspired by her infatuation and aspiration to be like Indiana Jones, for she said, “He is a man of many talents, and I think that is very important in journalism today because journalists are now tasked with doing everything, so they need to be a person of many hats that can just pack up and go and do everything they need by themselves.”

This is a demonstration of how different Enfinger’s assignments can be.

Q: What role has social media and citizens of the community played in your reporting?

A: I get tips all the time, especially at my last job; that’s pretty much how I got my news stories. People would be like, “Oh, there’s a train crash,” so I would go out and see. I don’t automatically run a tip because you never know people’s intention, so you have to look into it. Social media is great. People communicate with me through that. They’ll even text me if they see a heavy policy presence, so I can go to that. Being able to have that connection with the community where they trust you to find out this information for them is great. We’re here for the community just as much as they’re here for us. Having a relationship with the police department, especially if you’re doing crime reporting, is very important as well.

How does Emily fact check and make sure her sources are credible?

Enfinger and I discussed the topic of credibility versus objectivity, transparency and ethics. She mentioned that her paper thrives on being accurate and thorough. Enfinger herself tries to be as transparent as possible, for she said, “I want people to be able to trust me.”

Enfinger told me that her co-workers and her all share the same mission, and that is making sure what you publish is honest and having good sources, and it was even emphasized in her job interview. The reasoning is that they have a responsibility to the readers to keep them informed on issues.

Q: How has your creative photography approach impacted your writing? Does it bring anything to the formulaic style of crime reporting?

This is an example of one of her story telling photos.

A: A picture can tell a thousand words. Even if I’m not able to express all of that in my copy that I write, if I’m able to get that winning shot at some event, the people can experience it a little more or better understand the situation. It helps complete the package. What I have learned in my background of art is that it helps me see the world differently, and it makes for better quality storytelling.

At one point in the interview, I asked her how she keeps her stories intriguing but still relevant. She laughed and told me that crime is interesting already. She gave me an example of a trial she went to a few days ago for a man who robbed two Dollar Generals of about 800 packs of cigarettes.

Q: What is the most important lesson you have learned over the years?

A: Even when you think you know something, check it again. Do not be too hard on yourself when you make mistakes. It happens. You just have to learn from it, own your mistake and keep going.

When the tough questions about sources and relevancy were over, we discussed what she loves most about her job. Enfinger said, “I like how it is different every day. There will be days I start off in court and end up walking through a ditch full of water to get a story. You never know where it’s going to take you. There’s a lot of surprises.”

When the phone call ended, she was leaving the court house covering a fraud case and was making her way to the local high school football game to fulfill her other position as staff photographer.

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