Working in Community Journalism

Zachary Whittle
Aug 31, 2018 · 5 min read

Georgia College graduate Brandon Bush adjusts to his new life after school while putting his degree to good use.

When Brandon Bush was in the seventh grade a football coach at the school approached him and convinced the tall, 215-pound kid to try out for the school’s team. From then on, he fell in love with sports. As high school approached, he only got bigger and got into other sports such as weight lifting, track and field, and wrestling. He attended high school at John Milledge Academy in Milledgeville. During his senior year of high school, he had no idea what career path he wanted to pursue but he wanted to stay around sports. He always enjoyed writing so he decided to pursue a career as a sports journalist. I got to talk to Bush about his job and how his life is going after graduating from college.

Bush attended Georgia College from 2013–2016, joined Pi Kappa Phi and graduated with a Bachelors of Arts from in Mass Communication. After graduation, Bush worked many side jobs away from reporting until he found a job. He currently works with The Eatonton Messenger, located in Eatonton, mainly as a sports reporter.


Journalism Questions

First I asked Bush who owned the Eatonton Messenger and if he was the only sports reporter for the Eatonton Messenger or if he had help.

“For the Eatonton Messenger, yes I am the only sports reporter but our company, Smith Communications, who owns us, Lake Oconee News, and the Baldwin Bulletin will usually send editor Justin Hubbard to help when needed like if we have multiple sporting events on the same day. Usually though, it is just me,” Bush said.

Despite the fact that he always reads his work and checks it, the Messenger has an editor that proofreads everything before it is published. “I look at all my stuff before I send it to him, but what we usually do is print on Tuesday, and we print out every page and they are called dummies but it’s basically a rough draft of a newspaper page and he looks at that and decides if it’s good to go,” Bush explains.

I then asked him how he got the job at the Eatonton Messenger.

“During my senior year at GC, I got an internship with the Baldwin Bulletin because it was a requirement for us to graduate. When I graduated I wasn’t really doing anything at the time and I had found that the owners of the Bulletin bought the Messenger. So I applied and they needed a sports reporter so it worked out,” Bush said.

I asked him also if he gets to travel free with the local teams. He explained that he covers Putnam County High School and gets to travel with the team. He tells me all the travel expenses are covered. Bush says that the team has to travel up to 3–4 hours. He also said “Putnam county has a ridiculous region. Last year I had to go to Rabun County, which is in the north Georgia, Tennessee area. That was a hike, but it was cool and it has turned into my favorite part of the job because I’ve gotten to see many of cool places.”

When I asked Bush if he has considered writing outside of sports, I was surprised that he had already done these things. Bush said he got to cover a local music store, which was fun for him since he loves music. Bush explained to me that he got to do a profile on new businesses. “ I’ve done a few none sports stories when they needed me. There was a new restaurant that had been opened up by retired police officers and bar that opened up so I got to talk one of the owners. That was cool, and they gave me free beer. You know how much I like beer.”

Bush said he would love to get away from sports one day and report on music. He would also like an opportunity to freelance and see what he can make out of that. Music has been a passion of his, as he plays the bass guitar.

“If there is anything I can do besides sports journalism, it would be music journalism. I’ve been playing the bass almost 10 years now and I love rock and metal,” Bush said.

Bush playing bass

One thing I’ve always wanted to ask a journalist was how they applied what they learned in school to their job. he said he took many classes such as how to write AP style, how to write a news story, and how to conduct interviews. He then gives me an example. “I keep a notepad on me and take notes. I also take pictures. Starting out I was bad at taking notes, I took to many if that makes any sense. My writing has evolved, because at first I was heavy on play by play things. As I got more experienced, I learned what parts are actually newsworthy,” Bush said. He explains that he rarely talks to high school students after games. High schoolers aren’t prepared for the media. Instead he talks to the coaches.

I then showed Bush the principles of Journalism from our textbook. He says he remembers learning about these and the principles still apply. He says that the paper revolves around the citizens and their goal is to make the community informed and content. He also goes into all his work as an unbiased source.

Finally, I asked Bush if the company is going well since print is dying out and we, as a society, are getting more technologically advanced. “Our company is doing ok, we aren’t corporate media, and we don’t have a huge entity above us. Smith Communications is more of a family business. They have been a company for years. I don’t know the details, but we’ve been having tariffs on newsprint lately and this has been harming our industry. Again, I don’t know all the details. We do have a website where you can view our stories on,” Bush said.

Bush is looking forward to this upcoming football season as he says it is the best time of the year.



Full Interview
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