Marta Hill is a fourth-year journalism major at Northeastern University in Boston. She has served as an editor for her college paper, the Huntington News, for more than two and a half years, including a full year as editor-in-chief. While in that role, Marta worked as a general assignment reporter at Boston.com, the Boston Globe's regional news site. She also has worked for NASA as a communications intern. Prior to college, she was the editor-in-chief of her high school paper, won Minnesota Journalist of the Year and was a runner up in the national Journalist of the Year competition in 2020.
You can read some of her works here:
https://huntnewsnu.com/66604/campus/northeastern-prepares-for-a-more-normal-fall-semester/
Why did you choose to pursue a career in journalism?
At its heart, journalism is about learning more new things every day and then crafting stories to share those new things. I love that experience from start to finish. To me, a career in journalism is a career that cultivates curiosity about the world we live in and allows me to explore the areas that strike my fancy. I also think storytelling can be an incredibly powerful tool and I love that part of journalism.
Do you have any role models in the journalism field that you look up to? (Could be a woman, doesn't have to be)
Not really -- it changes all the time for me.
How do you feel women are represented in your area of reporting? How do you think the business challenges facing the news industry have impacted the representation of women in your field?
In my reporting experience so far, women have been very well represented. Journalism schools are typically very heavily female, and that has definitley been my experience. My classes and student-run publication have both been heavily heavily female. Even when I was working for a professional news organization, I was lucky enough to have several strong female reporters to look up to. I know, however, that that is not the case in many newsrooms. I think the business challenges news organizations have faced are likely exacerbating the gender divide, but I don't know that for sure.
In your opinion, what are the advantages of having more women in journalism?
Frankly, journalists report on issues affecting everyone and half the people are women so it only makes sense to also have female journalists. Women reporters will bring different ideas and perspectives to the table, just like they do in every field under the sun. If the structure that generates news and information for people is dominated by one group, it will undoubtedly leave out people in its coverage (this also applies to other forms of diversity).
How do you feel women are represented in your area of reporting? How do you think the business challenges facing the news industry have impacted the representation of women in your field?
In my reporting experience so far, women have been very well represented. Journalism schools are typically very heavily female, and that has definitley been my experience. My classes and student-run publication have both been heavily heavily female. Even when I was working for a professional news organization, I was lucky enough to have several strong female reporters to look up to. I know, however, that that is not the case in many newsrooms. I think the business challenges news organizations have faced are likely exacerbating the gender divide, but I don't know that for sure.
Have you ever had an experience where you felt that being a woman in the journalism field set you apart from your male peers?
There were times during my internship that sources would make comments about me being a young woman, and I don't think those comments would have been made in that tone to college men. Beyond that I haven't felt too strongly any effects of my gender in any part of my reporting, but again most of my experience is in the journalism school bubble.
What do you hope for the next generation of young women entering the journalism field? What are your hopes for them? What would you like that space to be like?
I hope that it continues improving as it has been. Sure, there are plenty of bad or uncomfortable situations out there, whether it be in a newsroom or out in the field, but there are also plenty of supportive, wonderful communities ready to welcome young women into the field. It is incredibly important for young women to voice their ideas, concerns and thoughts. It can be intimidating to enter a newsroom regardless of any gender dynamics, but speaking up will get you so far. (The same goes for any young journalist, I just think women have more of a tendency to keep quiet.) I hope newsrooms continue focusing on what they can do to be more welcoming to all types of diversity. No one is perfect, but we can move that direction.