Life as a reporter, 34 years later

The Brookings Institute released a series of blogs with video from Senior Fellow Stephen Hess’ numerous interviews with journalists, including one featuring Boston University alumna Nina Totenberg (Hon. ’11). In the interview, Totenberg talks about how the 1960 presidential election drew her into journalism, saying, “I realized I could be a witness to history.”

Thirty-four years after surveying 450 Washington reporters in 1978, Hess set out to find what happened to them, and records the findings in his latest book Whatever Happened to the Washington Reporters.

Though Totenberg did not graduate, she has received countless honorary degrees recognition for her journalistic work, including one from BU in 2011. Totenberg has led a storied career, with a job as National Public Radio’s award-winning legal affairs correspondent.

In his book, Hess tracks down 90 percent of the original 450 reporters and interviews 283, producing the first comprehensive study of career patterns in American journalism.