Staff Q&As: Meet entertainment reporter Erin McCracken
To help you get to know our newsroom staff a bit better, a series of question-and-answer posts with each journalist will run on Mondays. This morning, meet entertainment reporter Erin McCracken. You’ve read her stories on the FlipSide blog and inside the FlipSide tab each week, not to mention FlipSide Weekend and the @flipsidepa Twitter account. If it’s FlipSide-related, she’s on it!
Name: Erin McCracken
Lives in: York
Hometown: Norristown, Pa.
Position at the YDR: Entertainment reporter
Years with the YDR: Four
Graduated from: Penn State
With a degree in: Journalism
Twitter: @flipsidepa
Facebook: facebook.com/flipsidepa
Email: emccracken@ydr.com
Whatever you’d like to tell us about yourself: Read more at flipsidepa.com and yorkblog.com/flipside.
1. What made you want to become a journalist? I think this became more true as I grew older: I’m a legacy. My grandfather worked his way from a paper boy to general manager of my hometown paper, The Times Herald.
2. How do you see journalism changing? There’s increasingly more to do each day. Social media has brought several more ways to reach readers, which is great, but maintaining those channels alone could be a full-time job.
3. What do you like most about your job? The least? Every person, from a local school teacher to a Hollywood star, has a story to tell. I like to be the one to tell those stories. The worst part of my job is that there usually isn’t enough time to spend on one subject or story.
4. It’s 9:30 a.m. on a day off. What are you doing? Sleeping or out for a run.
5. What’s been your favorite project or story recently? Why? The Poverty Series [Editor’s note: Available in its three parts here, under “Path From Poverty.”] since it took me out of my comfort zone and introduced me to stories I never would have thought to tell otherwise.
6. The drink that’s on your desk right now is: Water
7. Your favorite journalism-related blog you read or Twitter feed you follow: I read several entertainment blogs and tweets. I also read Romenesko. I’m usually depressed afterward.
8. What’s your favorite movie? Book? “His Girl Friday”; “The Great Gatsby”
9. What’s your favorite place in York County? Watching the sailboats float on Lake Marburg on a summer afternoon.
10. What’s one piece of newsroom jargon that had to be explained to you? Harris Newsmaker [Editor’s note: The software we use to write our stories and place our text and images on the page] has its own language. I’m semi-fluent.
Last week, we ran a Q&A with editorial page editor Scott Fisher. To read all of the staff Q&A interviews we’ve done so far, click on the “Staff Q&As” under “About us” at the top of the homepage.