Journalist Ben Jodway officially joined The Buckeye Flame’s newsroom via Report for America (RFA) on July 8, and will cover rural LGBTQ+ communities across the state.
We sat down with the Michigan native – the first known beat reporter in the nation to cover rural LGBTQ+ communities full-time – to learn more about his writing, his life and his hopes for the future of the beat.
H.L. Comeriato: You moved here to work with us at The Buckeye Flame. That’s kind of a big deal! Tell us a little about where you’re from.
Ben Jodway: I grew up mostly in Livonia, Michigan, which is a suburb of Detroit. It was a pretty blue collar area, but I was born at a time when it was kind of switching over. By then, Ford and GM had left the area.
My mom was from the big Polish, Catholic-heavy neighborhood, and I grew up going to Catholic elementary and middle school.
Then I went to Central Michigan University (CMU) in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. It’s in the middle of nowhere, but I had a great experience. CM Life was the first student paper I worked for. I didn’t work on huge projects or anything, but there were some student journalists there that did some great stuff.
I majored in journalism originally, but I switched to history midway through. Then I was at WCMU Public Media for a while, and that’s where I heard about Report for America.
Yeah! You came to us at The Buckeye Flame through a non-profit journalism organization called Report for American (RFA). Tell us about becoming an RFA corps member.
I had some friends in RFA and they said it was great.
I kept an eye out for [applications], but I ended up getting hired right out of college [covering education] at the Midland Daily News.
When I finally [applied to become an RFA corps member], my top choices were The Buckeye Flame and the Door County Knock – which is a fantastic newspaper name.
I always wanted to try living in a bigger city; I’m LGBTQ+ and The Buckeye Flame is an LGBTQ+ non-profit. It was ticking all the boxes. Now I’m here and loving Cleveland so far!
Tell me a little about your writing and storytelling styles. I know you mentioned you write fiction, too.
Originally, I started writing fiction in middle school and high school. It’s nothing I would ever show to anyone, but that’s when I knew I’d love to do something with writing.
Then I read “Generation Kill” by Evan Wright, and I was like, “Oh my God. You can do what I want to do with writing, with journalism.” That was very eye-opening.
Wright was a Rolling Stone Magazine reporter and had a more magazine-like writing style than newspaper, obviously. But it’s the sense of storytelling, the foresight that book has. I thought that was so amazing.
That’s what really turned me onto journalism. I felt like I could use my storytelling as something that could help people, so I started to get really into grassroots journalism.
I listened to a lot of Popular Front. I love [British journalist] Jake Hanrahan’s work. I love Propublica – and just really non-profit, grassroots journalism in general.
We believe you are the first and only beat reporter in the country to cover rural LGBTQ+ communities. How does that feel?
It’s very exciting! At the same time, it’s terrifying because no one has ever done this before.
I want to start [the beat] in a way that will hopefully lay a foundation for people who are way better than me to jump off. That being said, I also want to write great stories that help the community, shine a light on them and also just keep them informed with everything happening.
Going in, what do you want our readers to know about you or your storytelling?
I just want my stories to help people to feel connected and have a bit more empathy.
I really think the internet can keep people further apart. I think – I hope – my stories will give people a sense of community that is rapidly disappearing. 🔥
ignite action
- To submit a rural Ohio LGBTQ+ story for coverage consideration, click here.
- To support Ben’s work at The Buckeye Flame, please please consider making a monthly gift. These funds go directly towards supporting our writers!
- Ben Jodway covers rural LGBTQ+ Ohio for The Buckeye Flame via Report for American (RFA). To learn more about RFA, click here.
- To read Ben’s reporting via the Midland Daily News, click here.
- To follow Ben on Twitter, click here.
- To follow Ben’s work via The Spark (our free weekly newsletter), click here.
Know an LGBTQ+ Ohio story we should cover? TELL US!
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