Journalists like MacKenzie Elmer (BA 2012) are watchdogs. They tirelessly watch each branch of government to make sure officials perform their jobs correctly and fairly. They spend their evenings at hours-long city council or school board meetings. They pore over police reports or court documents. And why?
They do it on behalf of citizens. Because of journalists like Elmer, who writes for the Des Moines Register, citizens of Des Moines don’t have to devote their time to combing through public records or sitting through committee meetings. They can go about their lives and still live informed.
Elmer writes about the city of Des Moines for the Register, covering metro and county government. She previously covered breaking news, jumping in the car at a moment’s notice to follow a fire or shooting.
One such instance came in November, when two Des Moines Police Department officers were tragically shot. Confusion broke out as others on the police force worked to find the shooter. Elmer had just switched from covering breaking news to city news, so the story was outside her required area. But instincts won over.
“I couldn’t help myself – I turned on the police scanner,” she said, and when she located officers pursuing the shooter in Redfield, Iowa, she jumped in her car and sped off, alerting the newsroom on the road. She reported the story for the Register and attended the officers' funerals.
Before coming to the Register, she worked at the Burlington Hawk Eye, the Associated Press and the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, where she won two investigative journalism awards for a series on mental health.
Her thirst for investigative reporting, though, began during her time at the School of Journalism & Mass Communication, which she described as a “fantastic” experience. Also indispensable was her work writing long-form investigative pieces for the Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism – IowaWatch.org, working under the mentorship of professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning former reporter Stephen J. Berry.
At IowaWatch, she spent a month following a graduate student who had AIDS. He allowed her into his home and doctor’s appointments, sharing with her the intimate truths about life with AIDS.
“I’m always humbled when people invite me into their lives and personally share,” she said. “That is truly something that I cherish and remember as I’m moving through my career.”
Elmer went on to write a story on an HIV criminal law that many considered draconian and stigmatizing toward those with HIV/AIDS.
“Eventually the law was changed,” she said. “I contributed to that coverage, and it felt good to see that change happen.”
But long before IowaWatch, Elmer wanted to be a journalist, even when she was a child growing up in Appleton, Wisc.
“I loved the idea of covering corruption or keeping a watchful eye on leaders,” she said. “As a middle child, I guess I’m a professional tattletale.”
Now, as an adult, she sees investigative reporting as her journalistic purpose, and aims to incorporate that mindset in all her reporting.
She aims to change the public’s perception of journalism, and she has already begun this work with regular visits to Southeast Polk Middle School, where she talks about what journalists do.
“The only way the person on the street knows what the lawmaker is doing is by reading it in their paper or online,” she said. “When a change affects them positively or negatively, we’re the deliverer of that information. Journalism is a huge component of the democratic process.”