Jennifer Lewke ’05 helps people tell their stories
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PREPARING FOR AIR - Jennifer Lewke prepares to go on the air with anchor Rod Wood at News Channel 9 in Syracuse |
By JENNIFER LEWKE ’05
February, May, July and November… if you know anyone in the television business, don’t book a vacation, wedding, day trip or even a tee time during those months.
Sweeps, as they’re called, are kind of like finals…a lot of pressure to perform the best you can, and when it’s over you see how well you stack up against the competition. To the average viewer at home, these months are simply when the networks roll out all the new episodes of your favorite shows, but in local news you’ve got to come up with creative, interesting stories to tell to keep people tuned into your station.
I’m an investigative reporter at News Channel 9, the ABC affiliate in Syracuse, N.Y. My job is to find and tell stories people will care about, stories that affect them in their everyday lives.
I started working at the station I had grown up watching the day after I graduated from Pitt-Bradford in 2005. They say it’s “who you know” that gets your foot in the door and “what you know” that keeps it there. Assuming that’s true, I owe a lot to my advisor and mentor at Pitt-Bradford, Jeff Guterman. His communications graduates are working all over the country and, as luck would have it, Rich Jarrett, Pitt-Bradford Class of 1994, was working here in Syracuse the summer I was looking for an internship. Even a small college can make a big connection for you and your future.
As a reporter, I’ve covered just about every type of story you can imagine – fires, shootings, murders, layoffs, trials, severe weather, even the capture of Bucky Phillips. I got us there in record time since I knew exactly where we were going, right outside of Bradford. And while those stories are often exciting, I’ve found a passion in consumer reporting.
On an average day, I get dozens of phone calls and e-mails from people looking for help. Some have been ripped off by a business, others have fallen victim to a scam or need help determining whether an offer is legitimate. I research their story ideas, investigate the companies and people involved and often times put the pressure on to get results. My segment is called The Real Deal.
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TELLING YOUR STORIES - Jennifer Lewke is a consumer affairs reporter in Syracuse. Her segments on News Channel 9 is called "The Real Deal." |
Connecting with the people who you’re doing a story about is key to telling their story in a way that will matter to everyone watching it. One of my first big investigations was on a headstone company, preying on vulnerable customers who had just lost loved ones. The owner would take thousands of dollars from people and months, if not years, later they’d still be waiting for headstones. When I got my first call from a viewer this happened to, I gave the owner the benefit of the doubt, thinking maybe this guy has just fallen behind. He assured me he’d get the stone done and get it placed.
It was the second call though that showed just what this man and his company were up to. Lori Meade died of cancer in 2003. Two months before she passed, she paid Tri-County Memorials $3,000 for her own headstone. Three years later, it still hadn’t been placed; it was very difficult for her family to visit her grave because they felt her memory wasn’t being properly honored. It just doesn’t get much worse than that, and when we told Lori’s story we heard from more than two dozen others who were waiting on this company as well. I visited the showroom on several occasions, and as you can imagine when the owner was in front of a camera he became ashamed of the way he was doing business. He placed Lori’s stone and dozens of others before going out of business and leaving town.
Imagine selling the contents of your home at an estate auction. People paid thousands of dollars to the auction company to buy their belongings, but it’s been months since the sale and they don’t have a dime to show for it. It happened to a woman here in Syracuse named Carolyn Berry. She was owed more than $50,000. When she called the auction house, no one answered or bothered to return her messages. When she went to their showroom it was locked up and dark.
Panicked, Carolyn called News Channel 9, and we tracked down the owners who hand delivered her a check the very next day. Problem was, once we told Carolyn’s story, we got dozens of phone calls from people in the exact same situation with the same company. After several of our follow-up stories, the New York State Attorney General filed a lawsuit against the auction company and forced them to pay all their delinquent contracts.
One complaint from one person can become a story that affects hundreds if not thousands of people. Whether it’s an issue with a small business down the road or a battle with a major corporation on the other side of the country, it’s a great feeling when you, as a reporter, can successfully advocate for those who have had no luck doing it on their own.
If there’s one thing I learned at Pitt-Bradford it’s that everyone has something interesting about them. All you have to do is walk around and start a conversation with someone new, and oftentimes you’ll learn something you didn’t know. As a journalist, that’s how I’ve found my best and most rewarding stories.
I think about my four years at Pitt-Bradford every single day – how much I learned and the experiences I had there that helped shape my life today. I wouldn’t change a single thing about my time at Pitt-Bradford, not even the weather.
If you ask any of my friends, they’ll tell you how much I’ve always enjoyed telling a good story, now I just get paid for it. It’s November, which means we’re in the middle of sweeps. Time to get back to work.