Journalist Danielle Prokop, a Los Alamos High School alumna, speaks to the League of Women Voters. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Danielle Prokop’s parents Mark and Doris Prokop were on hand to hear her presentation to the League of Women Voter of Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
A large crowd gathered to hear journalist Danielle Prokop at the October League of Women Voters Lunch with a Leader event at the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
LWV OBSERVER CORPS NEWS
Source NM journalist Danielle Prokop, who grew up in Los Alamos, greeted her parents and some of her former teachers and thanked the League of Women Voters for its work as a civic organization. She gave an impassioned talk about what journalism means in this time.
Prokop told the group that her career started in Albuquerque when she worked on the UNM student newspaper, the Daily Lobo. There, she “got radicalized and learned what was important about journalism: compassion taking confusing or purposely obscure things and translating them for the public, and making a difference.” Prokop remarked on the value of college newspapers in training journalists, serving as a place to make mistakes and develop thinking skills. She also said that journalism is a very stressful job. Journalists are in the top 10 at risk for suicide! The burnout is real.
The most challenging aspect of journalism right now is that “there are not enough people to do it and there are not enough people who want it to be done.” There are more layoffs for journalists than for coal miners because many local newspapers have “shuttered.” Instead of being sources for local news, there are “ghost newspapers” like the one in Ruidoso where no one has worked since 2019, but which continues to function, making money from legal announcements and ads.
Journalism is changing because information is power, so people are working to dismantle
libraries, civic organizations, NGOs, newspapers. Large companies are controlling the media, obscuring information, and spinning stories.
“We need structural change to deal with the content that sucks our time and attention,” she said.
Prokop said there is a direct correlation between the amount of corruption in small towns and a
town’s lack of a newspaper, giving as an example a midwestern town where more candidates started running for office when journalists began reporting on life there. One cannot address the solutions without knowing about the issues. “Having information empowers you to participate in civic life.”
Prokop is employed by States Newsroom, which started in 2022 covering capital statehouses, and is now “the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.” Many of her stories are published in Source New Mexico, and her work, covering state government and the environment, has been featured in more than 200 papers in the U.S. and Mexico.
She especially enjoys writing about the Rio Grande. She traveled 700 miles along the river to report on the struggles surrounding it and the communities that rely on it. She is also very interested in writing about the climate and health impacts on New Mexicans.
“New Mexico is on the bleeding edge of climate change, one of the fastest warming states in the contiguous 48,” she said.
Prokop said that “we the public must hold the people in power accountable.” She asks that we
continue to work together to get people to want to live in a society that will be better for them, to help to demand that we live in a fact-based world.
Editor’s note: Danielle Prokop is a Los Alamos High School alumna.