Holly Basta

I attribute my success to a couple of things. First, I've always been a risk taker, but when I went to American University, they really instilled in us the ethics of journalism and the ethics of media. With all that background, the ethics was very heavily emphasized at American University's journalism program. I feel confident in taking a little bit of risks when I know it's been vetted and it's going to benefit the community. I do report on stories that probably other reporters wouldn't touch because I know that the impact it's having in our community is very tangible. Stepping into my own thing, where I can report on stories that other local stations sometimes cannot report on because of their corporate advertisers or affiliations and partnerships with other entities, I have the freedom to decide what stories are going to run. I can report on topics that might be uncomfortable for other places and other outlets. We are making an impact in the community in a number of ways, from increasing safety to increasing awareness. We're definitely breaking boundaries in a lot of ways and making information accessible to underserved communities.

If you're going to pursue a career in media and journalism, it has to be because that's who you are and that's what you want to do. You can't go into news and journalism wanting to be an influencer. You could become an influencer by doing media and by doing the news, but your mindset is, how am I going to report this story? Am I going to get it straight? Am I going to get it vetted? I've got to meet my deadline. Those are the things that really matter. People who do news, they don't go into news expecting to make a lot of money, because usually that's not the case. You go into it because you want to make a difference, you want to make an impact. It's who you are, it's what you do.

You can't be afraid to speak. You can't be afraid to speak the truth. You cannot be afraid when you use your voice to communicate. There's going to be a lot of people that might not want you to do that for different reasons, and you can't be afraid. You have to stand strong. I understand it can be really scary and frightening when you have people that are coming at you from all sides, online, typing horrible words, saying things that are just should not be said at all. You have to have a very thick skin to do this. You have to keep your voice up, and you have to keep it loud and consistent. Find a community which empowers women, and have role models. There's nothing that you cannot achieve when you put your mind to it. There's nothing that you cannot do when you work towards it. It may not come easy, it may not come fast, but if you work towards it, it will come. I absolutely believe in empowering others, and I have trained a number of young female journalists over the years who have gone on to do exactly what I'm doing.

Ethics is very important to me. It was very heavily emphasized at American University's journalism program, and it can be very easy to get caught up in some of the things that people don't like the media for, but I feel confident in my ethical foundation. Community impact is absolutely important to me. I live and work in the community that I report on, so it matters to me when someone comes to me and says they didn't know about a story and they're going to take action because of it. People recognize me and say, thank you so much for doing everything that you're doing, we really need you to keep doing this, don't stop. It just lets you know that what you're doing has value. I want to keep having that community impact. I want to continue to spark conversations that need to be had within our community over really important topics. Safety is my number one priority. We want people to stay safe, whether it's storm coverage, health-related issues, or serious police situations. I also like to try to make sure that we're providing information to underserved communities about all types of news. We represent everyone, we're reporting for everyone. We give a voice for the first responders who can't express anything about the calls that they're on or working.