Reflection: At IowaWatch.org, bold journalism from a cramped ‘newsroom’

(This post is an adaptation of a nomination letter written for The Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism)

As an IowaWatch.org reporter, I’m in a tight spot each day – literally.  Tucked inside the third floor of Adler Journalism Building on campus at the University of Iowa, our 135-square-foot newsroom (if we can call it a newsroom) doubles as an office for Prof. Stephen J. Berry, our founder and interim executive director-editor.  That cramped space symbolizes the challenging state of affairs of an organization that must reconcile the need for financial survival with a mission to act as Iowa’s watchdog.

Although we are very small, with meager resources, no legal help and a very green reporting staff, we have not shied away from taking on any subject – no matter how controversial – if it meets the definition of news that people need to know.