Karen Brentlinger was not "born a journalist."
"I jumped at the opportunity to delve into my small world on a larger level," Brentlinger said. "I wanted to give something worth sharing to the community."
It wasn't a feeling of civic duty or ambition that led Brentlinger to journalism, rather, a love of writing and humor.
"I saw the local paper as a little too serious, like it took itself too seriously. I wanted to write a humor column," Brentlinger said.
The Pike County Journal-Reporter reaches just 15% of Pike County's 17,000 residents. As a small-time reporter, Brentlinger feels mostly unrestricted in her writing. As long as she covers the Williamson, GA city council meetings that make up her regular beat, Brentlinger is free to cover other stories she feels most important.
"My favorite articles to write are human interest stories," Brentlinger said. "Those type of stories can at once draw us together and broaden our world."
As a small newspaperwoman, Brentlinger does not see any modern threats to the structure of her community paper. Blogging and community journalism have not yet become a major influence in the largely rural, farming community Brentlinger covers. The focus is more on connecting the community and serving its residents.
"I once had a reader from Atlanta track me down, call me, and tell me that an article I had written changed the way she looked at the world," Brentlinger said. "She said that it had changed her life."
Brentlinger sees journalism as a place where honest, principled individuals will always have an outlet to report the world as they see it. Such a role is seen as a great burden to Brentlinger.
"There is great power in the written word, and, as Spidey says, with great power comes great responsibility," Brentlinger said.
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