2022 Australian Community Media Award winner for Best Use of Multimedia.

My name is Emma Marie Horn. I am an award-winning journalist, videographer, and digital producer.

I have worked with Australia’s largest media companies.

In June, 2021 I became the first video journalist at Australian Community Media (former Fairfax Media).

Since October 2022, I have been the executive producer for the company’s video team.

I have overseen the production of cinematic documentaries and in-depth, behind-the-headline style explainers for more than 140 masthead titles nationwide.

Our video offerings generate up to 4 million views each month.

In this role, I have also overseen the major migration of 30,000+ videos from one video hosting platform to another, spearheading the training of individual newsrooms as we onboarded each to the new system.

Print journalism experience

I began my time with Australian Community Media in May 2018 when I moved to Wagga Wagga, NSW to be a general duties reporter with The Daily Advertiser

As the only reporter tasked with producing Junee Southern Cross each week, I have had extensive experience covering hard and soft news. Everything from court, crime and police news, to sports, council and school news.

Junee is a town with a large privately-owned jail in the NSW Riverina. In the middle of 2019 it came to my attention that the small town did not have an active police force to protect its needs.

My advocation for the town’s safety prompted the Superintendent of the Riverina Police District to instate a permanent head-count of officers in the town.

Taking on the education round at The Daily Advertiser in August 2019, I have investigated and uncovered enormous injustices in the Catholic education system of Wagga Wagga.

My year-long investigation into the sudden disappearance of Kildare Catholic College principal Rod Whelan unearthed systematic problems in the school system.

The Daily Advertiser‘s coverage resulted in the resignation of several high-ranking officials, an independent inquiry and a full apology from the Archbishop of Canberra Goulburn for the unfair treatment of the former principal.

Digital production experience

In 2017, while working with Southern Cross Austereo (SCA), I was nominated for best non-metropolitan sales promotion in the Australian Commercial Radio Awards (ACRA).

Halfway through 2017, I left the digital producer role at Southern Cross Austereo’s regional radio stations 2GO and SeaFM Central Coast.

I took up the role of reporter, children’s contribution co-ordinator and producer at Australia’s only national newspaper for kids, Crinkling News.

Since it’s founding in April 2016, I have worked as a casual reporter with Crinkling News. I became its first, and youngest employee in June 2017.

Over 81 issues in two years, I have had more than 150 articles and photos published.

In the eight months to January 2018, I worked with a small team of journalists, designers, photographers and cartoonists to publish weekly news catering to readers aged eight to 14.

In November 2017, Crinkling News also hosted Australia’s first national kids’ media literacy conference, authored the first report on media literacy in Australian schools, been nominated for two and won one Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism.

In 2016 and 2017, I authored and taught the inaugural online media strategy classes at Macleay College, Sydney.

In 2015, I completed a Bachelor of Arts in Media & Communications, Archaeology and Art History at the University of Sydney.

With my archaeology qualifications, I have worked as a roaming reporter on archaeological digs throughout the Middle East and Mediterranean regions.

Between 2013 and 2016, I have worked as a photojournalist, reporter, newsreader, on-air and online producer for major newspapers and radio stations including Australia’s longest running student publication Honi Soit and Adelaide University’s sister publication On Dit.

I have interned as a shadow radio producer with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). During the 2016 federal election, I interned at the Newcastle Broadcasting Network (NBN) as the only researcher and political fact-checker in the key seats of Robertson and Dobel.