Likes to talk, loves to listen

Welcome, my name is Sydney Carruth and I am a driven  journalist dedicated to providing coverage that informs communities, holds leaders and institutions accountable and reflects diverse voices across all aspects of my reporting. With a passion for solutions journalism, accountability reporting and the watchdog function of the press, I strive to make journalism work for the communities it serves. I seek to provide the valuable context, insights and information that empowers audiences to better understand and contend with the complex social, political and economic issues they face in their communities and in the world around them. 

I have a depth of experience that spans local breaking news to political fact-checking to reporting on lawmakers and fiscal policy from Capitol Hill. I have covered everything from the Arizona 2022 midterm elections to the Supreme Court strikedown of the Biden Administration’s student loan forgiveness plan to Super Bowl LVII and more. I am just as comfortable writing enterprise-length feature stories as I am reporting on changes in economic trends and breaking news from the field. With an advanced understanding of digital audience analytics and the news ecosystem, I have honed my ability to see the story that will engage audiences and deliver answers to their most pressing questions. My work has been published by over 15 local news outlets across Arizona. 

Originally from Saipan, the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands in the western Pacific, I grew up in a small community where the local newspaper acted as the only reliable safeguard against corruption in public institutions. When the local paper suffered, so did civic engagement, public systems, social cohesion and the island at large. Having witnessed first-hand the detriment that comes at the loss of local news, I developed a passion for its ability to protect the public and transform communities for the better. 

Since then, I have covered breaking news for The Arizona Republic/azcentral.com, part of the USA Today network, where I provided rapid coverage of high impact local news with a focus on audience engagement and service driven reporting. I also had the opportunity to write feature stories that highlighted the diverse voices of Arizona. 

I spent the summer of 2023 reporting for the Washington, D.C. Bureau of Cronkite News, a product of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, where I focused on localizing complex national economic trends for an Arizona readership, explaining how federal monetary and fiscal policy decisions impact consumer finance at the state and local level. That work included reporting on topics that ranged from the end of the pandemic-era moratorium on student loan payments to the national rise in anti-ESG legislation to Federal Reserve interest rate hikes, the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. 

During my undergraduate career, I studied political science as a means of supporting my journalistic capabilities. That knowledge has equipped me with a deep understanding of political institutions, electoral processes and public policy at the local, state and federal level. It has empowered me to draw analytical connections between the political, economic, legislative and social forces that shape current events and the communities who must contend with them. 

With the understanding that journalism is only as effective as it is reflective of the communities it represents, I placed an emphasized focus on studying and understanding digital audience analytics. I am certified in Google Analytics 4, Google Ads and Stukent Digital Marketing. In the same vein, I participated in the New Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism where I researched innovative emerging methods for multimedia storytelling and news dissemination in a rapidly changing media landscape. I am experienced with Search Engine Optimization, insight-driven decision making and the Adobe Creative Suite. 

In August of 2023, I graduated from The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University with a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication and from the School of Politics and Global Studies at ASU with a B.A. in Political Science. I am currently based in Washington, D.C. and actively searching for a role that will allow me to use my journalistic and storytelling skills to cover America’s diverse communities and the policies, power players and institutions that shape the crises they face.