Denise Hruby, Oral History Interview, 2023

Authors

You Li, Eastern Michigan University

Files

Streaming Media

Performer (Interviewee)

Denise Hruby

Interviewer

Dr. You Li

Geographic Location

Austria

Biography

Denise Hruby from Vienna, Austria, is an award-winning journalist, writer, and National Geographic Explorer focusing on the climate and biodiversity crises and politics. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic Magazine, The Washington Post, and CNN, among many others. She has won multiple international awards for environmental reporting and feature writing and numerous fellowships and grants. Throughout her career, Denise has reported from more than 25 countries, including the war in Ukraine, terror attacks in Austria, and conflicts in South Sudan among many other national and international events. Before relocating to Vienna in 2018, Denise worked in China and Southeast Asia as a reporter, editor, and newsroom manager for almost a decade.

In this interview, Hruby recalled the public reactions, the ground situation, and the reporting of the pandemic in Vienna, Austria. She contracted the virus early on and lost most of her freelance work due to travel restrictions. She switched from writing feature stories about the environment and climate change to covering breaking news on coronavirus and government responses. Besides enduring many hardships as a freelancer, she is concerned about the shifting public perception of the media after the pandemic and the deteriorating public trust in journalism in Austria.

Author Page

https://www.denisehruby.com/

Interview Date

5-18-2023

Subject

Austria, access restrictions, public distrust in the media, freelance journalist, job insecurity, misinformation/disinformation, harassment, gender disparity, contributions of women journalists, Eastern Michigan University Archives, pandemic, journalism, COVID-19, women in journalism

Publisher

Eastern Michigan University Archives

Digital Object File Type

mp3

Run Time

0:51:22

Rights

Copyright to the audio resource and its transcript, headshot, and stories is held by the content creator, author, artist, or other entity, and is provided here for educational purposes only. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any other format without written permission of the copyright owner, Eastern Michigan University Archives (lib_archives@emich.edu).

Recommended Citation

Li, You, "Denise Hruby, Oral History Interview, 2023" (2023). Collective Memory of Women Journalists in COVID-19. 12.
https://commons.emich.edu/cmwj/12