The Fourth Estate Fund was founded with the support of Beth Crookham, a performing artist, philanthropist, and longtime supporter of public media in southeastern North Carolina.
Crookham's generous founding donation supports WHQR's ability to deliver in-depth reporting on key issues, from the environment to the criminal justice system to the protection of free and fair elections. It also supports WHQR to showcase new and diverse voices in journalism — and develop a regional pipeline for the next generation of journalists.
Projects funded by the Fourth Estate Fund
"Try to stay positive." The lives of our homeless neighbors in downtown Wilmington
For several months, WHQR has been following the lives of homeless individuals in Wilmington. All have faced significant challenges, but many of them work together to stay safe, and share information about how to get by. Here are some of their stories.
Rising Waters: A series focusing on the changing climate's impact on North Carolina's coast
Featuring reporting from veteran climate and environment reporter David Boraks, "Rising Waters" looks at a range of issues, from coastal properties falling into the ocean, to the rising cost of stabilizing North Carolina beaches, to the increasing frequency of high-tide flooding.
Freelance reporting and photography
The Fourth Estate Fund allows us to bring great photojournalism and reporting from around the state to southeastern North Carolina. The following pieces were supported or made possible in part by the Fund.
- ReBuild NC promised to help hurricane victims. Over five years later, the program is on "pause"
- The Dive: Farewell to the Longtime Home of Wilmington’s Black Press
Emerging journalists
The Fourth Estate Fund helps WHQR support the next generation of journalists, including reporters working with student newspapers and freelancers looking to put their skills to use in a market that can be confusing and challenging. We're always looking for the next great journalist, and are always happy if we can say we helped them get one of their first meaningful bylines.
Hannah Markov — We met Hannah Markov as a senior at UNCW, majoring in criminology and minoring in Spanish. She formerly served as the editor-in-chief of the university's independent student newspaper, The Seahawk, where she received the 2023 Student Media Award for Public Service
- Twenty years ago, two murders shook UNCW’s campus and changed the approach to student safety
- PBS documentary bringing the history of Wilmington's coup and massacre to a broader audience
Ana Johnson — We met Ana Johnson as a freelance writer, based in Wilmington, North Carolina. Recently, she graduated from Kennesaw State University with a degree in Journalism and Emerging Media. She is attracted to covering issues such as mental health, local history, communities of color, public health, and the performing arts
What's next?
We're constantly talking about the next story or project we can tackle with the help of the Fourth Estate Fund. Some of these conversations take a long time and aren't quite ready to be shared yet, but we do have a few irons in the fire we can share right now:
- CAFOs — We're partnering with David Boraks again on another series, this time looking at concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. There's a lot to unpack, from the political context to the environmental impact. We'll be producing a three-part series with Boraks with both digital and radio reporting.
Transportation issues — We're working with Andrés Otero, a transportation planning professional who runs a substack about urbanism and transportation — Andy Talks Urbanism. Otero is looking a couple of state and local transportation issues, including making urban areas friendlier for bicyclists and pedestrians, and — further down the line — checking in on some long-term plans for upgrading rail travel in North Carolina.
About the importance of 'The Fourth Estate,' from Stanford University's 'Journalism in the Digital Age':
Journalism has long been regarded as an important force in government, so vital to the functioning of a democracy that it has been portrayed as an integral component of democracy itself. In 1841, Thomas Carlyle wrote, “Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all.”
The fact of the matter is that democracy requires informed citizens. No governing body can be expected to operate well without knowledge of the issues on which it is to rule, and rule by the people entails that the people should be informed. In a representative democracy, the role of the press is twofold: it both informs citizens and sets up a feedback loop between the government and voters. The press makes the actions of the government known to the public, and voters who disapprove of current trends in policy can take corrective action in the next election. Without the press, the feedback loop is broken and the government is no longer accountable to the people. The press is therefore of the utmost importance in a representative democracy.
Another, related, function of the press is to expose people to opinions contrary to their own. This function is perhaps the most valuable in the Internet age; while people can in theory get information about the actions of their government from online sources, it is all too easy to find opinions online that match one’s own. Informed decision-making on the part of voters requires an awareness of multiple points of view, which is not likely to be obtained if voters bear the sole responsibility of seeking out information on relevant issues. The news media provide a forum for debates to take place, as well as moderating and curating the arguments presented by all sides.