FRISCO, TEXAS – A man by the name of Jordan P. Hickey lives in Ark.; he’s an award-winning freelance journalist, who has worked with numerous media outlets and magazines, including but not limited to D Magazine, Arkansas Advocate, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and The Washington Post, writing captivating stories focused on human interest and other topics.
As a 2009 graduate from the University of Missouri at Columbia majoring in journalism, Hickey has had an extensive 15-year career affording him opportunities to work with different publications in New York, South America, Chicago, Colo., and Springfield, Mo., eventually landing him in the role of freelance journalist after Covid-19 shut down newspapers and revenue streams trickled dry.
Hickey now works as a freelance journalist based out of Northwest Ark., writing pieces focused on agriculture and development in the region, getting the chance to talk to farmers and people from many different walks of life.
One article he wrote became the focal point of our conversation. Published in D Magazine, his article is about a Plano Senior High alumni named Minh Nyugen, part of the Class of 2005, who’s on a quest around the U.S. to reconnect with former classmates. Hickey was one of his former classmates and shared more about the behind-the-scenes that went into the creation of his article.
“So Minh Nguyen and I went to the same elementary and middle school together. We really had not kept in touch at all, so I was kind of surprised to hear from him. And he sends me this note saying that he’s doing this project in which he’s trying to reconnect with all these different people from high school and middle school and elementary school,” he said.
That was the moment when Hickey knew he had struck gold with this story idea. He moved onto interviewing former classmates for the article and, interviewing at least 12 former classmates, finding other sources to aid in the writing process.
“I also took a trip down there to visit with him and spent some time tracking down materials from an old elementary school teacher [in Plano]… So, that really kind of formed sort of like the heart of a lot of the reporting in this story,” he said.
As with the creation of any newspaper article, not all sources make the final cut. Hickey shared some of his favorite moments in the interviewing process that couldn’t make it to the final draft.
“Minh had a copy of his autobiography that he had written when he was in elementary school… You can actually read like this 30 page book that he had written himself talking about, ‘How do I feel about my siblings?’ ‘How do I feel about the future?’ That sort of formed the base of [the reporting],” he shared.
Throughout the interview process, Hickey learned many interesting things about Minh, giving him time to reflect on how the current Minh has drastically changed from the Minh he knew all those years ago.
“Minh has created this incredible community of Pokemon Go folks around Frisco, and I talked with somebody, who had kind of been there with him through a lot of the growth of that group. It was so interesting to hear the way in which Minh, when he was younger… He was a really quiet kid. He could be very funny, but, you kind of had to be listening… He wasn’t the life of the party kind of person,” Hickey said. “It was really interesting to hear how, as he got older, he sort of had a really incredible knack for community building.”
As a journalist who’s spent a significant time in the industry, Hickey had many thoughts to share about what got him interested in journalism and what he enjoys the most about the industry.
“I’ve always really enjoyed writing, and when I realized that I could do that as a living and people would just talk with me and share their stories, and I could also do something for the public good. That’s kind of what drew me to it,” he said.“One of the things I’ve really enjoyed the most about journalism is the breadth of people that I’ve gotten to meet just over the years that like I probably would have never interacted with.”
Hickey expanded upon how personal interviews with subjects can get. “I think when you’re interviewing somebody, it’s like you have to maintain that relationship between yourself and the subject. I think there is still sort of this intimacy, that comes about where it’s like, you might have people telling you stories that they’ve never even told their own family. I think there’s a really tremendous privilege and responsibility in that… [and] I’d have a hard time imagin[ing] not doing [this work],” he said.
Along with sharing about some more intimate moments he’s had with interview subjects, Hickey gave some perspective about the industry based off his own experience as an intern at a magazine in Philadelphia following the aftermath of the 2008 U.S. financial crisis.
“The industry right now is at a really interesting place. You have layoffs and you have funding kind of disappearing. So it’s really easy to fall into this mindset that’s almost like doom and gloom, worrying about the fourth estate and what’s going to happen to the press and all these different things, and this is just like a little bit of my perspective… but… the internship that I had in 2008 was at a magazine in Philadelphia, and I remember at the time I had some of these editors who were telling me like, ‘don’t go into journalism because everything is going to collapse’, and ‘it’s not going to work’,” he said.
Hickey also talked more about how social media has drastically changed the industry.
“The advent of social media and all these different things have proven some business models for media that used to work no longer do, but at the same time, if you look at some of the really incredible work that’s being done by like the nonprofit journalism world, whether that’s [The] Texas Tribune or ProPublica or all these different like hyper local nonprofit journalism outlets all around the country, the work is still happening. It’s just happening in a different way,” Hickey said.
He also shared some advice to aspiring journalist about useful tools and skills for aspiring journalists.
“I think AI… as much as it comes with a lot of complications and it’s problematic in its own way… AI really is a tremendous tool for journalists. I think it’s going to continue to become an increasingly more important one, and.. empathy is really important [as well]… being able to listen to somebody, like really try to understand where they’re coming from and their perspective.”
In our more than a half-hour long conversation, one last piece of advice for aspiring journalists about reaching out to other writers stood out the most.
“I think there’s a lot of willingness to give time and to help people out, that kind of thing… Worst comes to worst, someone doesn’t write back, which, I also had that happen too, but the people who I did reach out to, I ended up getting some really incredible advice and mentorship from those people, and [that] wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t just shot them an email,” Hickey said.
If you’re interested in checking out more of Jordan P. Hickey’s work you can find links to all his published works on his website.
