Jonathan Franklin is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist specializing in digital and broadcast news.

Hey there! 👋🏾 I’m Jonathan. I’m an award-winning reporter for National Public Radio (NPR), where I cover race and its intersection with culture, identity, and justice.

For the last several years, I’ve been reporting and covering a broad spectrum of local and national news across Baltimore, the nation's capital, and the United States.

I’ve been at the forefront of reporting on some of the most significant national stories to break during my time at NPR, including the death of Tyre Nichols by Memphis, Tenn. police, the Tops Supermarket mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., the Waukesha, Wis., Christmas parade attack, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

My reporting can be seen and heard on NPR’s digital, social, and audio platforms, including All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Up First, Consider This, and NPR News Now.

I also frequently contribute to WSE’s The Right Time with Bomani Jones podcast.

Before NPR, I spent two years as a digital multimedia journalist for WUSA9, the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C., where I covered the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the Black community, D.C.’s racial protests and demonstrations following the murder of George Floyd, the 2020 presidential election, and the January 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol. (Yes, I know – it was a lot.)

My journalism career began as a news fellow at WDCW in Washington, D.C., which provided me with the opportunity to freelance for them after my fellowship concluded.

If you’ve seen, read, or heard my work, it is filled with engaging leads, videos, live reports, and insightful anecdotes that put the focus on the people and communities at the heart of the stories I tell. Outside the newsroom, I serve as an adjunct professor and capstone advisor for Georgetown University's master's program in journalism.

Originally from Columbia, South Carolina, I hold a master's degree in journalism from Georgetown University, with a focus on broadcast and digital journalism. I also have undergraduate degrees in both English and African American Studies from Wofford College.

I’m a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., both the National and Washington Associations of Black Journalists, the Online News Association, The National Press Club, and the Society of Professional Journalists.

Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly known as Twitter) for all things news and life!