Jonathan Franklin is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist specializing in digital and broadcast news.
Jonathan Franklin is a reporter for National Public Radio (NPR) where he covers race and its intersection with culture, identity, and justice.
For the last few years, Jonathan has been reporting and covering a broad spectrum of local and national news across the nation's capital and the U.S.
Jonathan has been at the forefront of reporting on some of the most significant national stories to break during his 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.
Jonathan’s reporting can be seen and heard across NPR’s digital, social, and audio platforms — such as All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Code Switch, and NPR News Now.
He is also a frequent contributor to ESPN’s The Right Time with Bomani Jones podcast.
Prior to NPR, Jonathan served as a digital multimedia journalist for WUSA9, the CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C., where he 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.
You can quickly scan for Jonathan’s byline and find hundreds of breaking news and feature stories filled with engaging ledes, videos, and live reporting along with well-calibrated anecdotes that center the individuals and communities in service of the journalism he’s pursuing.
Jonathan began his journalism career as a news fellow and freelance journalist for WDCW in Washington, D.C.
A native of Columbia, S.C., Jonathan graduated from Georgetown University with a master’s in journalism, with an emphasis in broadcast and digital journalism, and from Wofford College with undergraduate degrees in both English and African American Studies.
Jonathan is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., both the National and Washington Associations of Black Journalists, the Online News Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists.