The Trumpet Editor-in-Chief, Annalise Murphy, is branching out from her usual hilltop reporting and has chosen a platform of her own to publish a new genre of news: crime reporting.

At a young age, Murphy has shown interest in the justice system which is a testament to her double major in journalism and criminal justice (CJ). By combining these interests for a criminal justice internship, Murphy settled on “Local Crimes Explained”, a crime reporting blog found on Substack.

When prompted with why viewers should subscribe to her future crime reports on the biographical section of Substack, Murphy stated “By subscribing to my blog, you’re helping me make my dreams a reality and get insight into the crimes happening right here in our hometowns.”

“Local Crimes Explained” was officially published over a month ago and Murphy has been hard at work since the start of its launch. Murphy plans to make her first post available in the coming days to give her viewers an idea of what they can expect.

Unlike most crime reports published online, “Local Crimes Explained” was designed with the intent of helping people better understand the content of these documents. “I hope a general audience understands the crime happening around the valley. Sometimes, we see crime reports with a bunch of information that isn’t easily understandable. I am hoping to use my knowledge as a CJ major to help simplify some of the reports,” said Murphy.

As a current intern at WTRF-7, Murphy explained that she hopes to draw inspiration from the reports that come through the station but has hopes of expanding on the topic of crime in later posts to cover crime rates in the Ohio Valley compared to national crime rates in addition to 2020 Wheeling, W.Va. crime reports versus the 2021 crime reports. Murphy elaborated on this by saying that people can expect to see a variety of crimes around the Ohio Valley.

While this may be a blog, Murphy does not plan to follow the traditional genre of opinion-based pieces. Unlike other blogs, she plans to use her journalism and reporting skills to post reports true to their story. Her goal is to inform readers and keep them updated on the crimes taking place around them.

After previously creating a blog about writing and editing for the web, titled “Becoming a Better Editor” on Substack, Murphy ultimately chose this platform because “it just made sense” for her to revisit a program that she was comfortable and familiar with.

Being a junior at West Liberty University, Murphy hopes to use “Local Crimes Explained” to launch her career in reporting. “I love reporting and I eventually want to use my CJ degree to become a crime reporter.” Through her experience with multimedia journalism and reporting, she hopes to one day get involved in investigative journalism.

To subscribe to “Local Crimes Explained”, visit this link and sign up to Murphy’s subscription list so all future posts go directly to your email inbox.