National Correspondent/Adjunct Professor
Freelance/Georgetown University
Jonathan Franklin is a multi-award-winning journalist that has been reporting and covering a broad spectrum of local and national news for the last decade. He is currently a national correspondent based in Washington, D.C. Most recently, he was a correspondent for National Public Radio covering race, culture, justice, and identity.
While at NPR, Jonathan was at the forefront of reporting on some of the most significant national stories to break over the last year, including 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.
He is also a frequent contributor to The Right Time with Bomani Jones podcast.
Before 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.
He began his journalism career as a news fellow and freelance journalist for WDCW. Jonathan has also reported in Baltimore, Maryland, and Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina.
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.
Whether he’s in the field, behind a mic, in front of the camera, or writing for the web, Jonathan brings a thoughtful, narrative-first approach to his storytelling. His reporting has been instrumental in enacting legislative changes and has been cited in lawsuits that resulted in meaningful societal shifts.
A native of Columbia, S.C., Jonathan graduated Summa Cum Laude from Georgetown University with a master’s in journalism (with an emphasis in broadcast and digital journalism) and Cum Laude from Wofford College with undergraduate degrees in English/Digital Media and African/African-American Studies.
Jonathan is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., both the National and Washington Associations of Black Journalists, Online News Association, and the Society of Professional Journalists.
From Grassroots to Fandom: How Hyper-Engaged Audiences and AI Are Reshaping Political Journalism
Monday, March 30, 2026
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM CT