Reaching a Childhood Dream

Ever since she was a child, Amanda Keane knew one thing about her career: she wanted to be on TV. After graduating from RWU's journalism program and working for the last two years as an on-air reporter, Keane got her wish, and so much more.

“I didn’t know what it meant to be a journalist until I got to Roger Williams,” Keane says. She learned that it's more than the fun of being on TV, because there is great responsibility that comes with being a reporter.

For example, she’s charged with bringing facts to her viewers so they can make informed decisions on issues that could impact their lives. She’s also charged with sharing the stories of everyday people or organizations trying to make a difference in the community. It's a role Keane learned all about during courses and projects at RWU that taught her that being a reporter is powerful and rewarding. “You can affect change,” she says.

Though still early in her career, Keane has found great success so far. While a student, Keane was a live-reporter for Hawk the Vote, the university's student-run election coverage site, during the 2014 gubernatorial elections in Rhode Island where she got the opportunity to do a one-on-one interview with then-candidate Gina Raimondo. That experience prepared Keane to cover the 2016 presidential election for WAGM-TV in Bangor, Maine, where she worked after graduation. There she interviewed former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

Currently, Keane covers local news and sports for Western Mass News. She hopes to break into sports broadcasting one day. This is one of her recent stories; it focuses on athletes coming together for Houston after Hurricane Harvey.