Michael Indriolo is a multimedia journalist at Flint Beat, a digital publication in Flint, Michigan. Before this, Indriolo worked at The Land, a Cleveland-based nonprofit newsroom, spearheading coverage of Cleveland’s historic 2021 mayoral election and health equity. He began his career at The Portager, which serves Portage County, Ohio, investigating how calls for racial equity in the wake of George Floyd’s murder clashed with the status quo in rural northeast Ohio. Indriolo says that growing up the son of a Lebanese refugee and a parent born in a small town in America left him ethnically ambiguous while offering him unique insights into what being an American means, and if it weren’t for violence ripping through Lebanon in the ‘70s, most of his family wouldn’t be in America. That’s what he seeks to understand through journalism: how violence intersects with communities’ and individuals’ pursuits of the American dream.
Beat: Flint community coverage by a photojournalist
This hyperlocal news site experimented with visual storytelling in 2020, and has been nominated for three Emmys, winning one for video storytelling, and was recognized by the Michigan Press Association for our video and photography work. The photographer/videographer takes over the beat, showing the full texture of the Flint community.