Reporter

It is 1973, and a young man is still unsure whether journalism is the career he wants. He takes a job at a newspaper in Indiana, where his first assignments are death notices. Over time he is trusted with heavier beats: police calls, labor walkouts by local teachers, courtroom coverage of killings, and disasters that strike the surrounding community.

The newsroom is a place of rivalries and office maneuvering, and he has to learn to move through it. His gruff, old-school city editor is slow to trust him, and winning that trust takes time. Outside the office, he sings and plays with a rock band, and along the way he falls in love.

Eventually he must decide between a life of music and a life of reporting. The answer becomes clear after he files a front-page article about a tryout for a position at the Detroit Free Press.