Prabjot Randhawa
By Marilyn Ferdinand, Conversations: Spring 2019
“It felt like jumping into a pool where you’re just overwhelmed with sensations,” says TV investigative journalist Prabjot “PJ” Randhawa (CMN MA ’11) of how she felt when she was announced as the winner of a MidAmerica regional Emmy Award in the health and science category.
“I was told it takes several years of being nominated to win, and I only had one nomination. So I really didn’t expect to be called on stage,” she says.
But her report on prescription drug errors for NBC affiliate KSDK in St. Louis impressed Emmy voters and viewers alike. The scope and dangers of the problem caught Randhawa and her team’s attention, and interviews with pharmacists confirmed that they were being pressured to fill more prescriptions an hour or be replaced with pharmacists who would.
“We were able to find a man who was struggling with lung cancer, and he was given the wrong prescription. He almost died, and there are so many people out there like this,” she says. “They’re given a settlement and forced to sign a nondisclosure agreement, so we don’t hear about it.”
Investigative Reporter for KSDK News Channel 5
MA Communication 2011
The value of investigative journalism is its ability to shine a light on hidden problems and make the public aware that they may need to take action. Sometimes these reports get the attention of investigating agencies and legislators, but sometimes the findings go nowhere. When that happens, Randhawa says, “it’s the worst feeling in the world.” Still, she says, “It’s the daily, little successes that keep you going—getting somebody their money back or making a business change its policy.”
Indeed, people who have been taken advantage of often turn to their local TV news station for help. “It is something that we can do that not many people, not many other fields and professionals, have the power to do,” she explains.
“I didn’t plan on going into journalism to be in front of the camera, but then I got to DePaul, and I just had a lot of encouragement.”
Randhawa is a Canadian Sikh whose parents, Sukhdev and Kuljinder Randhawa, immigrated to Winnipeg from India almost 50 years ago. She ended up in Chicago because her sister was a doctor at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center. “My parents didn’t want me to live in the U.S. by myself.”
After excelling as an undergraduate at Northeastern Illinois University, Randhawa decided to pursue her master’s in journalism at DePaul. “I got a lot of encouragement from my mother, who wanted me to be the next Oprah,” Randhawa says, but first she would have to overcome her shyness. “I didn’t plan on going into journalism to be in front of the camera, but then I got to DePaul, and I just had a lot of encouragement. Once I was representing an issue, telling a story, the shyness went away—because it wasn’t about me.”
