Emma Benson
Emma is a morning news anchor and multimedia journalist at Local News 8.
A native of Salt Lake City, Utah, Emma has also lived in Ephraim, Utah and Buena Vista, Virginia. She also spent a year and a half in Cambodia and is fluent in the Khmer language.
Emma is passionate about learning and trying new things, traveling and exploring new places and cultures, and sharing stories that deserve to be heard.
She graduated from Brigham Young University in April 2021 with a degree in journalism. While at BYU, she worked as a reporter for the student newspaper, The Daily Universe, where she covered a variety of topics and events and garnered various awards from the College Media Association and the National Newspaper Association.
While at BYU, she also worked as a reporter, anchor, and producer for Newsline, an award-winning student-produced newscast. During her time there, she created a documentary about reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic which won third place in the TV News Magazine category of the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) awards.
She also served as secretary and social media specialist for BYU’s chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and represented her university at national and regional SPJ conferences.
Emma spent a semester in New York City studying media and religion. During her last semester, she worked with a team of professors and students to create a series of modules about media literacy to be used online and in classroom settings. She also conducted interviews with journalism professors for a “Behind the News” video series.
Emma completed an internship with The Borgen Project, a nonprofit based in Seattle that fights global poverty. She also interned for the Liahona Magazine as a writer/editor.
In her free time, she enjoys playing tennis or pickleball, traveling, playing the harp and guitar and eating chocolate.
Reach out to Emma with any story ideas, restaurant recommendations, or suggestions for fun things to do in the area! You can follow Emma on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
