James Costa is a journalist with The Citizen and the recipient of the 2024 Schiavon Cadetship.

In 2022, James was part of a Citizen reporting team whose story on pollution in Melbourne’s western suburbs was co-published by The Age and later awarded the 2022 Democracy’s Watchdogs prize for student investigative journalism.

Previously, James worked at the Public Interest Journalism Initiative, conducting research on the Australian media landscape, as well as at Biotech Daily, as deputy editor.