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By Ron Nixon, The Associated Press
In 1895, journalist Ida B. Wells dropped a bombshell investigation into the lynching of African Americans across the nation.
Using data she gathered from accounts in white newspapers — she said no one would believe her otherwise — “The Red Record” showed lynchings were not in response to rape of white women by black men, but often because the relationships were consensual. The lynchings also were used to remove economic competition from blacks, Wells found.
Similarly, during World War I, W.E.B. Du Bois received leaked documents from a source showing the American government had instructed the French to treat blacks the same way they were treated at home.
Later, in 1925, Charlotta Bass revealed in The California Eagle newspaper that the Ku Klux Klan not only infiltrated a local California police department, but also had several black ministers on its payroll.
Although each of these early investigations broke news important to communities of color, none appeared in a mainstream news outlet.
Throughout American history, white-owned media organizations have covered issues of race and discrimination. But when it came to their own hiring practices, they largely reflected society as a whole.
Few, if any, media organizations had people of color on staff in the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s as they tried to cover civil rights struggles and other issues related to race.
That would change in the aftermath of civil unrest in several major cities in the mid-to-late ’60s. Most mainstream media organizations were caught off guard. Few, if any, had reporters with sources or familiarity with the communities of color affected.
President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with members of the National Newspaper Publishers Association in March 1965. Courtesy LBJ Library, Photo by Cecil Stoughton
A panel put together by President Lyndon B. Johnson called the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, commonly known as the Kerner Commission, pointed to widespread racism and discrimination as key factors in the unrest that erupted. It singled out the press with particular criticism. The 1968 report lambasted news organizations for their coverage of race and pointed out the lack of diversity in America’s newsrooms.
“The press has too long basked in a white world looking out of it, if at all, with white men’s eyes and white perspective,” the report found. “Our second and fundamental criticism is that the news media have failed to analyze and report adequately on racial problems in the United States and, as a related matter, to meet the Negro’s legitimate expectations in journalism. By and large, news organizations have failed to communicate to both their black and white audiences a sense of the problems America faces and the sources of potential solutions.”
The report concluded by calling for more inclusion of people of color in newsrooms: “News organizations must employ enough Negroes in positions of significant responsibility to establish an effective link to Negro actions and ideas and to meet legitimate employment expectations. Tokenism — the hiring of one Negro reporter, or even two or three — is no longer enough.”
Over the next few decades, news organizations would begin to hire an increasing number of journalists of color. Yet more than 50 years after the Kerner Commission report’s blistering criticism of media diversity, questions persist about newsroom staffing, said Farai Chideya, a program officer at the Ford Foundation, in a 2018 report about the continuing lack of diversity in newsrooms.
“The Kerner Commission Report was very prescient in the sense that it talked about equity, that people have a legitimate need for representation in the media as being part of a democracy,” Chideya said on WDET ’s “Detroit Today” program. Her report (bit.ly/chideya-report) found that newsrooms have made little progress toward fixing staffing problems, which create blind spots in coverage of race and politics.
Increasing diversity in U.S. newsrooms has been a primary mission of the American Society of News Editors since 1978. But as Chideya’s research found, the effort to bring newsroom diversity numbers in line with national population averages “has not materialized, despite the large demographic shift in America’s racial and ethnic makeup.”
ASNE’s annual newsroom diversity survey shows Latinos and nonwhites made up nearly 12 percent of newspaper editorial staff in 2000. In 2018, people of color comprised 22.6 percent of employees reported by all types of newsrooms, compared to 16.5 percent in 2017.
Among daily newspapers that responded to the survey, about 22.2 percent of employees were racial minorities (compared to 16.3 percent in 2017), and 25.6 percent of employees at online-only news websites were minorities (compared to 24.3 percent in 2017). Of all newsroom managers, 19 percent were minorities (compared to 13.4 percent in 2017).
People of color represent 22.6 percent of the workforce in U.S. newsrooms that responded to the survey. Yet people of color make up about 40 percent of the population, census data show.
ASNE noted it had historically low participation in the survey, which is now in its 40th year. Just 17 percent (293) of the 1,700 newsrooms submitted information. So, it’s impossible to get a full picture.
There are no comparable surveys for the racial makeup of investigative or project teams at major news outlets. Still, anecdotal evidence suggests they remain overwhelming white and male.
Recent hires or promotions at mainstream and nonprofit news outlets have increased the number of journalists of color in the field of investigative reporting in both management and reporting.
Susan Smith Richardson was hired as CEO of the Center for Public Integrity, and Matt Thompson was tapped as editor in chief of Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting. Both are the
Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times Magazine delivers the 2017 IRE Conference keynote address. Hannah-Jones is a cofounder of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting.
first African Americans to lead two of the country’s oldest nonprofit investigative news organizations.
Patricia Wen made history by becoming the first person of color to lead the legendary Spotlight Team at the Boston Globe.
Dean Baquet, who made his reputation as an investigative reporter when he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988, is executive editor of The New York Times.
Several news organizations now feature young investigative reporters of color as part of their investigative or watchdog teams.
Reporters include Kat Stafford of the Detroit Free Press, whose reporting into city programs has led to investigations by auditors; Faith Abubéy, another young investigative reporter and anchor at NBC-Atlanta (11Alive), has broken several key stories, including investigations about sexual predators on college campuses; and Aura Bogado, a reporter for Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, has broken several national immigration stories.
Despite these reporters and many others, the overall number of journalists of color in investigative reporting remains abysmally low.
Several journalism organizations are also trying to address the issue, including established organizations such as the Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Native American Journalists Association and the National Association of Black Journalists, led by President Dorothy Tucker, an investigative reporter for CBS 2 Chicago.
Knight Scholars attend a welcome lunch at the 2015 CAR Conference in Atlanta. The IRE scholarship program allowed college students from several Historically Black Colleges and Universities to attend IRE’s annual conferences and receive mentorship.
IRE, under the leadership of Board President Cheryl W. Thompson of NPR and Executive Director Doug Haddix, also has grown its efforts to diversify the field of investigative reporting. In recent years, IRE has expanded the number of fellowships and scholarships it offers to journalists of color to attend national conferences and weeklong data bootcamps. The organization launched a new yearlong Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship and increased the number of journalists of color tapped to speak at conferences and regional workshops.
The Ida B. Wells Society, which I co-founded, was created specifically to address the lack of reporters of color in the field of investigative journalism.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, an investigative reporter for The New York Times Magazine and co-founder of the society, said one of the society’s missions is to “take away the excuse” by giving young journalists of color the tools and mentorship needed to be fully prepared for investigative reporting.
Despite these efforts, the decision to diversify news staffs ultimately rests with those who have hiring power in newsrooms. Diversity must be seen as more than a numbers game. The hiring and promotion of journalists of color are essential for the long-term viability of the American press.
Ron Nixon is the international investigations editor at The Associated Press. He previously served as homeland security correspondent for The New York Times, where he worked for nearly 14 years. He is a former IRE training director and a co-founder of the Ida B. Wells Society.
Check out what else is in IRE’s journal on diversity problems in the journalism industry. This issue is available to members and nonmembers.
Starting today, IRE members can vote online for the IRE Board of Directors and Contest Committee. Ballots will be sent to the primary e-mail listed in your membership profile.
Seven of the board’s 13 seats are up for election this year. Members will also be voting for two members of the Contest Committee, which judges the IRE Awards. To learn more about the candidates, click here.
After your vote is cast, it cannot be changed. Please be mindful that candidates for the IRE board and the contest committee have the option of joining the race up until 6 p.m. (EDT) on June 19.
Although the IRE national conference has been postponed until late August, IRE will follow the same calendar as it has in recent years connected to board elections. As is customary, a candidates forum will be held at 6 p.m. EDT on Friday, June 19. Electronic online voting will be open until 5 p.m. EDT on Saturday, June 20. Results will be announced at the end of the IRE annual membership meeting, which is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. EDT on June 20. The candidates forum and IRE annual membership meeting will be conducted via a Zoom webinar.
To learn more about the voting process, click here.
Update (May 20): The first camp set for June 15-16 is sold out. Another mini-bootcamp will be offered online June 29-30. See below for registration details.
Registration is open for IRE’s first-ever online mini-bootcamp in data journalism.
In the bootcamp, which will be June 15-16, attendees will learn fundamentals of cleaning, analyzing and visualizing data using spreadsheets and Tableau. Courses will be taught remotely through live instruction, small-group workshops and activities.
In addition to two days of live, hands-on training, attendees receive:
The mini-bootcamp is designed to help journalists learn fundamental data skills during the coronavirus pandemic. It is geared toward beginners, and no data experience is necessary to enroll.
“Our data journalism bootcamps have a long history of teaching practical skills that any journalist in the newsroom can use immediately,” said Denise Malan, IRE deputy executive director. “We’re excited for this new evolution in our data training program that will help members build these skills during a time they are needed more than ever.”
Dates: June 15-16, 2020 (sold out); June 29-30 (registration open at this link)
Capacity: 20 attendees
Cost: $250 (Attendees also must be current IRE members. Membership costs $70/professionals and $25/students)
Questions? Email training@ire.org
Ron Campbell credits IRE for rescuing him after being laid off in 2014 from The Orange County Register.
“I had a new full-time job within five months and I had part-time work within, literally, one week of my layoff,” he said. “Because I had developed skills sufficient that I could almost immediately find employment after having to turn in my badge and walk out of a job that I had had for more than 20 years.”
Campbell, now the data editor for NBC Owned Television Stations, views his $70 annual IRE membership as a career lifeline. “Having grown and added skills through IRE, I was able to survive. So think of IRE, think of that $70, as a way of purchasing a life vest.”
Campbell is one of dozens of journalists this month helping celebrate the value of IRE membership in short video testimonials.
We invite you, too, to share how IRE has helped you -- and how you have helped others through IRE. Post your comments, along with a short video clip or photo, on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn. Please use #IREstrong and tag @IRE_NICAR. During May, help us flood our social streams with IRE camaraderie and impact!
“If you’ve let your IRE membership lapse, we’d love to have you back in the fold,” IRE Executive Director Doug Haddix said. “And if you’ve thought that IRE benefited only projects or I-Team reporters, we’d love to show you how every journalist can be an investigative journalist.
“I’ve been a member for 22 years, and I owe my career to IRE,” Haddix said. “When times get tough, IRE is even more critical to help navigate troubled waters.”
In true IRE spirit, the Support a Journalist program enables you to contribute toward memberships for professional journalists and academics who have been laid off or furloughed, or whose job has been eliminated within the past year. Full details are online for those who need help and for those able to help financially.
Student memberships remain a bargain at $25 a year. IRE student members are able to extend their $25 membership rate for three years after college graduation.
Resources available only to IRE members include the quarterly IRE Journal magazine, thousands of tipsheets, and premium reporting tools such as Tableau Desktop. In addition, IRE has taken steps during the coronavirus pandemic to provide journalists, students and educators with free resources. Check out our series of free webinars and our expanded NICAR-Learn collection of data tool tutorials, filled with new videos and free access for a year.
Through IRE, you can get to the bottom of your story and the top of your field.
Not even a pandemic can disconnect IRE members. Collaboration, training, resources, support. That’s been the IRE way for more than four decades. Together, for decades to come, we’ll remain afloat.
Five journalists share tips and ideas for creating a culture of inclusivity, regardless of job title, in their newsrooms.
Ashley Graham, WLNS (Lansing, Michigan):
"It’s important for everyone in the newsroom to be open to 'diverse' story pitches. Many journalists of color find that pitches related to their respective communities get turned down for being too “niche” for their audience. Newsrooms should always work to expand their reach, and telling stories from an underrepresented community is a great way to do that. The more diverse storytellers feel their perspectives, insight and knowledge will be considered, the more likely they are to pitch and produce those stories. Encourage journalists in your newsroom to spend time developing sources, seeking out experts and finding data that specifically relate to marginalized communities."
Romney Smith, WKYC (Cleveland):
"Ask tough questions. If your organization is struggling to hire and retain diverse talent, ask yourself and your management team why, and be honest. Are their voices heard and respected at editorial meetings? Are you supportive of stories that focus on a minority issue? Diverse talent should also be allowed to look diverse. I’ve worked at two TV stations that required straight hair, and it was expensive and unnecessary. It sends visual cues to viewers that the station isn’t really accepting of diverse forms of beauty. If you want me, accept all of me.
Build strategic partnerships. This can be through a mentorship initiative with a local college journalism program, sponsoring important minority community events or supporting your diverse employees by letting them do a story or series that specifically affects minority communities. Don’t have that much wiggle room on air? Support a digital-only series and promote it in your on-air newscast."
Ana Ley, The Virginian-Pilot:
"Spread awareness. Respect that journalists of color have a connection with black and brown communities that white and white-passing journalists will never share, no matter how educated they are or whether they’re multilingual. Keep the pressure on editors to hire more people of color, especially if you have the career capital to get their attention. A lot of black and brown journalists — especially younger ones — aren’t taken seriously when they complain about newsroom inequities. Stop placing the onus on journalists of color to balance the scales.
Mobilize and recruit. At The Virginian-Pilot, our newly formed bargaining committee drafted contract language that would force Tribune Publishing to interview candidates of color for every job opening, to post every available position and to eventually employ a newsroom that more adequately reflects the demographic makeup of the communities we serve. We also hope to address pay gaps, which disproportionately harm historically marginalized groups. Think about recommending people of color you’ve met at conferences or through social media when there’s a job opening in your newsroom. Cast a wider net to include people you wouldn’t know through your usual journalism circles."
Lam Thuy Vo, BuzzFeed News:
"Tell us how much you make. Minorities in newsrooms are often paid less than their white and male counterparts. What’s more, journalists from communities of color may come from socioeconomically disenfranchised backgrounds — they’ve had to support relatives early in their career or were surrounded by family members who made working-class wages. They may not have the same idea of a 'normal' journalism wage. This is why data is essential: Salary information about their colleagues and peers can help them make informed arguments for why they should make a certain wage without having to defend their worth. Check out jocresources.com/salary.
Be generous with editorial space and bylines. If you’ve worked on a big story that was a success, you’re often given more time, editorial support and manpower to report future stories. A lot of journalists love to hog this capital. Whether you were set up for success (your editor took a particular liking to you, you went to an elite school, you came out of school debt-free, etc.) or whether you genuinely worked your way up the ladder, your privilege is your wealth and, if you truly care about diversity, you should share it. Get less-experienced reporters involved in these stories and share your byline. Support their story ideas in pitch meetings."
Madi Alexander, The Dallas Morning News:
"Take responsibility for educating yourself. Many journalism organizations, including the Association of LGBTQ Journalists, the Native American Journalists Association and the National Center on Disability and Journalism, compile style guides. Just as you would consult these resources in the course of your reporting, do the same as you get more involved in diversity and inclusion efforts in the newsroom. Beyond learning the correct terminology, seek out personal stories or essays from people who belong to marginalized communities. A person’s own words are the best way to learn about their lived experiences.
Get comfortable talking about pronouns. Asking about and correctly using someone’s pronouns is one of the most basic ways to show respect for their humanity and their gender identity. Pronouns are not obvious, so don’t assume anything based on appearance. If you accidentally misgender someone by using the incorrect pronoun, don’t make a big deal about it. Simply apologize, correct yourself and move on. List your pronouns in your email signature, on business cards, on name badges and on your social media profiles. Ask for pronouns to become a standard part of any form or biographical information collected by groups and organizations."
Check out what else is in IRE's journal on diversity problems in the journalism industry. This issue is available to members and nonmembers.
The fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to more layoffs within the journalism industry. During these difficult times, IRE has started the Support a Journalist program to ensure members continue to have access to the IRE network and its resources.
Donations will be accepted to help fund memberships for professional and academic journalists who have been laid off, furloughed or whose position has been terminated within the last year.
If your professional or academic IRE membership expired anytime during or after March 2019 and you are currently laid off, furloughed or unemployed, please fill out this request form for the chance to receive assistance with your membership. The program is intended to help fund the memberships for those who sign up, not for a specific person. If you would like to pay for a specific person's membership, please fill out this form.
If you are in a position to support colleagues and help fund their memberships, please donate any amount online, or mail a check payable to IRE at 141 Neff Annex, UMC, Attn: Heather Feldmann Henry, Columbia, MO 65211 (write Support a Journalist in the memo field).
Your donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by the law.
Annual memberships are $70 and provide access to thousands of tipsheets, exclusive databases, listservs, the IRE Journal magazine, premium reporting tools and much more.
IRE has taken additional steps during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure journalists have access to the resources they need to report on a topic that affects everyone. IRE is hosting a series of free webinars related to the pandemic and relaunching its NICAR-Learn library of data tool tutorials, with new videos and free access for one year.
If you have ideas of other ways IRE can help you or your newsroom during this time, please fill out our survey.
If you have questions, please email membership@ire.org.
IRE has taken several steps in recent weeks to deal with financial fallout from the novel coronavirus pandemic.
In early March, IRE decided to postpone all in-person workshops, data bootcamps and newsroom training. In addition, IRE has delayed its annual conference from June to late August. Those actions produced a projected deficit of $260,000 in IRE’s budget for the current fiscal year, which runs through June 30. Before the pandemic, IRE was on course to finish the fiscal year with a surplus.
Because of fiscal uncertainty that may continue for a year or longer, the Executive Committee of the IRE Board of Directors authorized participation in the Paycheck Protection Program. The program is designed for small businesses and nonprofits affected by the pandemic.
Through the program, IRE this week received a two-year loan of $233,453 from Commerce Bank in Columbia, Missouri, at an interest rate of 1 percent. The program carries no fees or prepayment penalties. The program, operated through the Small Business Administration, is designed to avoid layoffs and furloughs by reimbursing payroll costs for eight weeks. The loan amount is set by a mandated formula.
If, as planned, IRE maintains full-time staff levels through June 30, an estimated $187,000 of the loan will be forgiven. The remainder of the operating deficit will be covered by IRE reserve funds, which total $635,000.
“The coronavirus pandemic has created unprecedented disruption to IRE’s operations, including significant financial fallout,” IRE Executive Director Doug Haddix said. “As we navigate uncertainty that may continue into 2021, the Paycheck Protection Program has given IRE critical financial support.”
In response to financial uncertainty, IRE also has eliminated one part-time contract position, reduced hours in a second contract position and put plans on hold to hire a part-time financial assistant.
IRE also has been in discussions with funders about potential sponsorships of new and expanded digital offerings: the new webinar series, expanded NICAR-Learn collection of short video tutorials, and planned expansion of NICAR Courses for college educators and students.
“We know that our members are facing financial pressures, too, so we’re making the webinar series and NICAR-Learn video tutorials free for anyone for a full year,” said IRE Board President Cheryl W. Thompson. “These resources are available now to all journalists, professors and students -- not just IRE members. We hope they bring value during these turbulent times.”
IRE is relaunching its NICAR-Learn library of data tool tutorials, with new videos and free access for one year.
NICAR-Learn is a hub of almost 60 short, skill-based videos for journalists to learn tools, tricks and strategies for working with data. Unlike some online training platforms, you won’t find any hour-long webinars on the site. Instead, most videos are under 10 minutes and designed for journalists to quickly learn a skill on demand.
Access to NICAR-Learn typically costs $25 per year for IRE members and $40 for nonmembers. In response to the coronavirus pandemic, IRE is offering the service free for one year. Current subscribers will receive a free one-year extension. After a year, anyone may subscribe at the standard rates.
“During these uncertain economic times, IRE wants to be sure that journalists, students and professors have access to these tools,” IRE Executive Director Doug Haddix said.
The videos are taught by IRE trainers and some of the most experienced data journalists in the business, including MaryJo Webster, Anthony DeBarros, Samantha Sunne and Alexandra Kanik.
Newly added videos include four on SQLite using the tool DB Browser. In addition, 10 videos focus on using the programming language Python, including how to install it on your computer, load and analyze data using Pandas, and understand basic syntax.
Other skills covered include Excel spreadsheets, DocumentCloud, OpenRefine, and visualization tools such as Carto and Tableau.
IRE will continue to update NICAR-Learn with new tools and skills. Let us know what you’d like to see by filling out this short survey.
Investigations that proved Russian jets bombed Syrian hospitals, documented dangerous solitary confinement of vulnerable immigrants, revealed conditions inside Amazon warehouses and uncovered sexual abuse of children are among the winners of the 2019 Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards.
“This year's entries were powerful examples of investigations that held institutions and people accountable,” said Jennifer LaFleur, an IRE board member and chair of the IRE Awards contest committee. “Many of the investigations also made use of innovative techniques, enabling them to do stories that could never be done before.”
Norberto Santana Jr., an IRE board member who also served as a contest judge, added: “At a time when trust in government is beyond strained, these entries really inspire in terms of these reporters' dedication to public service. Whether it's protecting vulnerable seniors, workers or kids, or preserving voting rights, or fighting corruption abroad or checking our own federal government's truthfulness on the fight against terrorism and the war in Afghanistan, reporters all across America and abroad are really stepping up to offer people real information they can use to stay informed and most importantly, get involved.
“That's the true power of investigative reporting,” Santana said. “It changes things. It allows people to get involved.”
This year’s winners were selected from more than 450 entries. The awards, given since 1979, recognize the most outstanding watchdog journalism of the year. The contest covers 17 categories across media platforms and a range of market sizes.
The IRE Awards will be presented at a luncheon on August 28 at the 2020 IRE Conference in National Harbor, Maryland.
Tom Renner Award (for covering organized crime or other criminal acts): “Plunder and Patronage in the Heart of Central Asia,” Radio Azattyk (RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz service), the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), and Kloop, a Kyrgyz outlet. Due to multiple threats received by reporters and editors, the names of individual contributors are not disclosed.
Link to OCCRP series; Link to RFE/RL series
FOI Award: “The Afghanistan Papers: The Secret History of the War,” The Washington Post, Craig Whitlock
Link to Washington Post series
Print/Online Division I (tie):
“While the judges were impressed with all of the entries, they were unable to name just one winner in the Print/Online Division I category. We felt that both pieces were important and strong,” contest judge Ron Nixon said. "Both investigations saved lives in different ways."
Print/Online Division II:
“Beaten, then Silenced,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, Lisa Gartner
Link to Philadelphia Inquirer first story
Print/Online Division III: “At Risk: Boys & Girls Clubs and Sexual Abuse,” Hearst Connecticut Media, Lisa Yanick Litwiller, Hannah Dellinger, Viktoria Sundqvist, Meghan Friedmann, Peter Yankowski, Humberto Rocha, Tatiana Flowers
Link to Hearst Connecticut Media first story
Print/Online Division IV: “It’s Time For You to Die,” The Post and Courier, Jennifer Berry Hawes, Stephen Hobbs, Glenn Smith, Andrew Whitaker, Seanna Adcox
Link to The Post and Courier first story
Broadcast/Video Division I: "Syria Health Care Under Attack," The New York Times, Evan Hill and Christiaan Triebert
Link to The New York Times story
Broadcast/Video Division II: “Unwarranted,” WBBM-TV, Chicago, Dave Savini, Michele Youngerman, Samah Assad, Jeff Harris, Tiffani Lupenski, Marda LeBeau, Mike Klingele, Alif Muhammad, Deandre Taylor, Scott Wilson, Derek Dalton
Link to WBBM-TV story
Broadcast/Video Division III: “Fooling the Feds,” Fox45 News, Baltimore, Jeff Keene, Chris Papst, Carolyn Sachse, Dwayne Myers, Jed Gamber
Link to Fox45 News story
Broadcast/Video Division IV: “Patient Pain: The Massive Money in Medical Debt,” East Idaho News, Nate Eaton, Nate Sunderland, Mike Price
Link to East Idaho News story
Radio/Audio - Large: “Amazon: Behind the Smiles,” Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Will Evans, Katharine Mieszkowski, Taki Telonidis, Rachel de Leon, Kevin Sullivan, Najib Aminy, Andrew Donohue, Esther Kaplan, Matt Thompson, John Barth (PRX), Al Letson, Melissa Lewis, Hannah Young, Byard Duncan, David Rodriguez, Mwende Hinojosa, Jim Briggs, Fernando Arruda
Link to Reveal story
Radio/Audio - Small: “Prosecution Declined,” Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, Eleanor Klibanoff, Kate Howard, Laura Ellis
Link to the KYCIR story
Student - Large: “State of Emergency,” Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University, News21 staff
Link to News21 series
Student - Small: "Believe at your own risk," SUNY Stony Brook, Rachael Eyler
Link to SUNY Stony Brook series
Investigations Triggered by Breaking News: "Inside Texas' Botched Voter-Rolls Review," The Texas Tribune, Alexa Ura, Ryan Murphy, Matthew Watkins
Link to The Texas Tribune first story
IRE Award for Sports Investigations: “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel: Game Change,” HBO, Josh Fine, Bernie Goldberg, Nisreen Habbal, Tres Driscoll, Joe Perskie
Link to HBO story
Book: “Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Book” by Katherine Eban
Click here for a complete list of winners, finalists, judges and judges’ comments.
In early March, we put together a panel at the 2020 NICAR Conference on how to cover the response to COVID-19. Although much has changed in the past month, there were some key takeaways from the panel that will ring true throughout the pandemic.
Panelists Caroline Chen from ProPublica, Anna Barry-Jester from Kaiser Health News and Sarah Babcock from the New Orleans Health Department, offered four tips for how to cover the coronavirus outbreak.
1. Look at lab capacity when reporting on testing
From the beginning of this outbreak, the United States decided against using the World Health Organization’s test guidelines. Caroline Chen noticed the slow rollout of testing, and eventually realized that American tests weren’t working properly.
“I had noted that it was taking New York City still a couple days to get answers to their tests. At that point, they were still coming back negative,” Chen said.
The tests were later found to be faulty.
“That [decision to go with our own protocol] lost us a bunch of time,” she said.
The lack of testing allowed the virus to spread in the United States undetected, exposing many people to the coronavirus without the knowledge of health departments. If you want to look into testing in your own area, Chen suggested looking at capacity. If a lab only has one technician and that person can only do X number of tests a day, how many tests can they realistically run?
2. Pull inspection reports to see if hospitals were prepared for the outbreak
The United States, by many metrics, was underprepared for the coronavirus outbreak. The Trump administration closed the White House pandemic office well before the COVID-19 outbreak began, stunting the federal government’s ability to respond. But Sarah Babcock of the New Orleans Health Department said local and regional health agencies are ready for this kind of outbreak.
“We have infectious disease outbreaks every single day around the country. And so our response to COVID-19 is the same as a child with measles, just at a larger scale,” Babcock said.
The local health department is notified if an odd number of people start showing up in the hospital system, and it knows which symptoms are cropping up often in the community, Babcock said.
“Almost every [health department] is already going to have a flu pandemic or infectious disease outbreak plan on the shelf ready to go,” she said.
Hospitals were preparing for the crisis to hit the U.S., and Chen said you can pull past inspection reports to see whether they were adequately prepared.
“There is a specific citation that can be given by [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] inspectors or federal government inspectors, that the tag is infection control specifically,” she said.
You can ask experts to look at those tags and tell you whether the hospital is following proper protocols to protect health care workers and whether they’ve had recent training on personal protective equipment.
Reporters should keep an eye on local nursing homes for signs of the outbreak, Anna Barry-Jester said. One Washington nursing home was linked to 34 coronavirus deaths.
Kaiser Health News has a tool available to look at infection records in nursing homes across the U.S. Using the tool, you can quickly find the number of times homes in your city or state have been cited for infection control violations since 2017.
3. Be careful with statistics
Because testing is so limited, it’s hard to know what the actual fatality rates are for COVID-19.
“Not every person that has coronavirus is ever going to get tested,” Babcock said. “And there's never going to be a time where anyone who wants a coronavirus test can get a coronavirus test.”
The expected fatality rate has fluctuated significantly across time and location. In South Korea, which has expansive testing and a relatively mild rate of infection, death rates have remained much lower: just 0.6 percent. Italy, meanwhile, has limited testing and an elderly population, so its death rate is nearly 8 percent.
Chen also cautions against predictive statistics for infections. While epidemiologists are creating great models for how many infections there might be in a given city in the next few months, writing headlines with those numbers could cause a panic.
“People are just going to take that and run off in a panic,” Chen said. “So I just try not to do that. I think that's fear mongering.”
4. Health department officials can be the most reliable human sources
If you’re trying to find data about coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization are obvious go-tos. But Chen also recommends the Association of Public Health Laboratories.
“They are very media friendly, and they're sort of aggregating information,” she said.
You can also look into public health associations, both regionally and nationally, Barry-Jester said. The American Public Health Association is one option, and it has regional offices across the country.
Johns Hopkins University has also put together a Coronavirus Resource Center that has updated information and stats.
When it comes to human sources, Babcock cautioned against using your local doctor as a health expert.
“They don't always have information that came out early that morning with the latest statistics or don't know the background that hasn't been released publicly yet,” she said. “The people who are going to know your most accurate and timely information are your health department officials.”
Babcock suggested interviewing public health officials, but said they’re often busy because of the outbreak. Instead of asking for individual interviews, she urged reporters to go to press conferences whenever they happen.
“I would say it is 1,000 times easier to get a written statement or a phone call than it is an in-person interview,” Babcock said.
You can find the tipsheet from the NICAR20 session here.
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