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Although there has been a move to diversify journalism from the stories we tell to the people we interview, the sad reality is that not enough journalists prioritize disability coverage.
As part of IRE’s virtual AccessFest conference in 2024, a group of distinguished disabled journalists discussed how to cover topics like climate change, mass incarceration, and poverty through the lens of disability.
In a panel titled, “Disability is part of every beat,” three accomplished journalists joined in discussion. We have excerpted from their panel in this edition of The IRE Radio Podcast.
The panelists are Jen Deerinwater, founding executive director of Crushing Colonialism; Lygia Navarro, award-winning disabled freelance journalist and editor for NAHJ’s multimedia platform, palabra; and Cara Reedy, former CNN documentarian and founder and director of the Disabled Journalists Association.
IRE Radio is distributed across several podcast platforms, including Apple, Spotify and Amazon Podcasts. A full text transcript of the episode is available when accessed through the Apple Podcasts mobile app. Please contact editorial@ire.org if you need any assistance.
Graduate editorial assistant Nakylah Carter reported and hosted the episodes. IRE editorial director Doug Meigs edits the podcast. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
Thoughtfulness (De Wolfe Music)
Daniela Ibarra of KSAT-TV in San Antonio, José Ignacio Castañeda Perez of Spotlight Delaware and Aallyah Wright of Capital B News will serve as IRE’s 2025 Chauncey Bailey Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellows.
This yearlong fellowship is designed to increase the range of backgrounds, experiences and interests within the field of investigative journalism, where diverse perspectives are critically important. The fellowship program is open to U.S. journalists of color with at least three years of post-college work experience.
Daniela Ibarra is an award-winning investigative reporter at KSAT in her hometown, San Antonio, Texas. Before heading back home, she worked at KTUL in Tulsa, Oklahoma where her reporting was credited with changing state law. Daniela began her career at KTXS in Abilene, Texas. She served on the national boards of the Society of Professional Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Daniela graduated from the University of North Texas and is the proud daughter of Ecuadorian immigrants.
Ibarra’s project will focus on how, among more than 400,000 teachers and staff members who educate Texas public school students, some have been injured by students in Texas. She will start locally with zooming out to see statewide impacts and what it means for the education workforce which has struggled to recruit and retain personnel at times.
José Ignacio Castañeda Perez, based in Wilmington, Delaware, is an award-winning reporter with Spotlight Delaware, a nonprofit community-powered newsroom in the First State. Originally from Salamanca, Guanajuato, Mexico, Castañeda covered nearly 400 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border for the Arizona Republic/azcentral.com and previously led coverage of historically excluded communities in Delaware for DelawareOnline/The News Journal. Castañeda attended the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, where he was part of the inaugural class of the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism.
Castañeda Perez’s project will focus on the treacherous conditions of Delaware’s poultry industry. The lack of proper training has led to an increase in workplace injuries with little recourse for accountability.
Aallyah Wright, based in Washington, D.C., is the rural issues reporter at Capital B. A proud native of the Mississippi Delta, Aallyah previously served as the first Delta education reporter for Mississippi Today before joining Stateline to cover rural affairs. Her dedication to uncovering injustice in rural Black communities has resulted in several honors, including her digital divide series, which is a 2024 Finalist for INN’s Breaking Barriers Award and her story on a rural Black mayor fighting to serve in Alabama, which won a 2023 Anthem and Community Voice Award. She is a producer for StoryWorks Theater, 2022 Maynard 200 Fellow, 2020 Mississippi Humanities Council Preserver of Mississippi Culture Award Recipient and 2018 Educating Children in Mississippi Fellow at the Hechinger Report. Aallyah graduated from Delta State University with a bachelor’s in journalism and minor in communication and theater.
Wright’s project will center on nearly a century of impacts after the passage of the first Farm Bill, formerly known as the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). Its consequences can still be felt today, particularly on Black farmers in the South. Her project will examine how the policies and the role of the county-based committee systems continue to affect generations of Black families in the South, and how this is one of many of our country’s structures with deep-rooted discrimination in agricultural and financial institutions.
Ibarra, Castañeda Perez and Wright were selected for the fellowship based on the projects they pitched in their applications. They will continue in their current professional roles while receiving a suite of IRE resources and support. These include training at an IRE data journalism bootcamp and both annual conferences, and they will receive IRE data services. Most importantly, they will each receive a mentor network of IRE members who will guide them through their yearlong projects.
This fellowship was initially made possible thanks to generous donations from IRE members Meghan Hoyer, Megan Luther, Mike Tahani and Mike Gruss. Additional funding was provided by the IRE community and company sponsors ABC News, CNN, ESPN, Gray Television and Hearst Foundations. More than $125,000 has been raised to support the program. The program was renamed for Chauncey Bailey in 2023.
Applications for the 2026 IRE Chauncey Bailey Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship will be available in September 2025.
If you’d like to donate to the Chauncey Bailey Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship, visit the IRE donation page and indicate your contribution is for the JOC fellowship.
If you are interested in participating in IRE training events and need financial assistance to attend, check out our fellowships and scholarships.
IRE is looking for a passionate, high-energy individual who enjoys working with others to join our training team, dedicated to fulfilling our core mission of helping journalists improve their investigative and data skills.
Trainers organize and conduct both in-person and online training in programs such as data journalism bootcamps, online mini bootcamps, customized newsroom training, and regional workshops. The trainer will also help plan and execute our in-person and virtual national conferences and develop clear and useful training materials in investigative and data journalism. The trainer also has the opportunity to create new curricula to meet changing industry needs.
IRE seeks someone with:
IRE offers:
Location: Remote, with convenient access to an airport
Salary Range: $68,000-$74,000, depending on experience
Apply by August 23, 2024, here.
Benefit Eligibility
This position is eligible for University benefits. As part of your total compensation, the University offers a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental and vision plans, retirement, paid time off, short- and long-term disability, paid parental leave, paid caregiver leave, and educational fee discounts for all four UM System campuses. For additional information on University benefits, please visit the Faculty & Staff Benefits website at https://www.umsystem.edu/totalrewards/benefits.
Values Commitment
We value the uniqueness of every individual and strive to ensure each person’s success. Contributions from individuals with diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives promote intellectual pluralism and enable us to achieve the excellence that we seek in learning, research and engagement. This commitment makes our university a better place to work, learn and innovate. In your application materials, please discuss your experiences and expertise that support these values and enrich our missions of teaching, research, and engagement.
Equal Employment Opportunity
The University of Missouri System is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Equal Opportunity is and shall be provided for all employees and applicants for employment on the basis of their demonstrated ability and competence without unlawful discrimination on the basis of their race, color, national origin, ancestry, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable state or federal law. This policy applies to all employment decisions including, but not limited to, recruiting, hiring, training, promotions, pay practices, benefits, disciplinary actions and terminations. For more information, visit https://www.umsystem.edu/ums/hr/eeo or call the Director of Employee and Labor Relations at 573-882-2146.
To request ADA accommodations, please call the Director of Accessibility and ADA at 573-884-7278.
If you have questions, please contact IRE Director of Content Lauren Grandestaff by email (lauren@ire.org).
Investigative Reporters and Editors is honored to announce that Tristan Ahtone will give the keynote address for AccessFest24, the organization's fourth virtual-by-design conference Oct. 17-19.
Ahtone serves as Editor at Large at Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization focused on climate solutions and environmental injustice. He will join in conversation with ProPublica reporter and IRE Board member Mary Hudetz.
Ahtone is an award-winning reporter, who previously served as Editor in Chief at the Texas Observer and Indigenous Affairs Editor at High Country News. He is a member of the Kiowa Tribe, most recently recognized by Covering Climate Now for his leadership on Grist’s “Misplaced Trust” investigation.
Hudetz is an award-winning reporter at ProPublica, based in Albuquerque. She is an enrolled member of the Apsaalooke/Crow Tribe and focuses on investigating tribal issues throughout the Southwest. This year, Hudetz was honored with the Richard LaCourse Award for Investigative Journalism for her work on ProPublica’s “The Repatriation Project.” She was elected to the IRE Board of Directors in June.
“Their experiences and expertise will foster an important conversation at AccessFest24”, IRE Director of Diversity & Inclusion Francisco Vara-Orta said. Both Ahtone and Hudetz are also former presidents of the Indigenous Journalists Association.
“Both of them have been leaders in our journalism community,” Vara-Orta said. “For IRE members to hear from them is really crucial for us to continue to better report on historically marginalized communities — especially in the weeks leading up to an election, amid polarization and disinformation about communities that have not normally had a voice in mainstream media.”
The conference is centered around belonging, equity, and inclusion both in news coverage and within the newsroom. While the IRE and NICAR Conferences have some sessions on these topics, AccessFest allows journalists to dive deeper. The conference started out as the “DBEI Symposium” in 2021 and was rebranded as AccessFest last year.
The previous conferences have highlighted Black, Asian and Latino voices in the keynote conversation, including Anzio Williams of NBCUniversal, Sisi Wei of The Markup and Maria Hinojosa of Futuro Media.
“On the path to greater representation, we must center Indigenous voices,” Vara-Orta said. “It's critical that IRE includes as many voices and perspectives as possible.”
Another AccessFest highlight is the opportunity for attendees to get IRE’s more traditional investigative and data training — from anywhere in the world — at a fraction of the cost of the in-person conferences.
AccessFest24 will be held online Oct. 17-19. Get additional details and register for the conference here.
Have you always wanted to know more about how IRE works — and how you can help? Now is your chance.
IRE is seeking volunteers for its committees, which work on a wide range of important tasks, from recommending speakers for conferences and brainstorming ways to better serve members to increasing diversity in the organization and improving the website.
To serve, you just need to be a member of IRE and have a passion for helping your colleagues.
If you're interested, please fill out this Google form by Friday, July 19.
The IRE Board is making it a priority to bring in new voices and new perspectives. One of the best ways to ensure your voice is heard is to serve on a committee, where the decision-making process begins. We need you!
Committee descriptions are below. Typically, the President appoints the committee chair, and the chair works with the president to select the committee members, with input from the executive director. Appointees serve for one year.
If you'd like more information, we'll be hosting an informal Q&A at our monthly Board Office Hours on Tuesday, July 16, at 12 p.m. Eastern Time. It's free; you just need to register here in advance to join the Q&A webinar.
If you have questions, please contact IRE President Brian M. Rosenthal at president@ire.org
IRE Committees for 2024-25
IRE Task Forces for 2024-25
In addition to the nine standing committees, there will be three active task forces. These groups are temporary and exist for specific purposes:
Sign-ups are closed for the mentorship networking program at IRE24 in Anaheim!
If you’ll be joining us for the conference, you can sign up by filling out this form. If you can’t make it to Anaheim this year but still want to find a mentor, please check out the IRE page at JournalismMentors.com, where you can set up a time to meet virtually with an IRE member mentor.
IRE will match mentors with mentees and arrange for them to meet at a breakfast during the conference. The IRE24 mentorship breakfast will be held from 7:30 - 8:45 a.m. on Friday, June 21, at the conference hotel.
Space is limited in this popular program, and the deadline to apply is midnight CT on Sunday, June 2. If the slots are filled before then, your application will be added to a waitlist.
Please also note that you must register for the conference by June 3 to participate.
To celebrate Earth Day, we put together some tips for reporting on the environment. Journalists shared this guidance in past training sessions and interviews. Find more helpful resources at The IRE Resource Center.
Climate reporting often means presenting issues or conflicts that may not have happened yet. When that’s the case, try to find ways to get visually creative. This can help make your journalism not just more visually appealing, but more accessible. That’s what Amal Ahmed and Ivan Armando Flores did to tell the story of oil and gas development along the Texas coast.
“It’s either pipes, steel, industry, nature or just this very barren, empty landscape where something will happen,” Flores told IRE. With the help of a drone pilot, he combined long-exposure photography and drones to paint the landscape with light.
—The IRE Journal Q1 2023, “Show your work" by Matt McCabe
When an agency says it’s helping disadvantaged communities or addressing inequities, ask for the specifics. Scrutinize the data.
For example, in 2022, the White House released an environmental justice screening tool to figure out which communities are flagged as “disadvantaged." The tool used environmental, health, economic and other indicators, but Grist noted one major one missing — race.
Grist added race back in and then conducted its own analysis, concluding that the findings appeared to be the same.
"The tool appears to implicitly account for race in its selection of disadvantaged communities," Grist reporters Naveena Sadasivam and Clayton Aldern wrote. "That’s because many of the criteria that the tool uses — proximity to hazardous facilities, linguistic isolation, and proximity to traffic, among others — are effectively functioning as proxies for race."
—NICAR24 panel, “Data and Accountability on the climate beat” by Emily Zentner of The California Newsroom, Dillon Bergin of Muckrock, Savanna Strott of Public Health Watch, Clayton Aldern of Grist
Tampa Bay Times’ “Poisoned” revealed how a Florida factory exposed hundreds of workers to dangerous levels of lead — and how the company kept polluting despite promises to change. The series won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.
But it was a challenging reporting process. The factory was run by a private company, so tools like FOIA could not be used. And workers weren’t eager to speak out.
“When I started to break through, it was because there were a few folks who … began to believe in what we were doing, who spoke up on our behalf,” Corey Johnson told KALW-FM. “That built over time. It didn’t happen initially. But it built up.”
—KALW-FM 2022, “Media Roundtable: How Florida’s only lead factory poisoned its workers and polluted the community” by Rose Aguilar
“FOIA is like the lottery,” E&E News’ Kevin Bogardus told IRE. “You gotta play to win. And it’s better than a lottery — there are things you can do to increase your odds.”
Bogardus recommends submitting FOIA requests for the calendars of your EPA regional administrator. (Ask for the “official record copy calendar,” not the public calendar). If a certain meeting seems newsworthy, say, with a major polluter, request any records that were “prepared for, created for, distributed at, or resulted from the meeting.”
This technique revealed the EPA’s concern over actor Mark Ruffalo’s tweets criticizing the agency.
After you get a confirmation email of your request, forward that email to the
designated FOIA officer and say, “Hey, I just FOIA’d this — let me know if you need anything
else,” Bogardus added.
—The IRE Journal Q1 2023, “FOI Files” by David Cuillier.
Sometimes, environmental reporting tries to answer complex, big picture questions. But other times, it can stem from what people are experiencing day-to-day. In Indianapolis, WTHR-TV decided to investigate when viewers asked: “Is my recycling actually getting recycled?”
WTHR’s Bob Segall placed tracking devices in curbside bins and followed trucks to show how items are taken to recycling facilities.
“There’s just a lot of interest in recycling right now,” Segall said. “It’s something that’s going to connect with viewers and readers.”
—IRE Webinar 2024, “Anatomy of the investigation: Recycling … Digging into a system of secrets” by Rick Gevers of Rick Gevers & Associates, Cho Park of ABC News, Bob Segall of WTHR-TV and Tonya Simpson of ABC News.
Flatwater Free Press’ Yanqi Xu reported on nitrate pollution in Nebraska’s water. But when she requested public emails for emails containing keywords, such as “nitrate,” the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy sent the newsroom a bill of more than $44,000.
“The department claimed that the fees were assessed to account for time NDEE employees needed to review which emails related to our request and which ones should remain confidential,” Xu explained.
Flatwater Free Press sued the department and won.
—The IRE Journal Q1 2023, “Nitrate pollution in Nebraska water” by Yanqi Xu
See more tipsheets, articles and webinars at The IRE Resource Center.
(March 6, 2024) COLUMBIA, Missouri — Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), the largest professional journalism association in the United States, is launching a new initiative to mark the upcoming 50th anniversary of its founding.
The nonprofit organization, which will reach the milestone in 2025, has created a special task force to plan events to celebrate the occasion.
“Since 1975, IRE has played a crucial role in fostering investigative journalism that has informed the public, held leaders accountable and ultimately made the world better,” said IRE President Brian M. Rosenthal, an investigative reporter at The New York Times. “Now it is time to honor that storied history – and lay a foundation for our next 50 years, and beyond.”
IRE began as a collaborative effort to encourage high-quality investigative reporting during a hotly competitive time in the industry in the wake of the resignation of President Richard Nixon. The founders chose the name IRE in part because they thought it was fitting for a group of impassioned investigators.
The fledgling organization solidified after one of its early members, Don Bolles of the Arizona Republic, was murdered in 1976 while reporting on an investigation and other members banded together from across the country to finish his work.
The new task force will be co-chaired by former IRE President David Boardman, dean of the Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University, and Tisha Thompson, an investigative reporter at ESPN and longtime IRE leader.
“This is an opportunity to celebrate the profound impact of IRE in its first five decades, and to build a foundation for the next five decades,” Boardman said. “I’m excited and honored to be a part of this.”
“I credit IRE/NICAR and its membership for so much of my professional success,” Thompson said. “I am honored to work with David and the other incredible journalists on this task force to celebrate IRE’s history, its bright future, and a remarkable fellowship of journalists helping journalists.”
The task force includes 15 other distinguished reporters and editors from all corners of the industry, a diverse list of some of the world’s top journalists. Their bios are below.
IRE is looking for additional volunteers to support this effort. Boardman and Thompson are planning to create subcommittees to work on various aspects of the initiative. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact president@ire.org
If you would like to donate to honor IRE’s 50th Anniversary, please go to ire.org/donate and specify that your donation is for the anniversary.
Investigative Reporters and Editors is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. It has nearly 5,000 members, making it the largest professional journalism organization in the U.S.
Members of the IRE 50th Anniversary Task Force:
David Boardman, a co-chair of the Task Force, is the dean of the Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University. Previously he was the executive editor of The Seattle Times. He served on the IRE Board of Directors between 1997 and 2007, including two terms as the IRE President.
Tisha Thompson, a co-chair of the Task Force, is an investigative reporter at ESPN. Previously she was an investigative reporter at several local television stations in the Washington, D.C., area. She attended her first IRE Conference as a high schooler in 1993 and has played a leadership role in the organization since the early 2000s.
Helena Bengtsson is data journalism editor at Gota Media, a publishing company with 13 titles in Sweden. Previously she worked at Sweden’s national television broadcaster and served as editor of data projects at The Guardian in the U.K. She has frequently helped with organizing NICAR, the annual data journalism conference run by IRE.
Ashley Brown is a senior editor at All Things Considered at NPR. Previously she worked as a producer at ABC News on This Week and in local television news. She was an IRE Philip L. Graham Fellowship recipient in 2013.
Len Downie is a professor at the Walter Cronkite School at Arizona State University. Previously he worked for 44 years at the Washington Post, including 17 years as the executive editor. He is a co-founder of IRE and one of the original nine members of the Board of Directors. He also served on the Board between 2009 and 2015.
Cindy Galli is the Executive Producer of the Investigative Unit at ABC News. Previously she was on the investigative team at Inside Edition and ABC’s local station in San Francisco. She has served on the IRE Board of Directors since 2019, including a stint as the IRE Vice President.
Manny Garcia is the executive editor of the Austin American-Statesman, part of the USA Today Network at Gannett. Previously he ran newspapers in Florida. He served on the IRE Board of Directors from 2006 to 2014, including a stint as the IRE President.
Rick Gevers is the owner of Rick Gevers & Associates, which represents many broadcast journalists across the United States. Previously he worked as a local television news director. He has served on the IRE Board of Directors since 2023.
Dianna Hunt is national editor at Indian Country Today, a daily digital news platform that covers the Indigenous world. Previously she was an editor at newspapers in Texas. She served on the IRE Board of Directors between 2003 and 2008.
Ron Nixon is the vice president for investigations, enterprise, partnerships and grants at the Associated Press. Previously he was a reporter at The New York Times. He worked on the IRE Staff as a training director from 2000 to 2003.
Brian M. Rosenthal is an investigative reporter at The New York Times. Previously he worked as a local reporter in Texas and Washington State. He has served on the IRE Board of Directors since 2019, and he is currently the IRE President.
Jim Steele is a retired investigative journalist and author who wrote many iconic stories while at The Philadelphia Inquirer, Time and Vanity Fair. He is one of four people ever to win the IRE Founder’s Award for his contributions to the organization and the industry.
Lea Thompson is a retired investigative journalist who worked for 14 years as the chief consumer correspondent at NBC News. She served on the IRE Board of Directors between 2006 and 2013, including a stint as the IRE Treasurer.
Sisi Wei is the editor-in-chief of The Markup, a nonprofit news publication focused on the impact of technology on society. Previously she worked as a news app developer and editor at ProPublica. She served on the IRE Governance Committee.
Christine Willmsen is the managing editor for investigations at WBUR, the public radio station in Boston. Previously she was an investigative reporter at The Seattle Times and a Nieman Fellow. She is a frequent speaker at IRE conferences and other events.
Rick Yarborough is senior producer at WRC-TV, the NBC station in Washington, D.C. He previously worked at several other local television stations in D.C. and the Carolinas. He is a frequent speaker at IRE conferences and other events.
Lee Zurik is the chief investigative reporter at Fox 8 New Orleans and the vice president of investigations at Gray TV. He previously worked at several stations across the South. He served on the IRE Board of Directors between 2016 and 2020, including a stint as the IRE Vice President.
January 17, 2024
“Still Loading,” The Markup investigation, which exposed vast disparities in internet service quality from four major providers, earned the first place prize in the 2023 Philip Meyer Journalism Award.
The Meyer Award recognizes the best uses of social science research methods in journalism. It is named for Philip Meyer, the author of “Precision Journalism,” who pioneered the use of empirical methods to empower better journalism. Read more about Meyer and his legacy here.
Bloomberg News earned the second place award for “Power Plays,” a project that exposed how large U.K. power companies manipulated the country’s feckless energy system to reap profits. Third place goes to a collaboration between Lighthouse Reports, WIRED, Vers Beton and Open Rotterdam for “Inside the Suspicion Machine,” a series that traced the deployment of predictive AI in European welfare systems.
The judges have also given two special citations in the 2023 Philip Meyer Journalism Award:
The winners will be honored at the 2024 NICAR Conference, March 7-10 in Baltimore. The award is administered by the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, a joint program of Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Missouri School of Journalism.
First place: “Still Loading,” The Markup
Leon Yin, Aaron Sankin, Joel Eastwood, Gabriel Hongsdusit, Paroma Soni, Jeremy Singer-Vine, Evelyn Larrubia, Sisi Wei
Judges’ comments: For The Markup’s “Still Loading,” reporters gathered and analyzed 800,000 internet service offers from telecom giants in dozens of cities, finding they routinely offered the worst deals to households in lower-income, less white and historically redlined neighborhoods. The reporters adapted methods from an academic study to identify internet offers by address and then used Census data and historical maps to tell a powerful story about a critical social injustice. The judges applaud the team for their resourcefulness, robust validation process and, along with their partner Big Local News, commitment to sharing their bespoke mapping tool with the public.
Second place: “Power Plays,” Bloomberg News
Gavin Finch, Todd Gillespie, Jason Grotto, Sam Dodge, Alex Campbell
Judges’ comments: For “Power Plays,” Bloomberg News analyzed millions of records obtained through a national data portal and additional records on renewable energy subsidies. The team’s reporting exposed methods that large U.K. power companies used to manipulate the country’s energy system for profit, saddling customers with extra costs. This took place during an energy crisis that caused havoc, including forcing elderly people and low-income families into warming shelters. The judges commend the stories for shining an important spotlight on companies that usually avoid scrutiny despite their impact on people’s everyday lives.
Third place: “Inside the Suspicion Machine,” Lighthouse Reports, WIRED, Vers Beton, Open Rotterdam
Gabriel Geiger, Eva Constantaras, Justin-Casimir Braun, Evaline Schot, Dhruv Mehrotra, Saskia Klaassen, Romy van Dijk, Matthew Burgess, Morgan Meaker, Kyle Thomas, Daniel Howden, Andrew Couts, James Temperton, Eeva Liukku, David Davidson, Danielle Carrick, Htet Aung, Alyssa Walker, Raagul Nagendran, Hari Moorthy, Ishita Tiwari, Lily Boyce, Sascha Meijer, and Roelof van der Meer
Judges’ comments: In “Inside the Suspicion Machine,” Lighthouse Reports, WIRED, Vers Beton and Open Rotterdam gained rare access to the algorithms used to choose subjects for welfare fraud investigations. After nearly one and a half years of negotiation, the reporters obtained the underlying computer code used to flag Rotterdam’s residents, which could cut them off from services and even target them for raids. By studying and testing the risk scoring algorithm, they learned that it did only marginally better than random chance, and targeted people based on their native language, gender and even how they dressed. From there, the reporters followed two archetypes, as typified by more than 300 characteristics, to show audiences the arbitrary, and at times prejudiced, logic of the system. The judges remarked on how rarely news organizations gain access to these often proprietary lines of code, and how important they are to holding governments accountable for their actions.
Special citation: “Putin and Orbán's Media Masquerade: Projecting Unity and Tension in the EU,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Current Time Digital and Szabad Európa
Judges’ comments: "Putin and Orbán's Media Masquerade" is a timely investigation that used textual analysis, such as topic clusterization, to show how Russian and Hungarian propaganda have been interwoven since the war in Ukraine began, and how Hungary supported Russia's invasion. The visualizations were particularly helpful in displaying the analysis of data from 15,000 headlines from the propaganda machines of both countries. The project should inspire other journalists to investigate shared propaganda and disinformation between political parties and countries.
Special citation: “Unhoused and Undercounted,” The Center for Public Integrity in partnership with The Seattle Times, Street Sense Media and WAMU/DCist
Judges’ comments: “Unhoused and Undercounted” told the story of the roughly 300,000 children and youth in the United States who are entitled to rights reserved for homeless students, but are going unidentified by school districts that have the legal obligation to help them. This collective oversight results in the students, disproportionately Black and Latino, lacking the critical support they need to stay in school, graduate and obtain referrals for health care and housing: In short, basic civil rights. Due to its nationwide approach, this analysis broke new ground by measuring the gap between identified and actual homelessness within school districts across the United States. The judges noted the data was also made available to local newsrooms, which was key to the project’s success in telling a story that holds educators to account for failing to serve their most vulnerable students.
The Meyer Award honors Philip Meyer, professor emeritus and former Knight Chair of Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Meyer is the author of “Precision Journalism,” the influential 1973 book that encouraged journalists to incorporate social science methods in the pursuit of better journalism. As a reporter, he also pioneered the use of survey research for Knight-Ridder newspapers while exploring the causes of race riots in the 1960s.
The judges for the 2023 Philip Meyer Journalism Award were:
The Philip Meyer Journalism Award follows the rules of the IRE Awards to avoid conflicts of interest. Work that included any significant role by a Meyer Award contest judge may not be entered in the contest. This often represents a significant sacrifice on the part of the individual — and sometimes an entire newsroom. The IRE membership appreciates this devotion to the values of the organization.
IRE works to foster excellence in investigative journalism, which is essential to a free society. Founded in 1975, IRE has more than 4,500 members worldwide. Headquartered at the Missouri School of Journalism, IRE provides training, resources and a community of support to investigative journalists; promotes high professional standards; and protects the rights of investigative journalists. The National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting was founded by the Missouri School of Journalism in 1989 and became a collaboration between the school and IRE in 1994.
Contact:
Investigative Reporters and Editors is pleased to announce that Robert L. Santos, director of the U.S. Census Bureau, will speak at the NICAR Conference in Nashville, March 2-5.
Paul Overberg of The Wall Street Journal will join Santos in a moderated conversation followed by audience Q&A.
The panel is scheduled for Friday, March 3, from 2:15 to 3:15 p.m. at the Renaissance Nashville Hotel.
“We’re thrilled the director of the U.S. Census Bureau is joining us in Nashville,” said Diana R. Fuentes, executive director of IRE. “The NICAR community is an exceptional mix of reporters, editors, programmers, web developers, and many others who often use census data in their roles. We’re looking forward to this opportunity to learn more about Director Santos and the vision for the future of the census and the Census Bureau.”
Santos’ career spans more than 40 years of survey research, statistical design and analysis, and executive-level management. He previously served for 15 years as vice president and chief methodologist at the Urban Institute, where he directed its statistical methods group. He was executive vice president and partner of NuStats, a social science research firm in Austin, Texas.
Santos, a third-generation Mexican American statistician from San Antonio, Texas, is the first person of color to head the nation's largest statistical agency on a permanent basis.
Paul Overberg is a Washington-based reporter on The Wall Street Journal’s investigations team. Overberg specializes in analyzing data and public records to find stories and collaborates with reporters who cover many subjects. He has taught at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and served as a senior fellow for the Center for Health Journalism at the University of Southern California. Before joining the Journal, he worked as a data journalist at USA Today. He holds a bachelor's degree in history from Rutgers University.
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