In early 2017, CALmatters education reporter Jessica Calefati grew frustrated while researching a piece about California school funding, after two Los Angeles area schools refused to comply with her records request. Calefati used “open reporting,” a method that gives readers insight to a reporter’s or media outlet’s newsgathering process, to enhance her main story.
Parents connected with community resources to help combat the high infant mortality rate in Richland County. The community baby shower was a response to reporter Brittany Schock’s series on infant mortality: Healing Hope. With SJN, Schock organized the event and set up a Listening Post to give mothers an opportunity to share their experiences, advice, and vulnerabilities.
In hopes of giving people a space to pose questions about local environmental issues, the team launched Ask Planet Detroit. They wanted to bridge the gap between the segregated cities and suburbs of Detroit under the common goal of understanding environmental issues.
The organization works in collaboration with its audience to engage in two-way reporting via text message. This model replaces things like Facebook groups, which can fuel the spread of misinformation and amplify political polarization within communities. El Tímpano provides its audiences with access to the information they need from a source that’s earned their trust.
Spaceship Media worked with Advance Local, Essential Partners, and other organizations to create a nationwide discussion between persons with very different opinions on the topic of gun control.
The South Side Photo Walk, an annual workshop going on its ninth year held by Syracuse community newspaper The Stand, uses photography to bring people together and highlight a typical day in the South Side neighborhood of Syracuse, New York. Participants use photography to capture an aspect of the South Side community that is less frequently covered in the media.
Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (NNS) and Wisconsin Watch collaborated to create News414: a texting service that connects Wisconsinites with resources regarding food insecurity, evictions, employment and more.
The Marshall Project examined who is electing judges in Cuyahoga County and the track records of those judges. They also looked at who was facing charges in county courts and who was repeatedly cycling through the courts on new charges.