Climate change, investigative journalism and newsroom collaborations were frequent themes among the 2019 Scripps Howard Awards finalists announced this week, Rebecca Cochran reports.
Here are finalists whose projects had rural resonance:
In the Community Journalism category, all three nominees warrant mention.
Troubled Kids, Troubled System, from the Missoulian in Montana, examines reform schools in rural areas that often operate with little oversight. Some former students say teens were physically and sexually abused, and some teens died by suicide while staying at the schools. The for-profit schools, which sometimes charge parents more than $100,000 a year, often are not overseen by mental health, child safety or education experts. But none of the 58 complaints investigated by the state have resulted in significant disciplinary action against any program.
MLK50, a Memphis non-profit reporting on economic justice, partnered with ProPublica's Local Reporting Network to produce Profiting from the Poor. The series investigated how Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, the area's largest hospital system, aggressively sued the poor over unpaid medical bills, including its own employees. After the investigation was published, Methodist suspended its lawsuits against poor patients, doubled its threshold for which people qualify for discounted or free care, increased the wages of its lowest-paid workers, and forgave nearly $12 million in debt.
Lawless by The Anchorage Daily News, another ProPublica Local Reporting Network partner, was also nominated for community journalism. The series uncovered a sexual assault crisis in rural Alaska and how the lack of public safety services makes it worse. After the series ran, U.S. Attorney General William Bar declared the lack of law enforcement in rural Alaska a federal emergency, and the Department of Justice has promised more than $52 million in federal funding to improve the situation. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Anchorage also announced the hiring of additional rural prosecutors, and Gov. Mike Dunleavy said the state will hire 15 additional state troopers.
In the Environmental Reporting category, What Can Be Saved? by The Associated Press was nominated for its wide-ranging reporting on the impact of climate change, including in Everglades National Park.
Also nominated in the Environmental Reporting category, The Oregonian's Polluted by Money explored how corporate lobbying has weakened or halted efforts to deal with environmental issues such as climate change, disappearing bird habitats, carcinogenic diesel exhaust, industrial air pollution, oil spill planning, and pesticides sprayed from helicopters.
In the Distinguished Service to the First Amendment category, the Orlando Sentinel scored a nomination for its Florida's Fading Sunshine Laws package.
The Washington Post was nominated in the Human Interest Storytelling category for The State of Health Care in Rural America, which illustrated the dire situation of rural health care through the story of a struggling hospital in Oklahoma.
In the Investigative Reporting category, the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News were nominated for their Abuse of Faith package, which put the Southern Baptist Convention under the spotlight for not adequately dealing with allegations of sexual abuse. As part of the package, they published a searchable database of church officials and volunteers who had been convicted of sex crimes or made plea deals with prosecutors.
The Washington Post was nominated in the Multimedia Journalism category for its Gone in a Generation piece, which explored how global warming is already changing Americans' lives, including farmers, hunters, and those who live in flood zones.
One Disaster Away, which investigates the insufficient protections for vulnerable people as climate change worsens natural disasters, won a nomination in the Topic of the Year category. For 2019, the category is The Impact of Climate Change on Communities. The series is a partnership between The Center for Public Integrity, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, High Country News, Ohio Valley ReSource and StateImpact Oklahoma.
The Scripps Howard Foundation, the philanthropic arm of E.W. Scripps Co., will present more than $170,000 in prize money to the winners on April 26 in Cincinnati. The awards program will be rebroadcast April 26 on Newsy and on Scripps television stations throughout the summer.
from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/32yUmuH Scripps Howard announces 2019 nominees, including many with rural resonance - Entrepreneur Generations
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