2022 Visual Storytelling (Larger Newsroom) Finalists
Marta W. Aldrich, Dan Lyon, Kae Petrin & Thomas Wilburn
Chalkbeat
Visualizing the “Age Appropriate” Curriculum Debate
Comments From the Judges:
“This was a beautiful handling of a topic so many of us have covered over the last year or two. The interactive graphic gave a thorough rundown of the arguments made against the books and how the controversy was handled, and did so in a digestible way. Even the photos that accompanied the article were stunning. The only thing missing was an Amazon shopping cart.”
“I thought this visualization was incredibly effective. Being able to see directly which books were being targeted and why they were being targeted helped increase the emotional response in my own experience when reading the in-depth reporting following the visualizations.”
Kassie Bracken, Mark Boyer, Jacey Fortin, Rebecca Lieberman & Noah Throop
The New York Times
What’s Actually Being Taught in History Class
Comments From the Judges:
“This project effectively shares micro-stories of history teacher perspectives from across the country. By combining specific questions related to potentially controversial subjects in history, it allowed viewers to see the nature of how these subjects are discussed and the lack of knowledge external advocates for anti-CRT laws have towards what is actually being taught in schools. An overall effective and stirring piece with well-executed visuals and cinematographic technical achievement (sound and visual quality was excellent). I especially admired the framing of shots within the classrooms ”
“Wow, great little video opening. Good geographic variety of sources. Diversity is so much more than race. Nice. You really tackled a sensitive and complex issue and brought in a variety of viewpoints that simplified it and made it more clear. This story really made me think. All good stories should do that.
Kelly Wiley, Chris Nelson, Christopher Adams, Sam Stark, Josh Hinkle, Robert Sims, Kate Winkle & Aileen Hernandez
KXAN
The Exit: Teachers Leave. Students Suffer.
- Chapters 1-4: The exit: Teachers leave. Students suffer.
- Why this Texas teacher stayed amid an education vacancy crisis
- Lawmakers invite Texas teacher vacancy task force to testify
- Survey of 20,000 Texas teachers found ‘overload’ top reason for exit
Comments From the Judges:
“This is an impressive quantitative and qualitative piece. The photographers made great use of lighting and composition. Each of these pieces flowed well. The series was divided into logical pieces. Clean typography made all the text readable. I was glad to see some discussion of how to fix the problem. So many times we do stories on what the problem is but not the solutions. I hope KXAN follows up during the legislative session. Good work.”
“Overall the submitted coverage was detailed and covered a range of issues facing teachers and districts in an effective way. The integration with data and visual statistics alongside the video components was effective. This is a wonderful combination of data-driven, investigative and human-focused storytelling. It was well researched, well written and well told.”
Finalists
