inewsource receives prestigious national innovation award

We are pleased to share that inewsource received a distinguished Excellence in Innovation National Edward R. Murrow Award on Thursday for “HOME SICK,” our massive monthslong reporting project in the Tijuana River Valley.

HOME SICK chronicles — and creatively expresses — how decades of infrastructure failures along the U.S.-Mexico border have caused billions of gallons of wastewater and industrial pollution to flow through Tijuana into San Diego’s South Bay, sickening many.

The award came in the Radio Television Digital News Association’s small organization division. RTDNA, the world’s largest professional organization devoted exclusively to broadcast and digital journalism, gives it each year to organizations that “innovate their product to enhance the quality of journalism and the audience’s understanding of news.” HOME SICK does just that.

Philip Salata led a team of reporters and visual journalists at inewsource to interview more than 100 people in the place that fills residents with a strange mixture of pride and hopelessness. Their stories formed the foundation of an innovative work of community, explanatory and investigative journalism that made locals feel seen.

We elevated the story experience through unique tools and techniques that included a custom-coded web presentation; an accessibility plugin that we developed in house, and an interactive map that included vignettes of residents living around the Tijuana River Valley.

Our Contextualizer plugin highlighted lesser-known terms to help readers gain additional context and understanding, and supporting GIFs and illustrations gave additional motion and life to the project.

We even built a custom AI tool to help us manage workflows and pull together audio features from days’ worth of clips and transcripts that were fact-checked for accuracy before our team published the series of profiles on instagram.  

This was a team effort through and through, and we remain committed to innovation and trying new things as an organization — but I would be remiss not to mention the resources needed to continue that work.

Maybe this is the first time you’re hearing about HOME SICK or our unique approach to the reader experience. Or maybe it’s the first time you’re hearing how much work it took to complete the project.

If thorough, thoughtful reporting and news innovation is important to you, consider supporting us in our mission to make more of it possible.

There truly has never been a better time to join us in paving a new path for local news. 

We’re just getting started. Become a member today, or renew your support of our work.

Thank you,

Giovanni