Investigations into the methamphetamine epidemic, entrenched failures at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the loss of Florida's wetlands were recently named winners of the first Philip Meyer Awards.
The awards recognize the best uses of social science methods in journalism and are administered by the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (a joint program of Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Missouri School of Journalism), and the Knight Chair in Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
The winners are:
First Place: The Oregonian for "Unnecessary Epidemic," a series of articles showing how Congress and the Drug Enforcement Administration missed opportunities to stop the growth of meth abuse by aggressively regulating the import of chemical ingredients. Lead reporter Steve Suo used statistical analysis of treatment-admission, drug purity, price and arrest data.
Second Place: The Knight-Ridder Washington Bureau for "Discharged and Dishonored," a yearlong series that revealed how bureaucratic delays by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs harmed disabled veterans. Reporters Chris Adams and Alison Young analyzed survey data and the VA's database of 3.4 million claims to discover that more than 13,700 vets died while waiting for their claims to be resolved.
Third Place: The St. Petersburg Times for "Vanishing Wetlands," which found that 84,000 acres of Florida wetlands have been destroyed since 1990, when President George H.W. Bush declared a national policy of no net loss of wetlands. Reporters Matthew Waite and Craig Pittman calculated the loss using before-and-after satellite imagery and geographic information system software.
The awards were presented March 10 at the IRE and NICAR Computer-Assisted Reporting conference in Newark, N.J.
A panel of five contest judges picked the winners from more than two dozen entries. The awards are given in honor of Philip Meyer, the Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a pioneer in using social science methods in news reporting. For more information see www.ire.org/meyeraward/05winners.html