2017 ANNUAL REPORT Oklahoma Watch Won Four First Place Awards and Eight Additional Awards in the Oklahoma Society of Professional Journalists 2017 Contest
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2017 ANNUAL REPORT Oklahoma Watch won four first place awards and eight additional awards in the Oklahoma Society of Professional Journalists 2017 contest. LETTER FROM THE EDITOR If there was ever a year to shine more light into the often confusing arena of policymaking at the State Capitol, it was 2017. The Legislature was in a stalemate, unable to agree on how or whether to find more revenue to reinvigorate core state services. Teachers were clamoring for their first across-the-board pay raise in nearly a decade. Special-interest groups were flexing their muscles and wallets more often to influence decisions for their own benefit or cause. Focused on these trends, Oklahoma Watch embarked on the year with two main goals: bring more transparency and accountability journalism to government and raise the profile of those who are most vulnerable and have the greatest needs. Our efforts paid off. Oklahoma Watch reporters produced exclusive stories that attracted statewide and national attention and that sometimes led to changes in policies and new legislation. Among the highlights were stories revealing and analyzing the severity of the financial crisis in the state health department; a look at how schools were using “lunch shaming” against students who were behind on their meal accounts; data projects that listed every donation from oil and gas interests to legislators, and every gift and meal purchased for lawmakers by lobbyists; and a review of autopsy reports that found about 50 infant deaths a year are tied to unsafe sleeping practices. We also brought you public forums on topics such as the treatment of women, medical marijuana, hunger and children, and video interviews on mental health, troubled schools, the arts in schools, and the problem of obesity. In September, we partnered with Atlantic Live and Reveal.org to present a town hall in Oklahoma City on criminal justice reform. Content aside, 2017 was also a year of growth for our organization, as we diversified financial support from foundations and other organizations and increased our number of individual donors. For the new year, we are investing your financial support in expanding our reporting staff, providing content in new multimedia forms and on other platforms, and, in general, trying to make a difference for the better in the lives of all Oklahomans, while remaining nonpartisan and impartial. Thanks for your support and feedback. Respectfully, David Fritze Executive Editor Oklahoma Watch HIGHLIGHTS OF 2017 STORIES OF IMPACT Measuring impact is critical to evaluating our success. We developed a four-tier system to identify content with impact: 1. Directly cause a change in laws, policies or practices. 2. Directly influence the content or amount of public debate about an important policy or quality-of-life issue. 3. Become a reference source or authority used by public officials or policy advocates to make decisions or recommendations. 4. Directly inspire or provoke individuals to make a decision or modify their viewpoint. • State Health Department Faces Unexplained Cash Crisis Our story was the first to reveal the severity of financial issues at the health department and accelerated the shakeup at the agency’s highest levels. Ten days after the story ran, the department’s top leaders resigned. Read the entire series. • Concerns Prompt New Law Revising How Virtual Schools Track Attendance A new law approved in May requires virtual charter schools to revise how they track attendance. The proposal arose after Oklahoma Watch revealed that all five of Oklahoma’s virtual charter schools reported implausible attendance of between 98 and 100 percent in 2015-16. Two reported 100 percent. • Oklahoma Schools Use Seclusion Rooms to Isolate Students Our story examined the widespread practice of shutting children alone in closet-like seclusion rooms in schools. Legislation was introduced to curb use of the rooms for special-education students. • Students Sometimes Face ‘Lunch Shaming’ When They Can’t Pay Oklahoma Watch reported that schools are “shaming” students whose meal accounts aren’t paid in full. The story led a church and charity groups to donate money to cover meals in some districts and caused legislation to be introduced to curtail shaming practices. The story was part of a powerful series on hunger in schools. EDUCATION WATCH LAUNCHES Education reporter Jennifer Palmer launched a new digital newsletter in fall 2017. The twice-a-week Education Watch features a round-up of the top education stories across the state and nation. Whether it’s an in-depth look at school performance, or a national story on test scores, Education Watch aims to raise readers’ understanding of the critical issues in education today. COLLABORATION Oklahoma continues to wrestle with high incarceration rates and other problems in the criminal justice system. The Atlantic, in collaboration with Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting with participation from Oklahoma Watch, convened an event in Oklahoma City in fall 2017 on the experiences of women in the justice system. Watch Executive Editor David Fritze’s on-stage interview. Part of our mission at Oklahoma Watch is to help students in their preparations for a career. Our nonprofit was selected to be the focus for a public relations capstone course at the University of Oklahoma’s Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. During the fall semester the class of seniors helped develop a PR campaign for Oklahoma Watch reach to engage with a younger demographic of readers. SEEN & HEARD Highlights of the national and statewide attention that Oklahoma Watch received: The Guardian gave a shout-out to Oklahoma Watch in its story on how vital, and threatened, investigative reporting is across the United States. The British publication says Oklahoma Watch selects topics “that its top-notch staff can dig into at great length, with consequential reporting and insights.” Reporter Trevor Brown’s deep dive into oil and gas donations to Oklahoma legislators made BuzzFeed’s national “20 of the Best Nonprofit News Stories of 2017” list. Our exclusive on approval of a contract that will put license-plate scanners on Oklahoma roads to catch uninsured drivers got coast-to-coast pickup. Among the sites carrying the story were Fox News, the Atlanta Journal- Constitution, WHIOTV7 in Ohio, Fox 2 News in St. Louis, the Palm Beach Post in Florida, WTTV in Indianapolis, the Danville Register & Bee in Virginia, and KTLA5 in Los Angeles. Washington-based Education Week singled out our story about world language classes vanishing from Oklahoma high schools and wondered if this was happening across the country. HONORS In 2017, Oklahoma Watch journalists won four first-place awards and eight additional awards in the Oklahoma Society of Professional Journalists contest for work published in 2016. Oklahoma Watch also was honored as “Media Advocate of the Year” by Tulsa-based TARC for promoting deeper understanding of issues affecting people with developmental disabilities. INVESTIGATIONS & SERIES INSIDE DEMOCRACY This series, which continues into 2018, focuses on the influences of money and special interests on policymaking at the State Capitol. Among the investigations, often accompanied by searchable interactive data sets: • Donations, Lobbying Reflect Influence of Oil and Gas Industry • In Non-Election Year, Legislators Spend Campaign Donations on Perks • State Ethics Rules Often Hide Sources of Lobbyists’ Gifts, Meals • State Officials Disclosing Less Than Ever About Their Personal Finances • In Governor’s Race, Todd Lamb’s Nonprofit Walks a Fine Line Read the entire series as it continues. KIDS IN PERIL Oklahoma’s continuing social-welfare issues have a profound effect on children. That’s why Oklahoma Watch launched a multi-year project, “Kids in Peril”, examining problems that directly and indirectly affect the wellbeing of Oklahoma children. Highlights from the project so far: • Autopsies Reveal a March of Infant Deaths Tied to Unsafe Sleeping • Will State’s Makeover of Developmental Disabilities Wait List Be Fair to Families? • ‘Watch-Out’ Forum: Effects of State Budget Decisions on Children • Marijuana Drives Surge in Reports of Drug-Exposed Newborns • In School Sports, Hundreds of Concussions a Year Follow the series as it continues. HUNGER IN SCHOOLS A short but powerful series on the role that schools play, or could play, in addressing food insecurity. • Schools Forego Millions to Expand Meals for Kids • State’s Participation in Summer Meal Program Declines • Students Sometimes Face ‘Lunch Shaming’ When They Can’t Pay AT THE CAPITOL The 2017 legislative session, and the special session that followed, were consumed by a budget crisis and were especially contentious. Oklahoma Watch reporters, led by Trevor Brown, offered analysis and also tried different approaches to make sense of events: • Instead of writing a traditional story about Gov. Mary Fallin’s State of the State address, they annotated the speech. • Instead of churning out conventional daily articles, they live- tweeted debates, using text, photos, video, data, graphics and original documents. They often broke news. • Instead of dry incremental reports, they produced a rolling multimedia analysis of the special session. DEEP DATA As a part of the investigative reporting process, Oklahoma Watch journalists acquire extensive data. We verify, clean and analyze compelling data sets that are used to help tell our in- depth stories and are archived in searchable form on our Data SPONSORED BY Center web page. By expanding our data offerings, Oklahoma Watch has become even more of a destination resource for policymakers, elected officials, nonprofit advocates and other thought leaders who use the data for research. • ACT Scores for Public and Private High Schools • Oil and Gas Donations to Legislators • What Gifts from Lobbyists Did Your Lawmaker Receive? • Mapping Poverty in Oklahoma by Neighborhood • State and University Employees’ Salaries PUBLIC FORUMS Oklahoma Watch continued to offer informative and compelling “Oklahoma Watch-Out” public forums on important issues in the state.