The 2018 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting from the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School was awarded to Nina Martin of ProPublica and Renee Montagne of NPR for their investigative reporting series Lost Mothers.
The United States has the highest rate of maternal deaths in the developed world; NPR and ProPublica found at least half could be prevented with better care. The series tracked maternal deaths, saved lives by raising public awareness of post-birth complications, and prompted legislation in New Jersey and Texas.
“The mothers of America deserve the best medical care before, during, and after childbirth. We not only owe them that dignity—it is a moral imperative,” said Shorenstein Center Director Nicco Mele. “The state of that care, uncovered by Nina Martin and Renee Montagne’s reporting, deserves close scrutiny. The Goldsmith judges had the challenge of choosing one winner from a number of compelling, important stories this year. ‘Lost Mothers’ is undoubtedly deserving of this special recognition. An underreported story with a devastatingly human angle, their report shines a light on a problem all around us, but rarely told with such power and grace.”
My Four Months as a Private Prison Guard
Mother Jones reporter Shane Bauer spent four months working as a guard to get a deep look inside the secretive world of private prisons, exposing mismanagement. Within a few weeks, the Department of Justice announced it would end its use of private prisons and the Department of Homeland Security said it would consider doing the same.
Democracy’s Detectives: The Economics of Investigative Journalism
Hamilton chronicles a record of investigative journalism’s real-world impact, showing how a single dollar invested in a story can generate hundreds of dollars in social benefits.
Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency
In Republic of Spin―a vibrant history covering more than one hundred years of politics―presidential historian David Greenberg recounts the rise of the White House spin machine, from Teddy Roosevelt to Barack Obama. His sweeping, startling narrative takes us behind the scenes to see how the tools and techniques of image making and message craft work. We meet Woodrow Wilson convening the first White House press conference, Franklin Roosevelt huddling with his private pollsters, Ronald Reagan’s aides crafting his nightly news sound bites, and George W. Bush staging his “Mission Accomplished” photo-op. We meet, too, the backstage visionaries who pioneered new ways of gauging public opinion and mastering the media―figures like George Cortelyou, TR’s brilliantly efficient press manager; 1920s ad whiz Bruce Barton; Robert Montgomery, Dwight Eisenhower’s canny TV coach; and of course the key spinmeisters of our own times, from Roger Ailes to David Axelrod.
Jorge Ramos
Jorge Ramos has been the anchorman for Noticiero Univision since 1986. He writes a weekly column for more than 40 newspapers in the United States and Latin America, and provides daily radio commentary for the Radio Univision network. Ramos also hosts Al Punto, Univision’s weekly public affairs program offering analysis of the week’s top stories, and Fusion’s AMERICA with Jorge Ramos, a news program geared towards young adults. Ramos has won eight Emmy awards and is the author of ten books, most recently, A Country for All: An Immigrant Manifesto.
The Associated Press uncovered extensive use of slave labor in the Thai seafood industry, which supplies major U.S. supermarkets, restaurants, and food suppliers, such as Wal-Mart, Kroger, Sysco, Nestle, Whole Foods and Red Lobster. The investigation led to the freeing of more than 2,000 enslaved fishermen from Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, the jailing of perpetrators, congressional hearings and the proposal of new laws. The U.S. State Department used the series as part of its decision to give Thailand the lowest rating for human trafficking and has discussed the findings during diplomatic talks.
“‘Seafood from Slaves’ is investigative journalism at its best,” said Thomas E. Patterson, the Shorenstein Center’s interim director. “The story was extraordinarily difficult to uncover and its impact on people’s lives and public policy will last far into the future.”
Political Journalism in Comparative Perspective
Based on interviews with journalists, a systematic content analysis of political news, and panel survey data in different countries, this book tests how different systems and media-politics relations condition the contents of political news.
Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion
Holzer shows us an activist Lincoln through journalists who covered him from his start through to the night of his assassination—when one reporter ran to the box where Lincoln was shot and emerged to write the story covered with blood. In a wholly original way, Holzer shows us politicized newspaper editors battling for power, and a masterly president using the press to speak directly to the people and shape the nation.
Walter Isaacson
Walter Isaacson, former chairman and CEO of CNN, former editor of TIME, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, and author of bestselling books on Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin, received the 2016 Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism and delivered the keynote address, titled “Technology and Journalism.”
The Miami Herald examined how more than 500 children died of abuse or neglect over a seven-year period after falling through Florida’s child welfare safety net, largely as a result of a misguided effort to reduce the number of foster children while simultaneously slashing services for troubled families. The series prompted immediate reforms, including the most far-reaching overhaul of child welfare laws in Florida’s history.
