In 2021, MuckRock created an editorial unit to operate as a hybrid newsroom and journalism support organization. Now, the editorial team has been recognized by national organizations for its journalism.
MuckRock has won the First Amendment Coalition’s Free Speech and Open Government Award for its data journalism collaborations. These partnered projects included “The Air We Breathe” with the Cicero Independente, “Smoked, Screened” with NPR’s California Newsroom and the Guardian, and the “Atomic Fallout” project with The Missouri Independent and The Associated Press.
MuckRock was “honored for its innovative data investigation collaborations with newsrooms large and small across the country, achieving significant change for communities,” according to FAC’s announcement.
MuckRock has also been named a finalist for the National Institute for Health Care Management, or NIHCM, Awards in journalism and research, in the investigative and general reporting category, in partnership with STAT News, for “The NIH has poured $1 billion into long Covid research — with little to show for it.”
The reporting found that the NIH spent the majority of $1 billion on broader, observational research that would not directly bring relief to patients.
The Raleigh News and Observer and the Charlotte Observer — “When Birth Brings Death” about the maternal mortality crisis in the U.S., largely facing Black mothers — is also a finalist in the Data-Driven Storytelling Award category.
Prompted by MuckRock’s release of new mortality data by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and state agencies, reporters from the North Carolina-based newsrooms set out to examine why more women in that state are dying of pregnancy-related complications.
MuckRock’s editorial team has also been short-listed in this year’s Sigma Awards as one of six finalists for best overall data journalism portfolio. The Sigma Awards is a competition to “celebrate the best data journalism from around the world.”
