Wallace House Presents “Duterte’s Facebook-Fueled Rise to Power: Manipulating Public Opinion to Capture an Election”

Wallace House Presents Davey Alba of The New York Times and 2019 Livingston Award winner with Ceren Budak of the School of Information and College of Engineering 

Wednesday, January 29 | 4 – 5:30 p.m.
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Annenberg Auditorium
Free and open to the public

Watch the discussion here »

Join the Conversation

In 2018, journalist Davey Alba traveled to the Philippines to investigate Facebook’s breakneck proliferation in that country and President Rodrigo Duterte’s rise to power. She revealed how the politician’s incendiary style aligned perfectly with the tech company’s algorithms that reward entertaining, inflammatory content. From maligning opponents to espousing hardline policies to combat the drug trade, Duterte’s operatives created memes, propaganda and egregious libel that flourished on Facebook. Join Alba and Ceren Budak, associate professor, University of Michigan, for an examination of how demagogic political campaigns worldwide have weaponized the social media platform.

About the Speakers

Davey Alba is a reporter for The New York Times covering technology. Prior to joining the Times, she was a senior reporter at BuzzFeed News. She has been a staff writer at Wired and an editor at Popular Mechanics. Alba grew up in the Philippines and holds a B.A. degree from De La Salle University in Manila and an M.A. in science journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She received the 2019 Livingston Award for international reporting for her BuzzFeed investigation  “How Duterte Used Facebook to Fuel the Philippine Drug War“.

Ceren Budak is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Information and the College of Engineering. Her research interests lie in the area of computational social science, a discipline at the intersection of computer science, statistics and the social sciences.  Previously, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft Research New York. Budak received a Ph.D. from the computer science department at University of California, Santa Barbara and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Bilkent University in Turkey.

About the Moderator

Molly Kleinman is the program manager of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy program at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. She studies higher education policy, access to information, and faculty experiences with technology. Kleinman received a Ph.D. in higher education policy from the University of Michigan Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, a M.S. degree in information from the University of Michigan School of Information, and a B.A. degree in English and gender studies from Bryn Mawr College.

This Livingston Lecture event is co-sponsored by the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the Science, Technology and Public Policy Program.

This event is produced with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

2019 Livingston Winners Announced

2019 Livingston Award winners (counter-clockwise from top right): Kate Wells, Lindsey Smith, Chris Outcalt, Davey Alba and Rob Hiaasen, recipient of the Richard M. Clurman Award

 

Stories about the women who brought down U.S.A. Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, the murder of a gang leader at the highest security prison in the U.S., and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s Facebook-fueled rise to power won the Livingston Awards today. The $10,000 prizes honor outstanding achievement in local, national and international reporting and recognize the best journalism by professionals under age 35 across of all platforms, including text, visual and audio storytelling.

 

The Livingston Awards also honored the late Rob Hiaasen of the Capital Gazette with the Richard M. Clurman Award for mentoring. The $5,000 prize is given each year to an experienced journalist who has played an active role in guiding and nurturing the careers of young reporters. The prize is named for the late Richard M. Clurman, former chief of correspondents for Time-Life News Service and architect of the Livingston Awards.

 

Funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the University of Michigan to support the vital role of a free and independent press, the awards bolster the work of young reporters, create the next generation of journalism leaders and mentors, and advance civic engagement around powerful storytelling. Other sponsors include the Indian Trial Charitable Foundation, the Mollie Parnis Livingston Foundation, Christiane Amanpour, and Dr. Gil Omenn and Martha Darling.

 

Livingston Awards national judges Anna Quindlen, author, Ken Auletta of The New Yorker and Bret Stephens of The New York Times, and Livingston Awards regional judge, Stephen Henderson of WDET (Detroit) introduced the winners today at a luncheon in New York City.

 

“This year’s winners represent exceptional reporting and storytelling, illuminating both personal journeys and systemic failings,” says Livingston Awards Director Lynette Clemetson. “Whether through ubiquitous social platforms, elite athletics or prison gangs, these stories expand public understanding of how powerful networks are manipulated and exploited.”

 

The 2019 winners for work published in 2018 are:

 

Local Reporting

Lindsey Smith and Kate Wells of Michigan Radio and NPR for the podcast series “Believed,” a haunting and multifaceted account of U.S.A. Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar’s belated arrest and an intimate look at how an army of women – a detective, a prosecutor and survivors – brought down the serial sex offender.

 

“Big stories wind up told in broad strokes. Instead of amplifying their power, that sometimes makes them less accessible as human drama. Lindsey Smith and Kate Wells of Michigan Radio decided to go the other way, which is why their pieces on Larry Nassar grabbed me by the throat,” says Anna Quindlen. “They illuminate, not the judicial process, but the people: the uber-mom who won’t back down from a fight, the father who never suspected and whose torment suffuses his voice, the investigators and, of course, the survivors. These reporters use the small details of a big story to give it a human scale.”

 

National Reporting

Chris Outcalt of The Atavist Magazine for “Murder at the Alcatraz of the Rockies,” a riveting narrative of a prison murder committed under the gaze of security cameras, a rookie FBI agent and the inner workings of the Mexican Mafia, a criminal prison organization spawned in California juvenile facilities in the 1950s.

 

“The best journalism doesn’t always cover the best-known stories. Chris Outcalt’s extraordinary reporting introduces readers to sides of American life few people will ever see: life within the country’s most secure prison, an infamous gang’s rules of violence and honor, and the decade-long investigation and trial of a killing that is nothing like the open-and-shut case it first appears to be,” says Bret Stephens. “Outcalt’s writing grips the reader’s attention from the first sentence to the last and doesn’t waste a word. It reminds us at every turn of the humanity of our most dangerous felons, the complexity of their motives, and the difficulty of ascertaining truth and doing justice.”

 

International Reporting

Davey Alba of Buzzfeed News for “How Duterte Used Facebook to Fuel the Philippine Drug War,” a sweeping investigation of Facebook’s breakneck proliferation in the Philippines and how President Rodrigo Duterte’s regime weaponized the social media platform to spread fake news, imprison dissenters and murder innocent Filipinos.

 

“Davey Alba’s reporting brings home the immense power of digital platforms. We see how Facebook created the ultimate walled garden in the Philippines by subsidizing the Internet, thus making Facebook synonymous not just with getting online but as the primary source of news,” says Ken Auletta. “By relying on algorithms rather than humans to police news and content, Facebook ignored how fake news went viral and was used by a corrupt government to punish opponents, sometimes with death. Rather than hire editors to police false news, Facebook engineers hubristically believed their algorithms would do the job, thus saving money. This is what they’ve done around the world, with sometimes bloody consequences.”

 

Mentoring Award

The late Rob Hiaasen was honored with the Richard M. Clurman Award for his newsroom commitment to counseling, nurturing and inspiring young journalists. Hiaasen was the assistant editor and columnist at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland and a lecturer at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism. In June 2018, he was killed in a mass shooting at the Capital Gazette offices, along with Gerald Fischman, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith and Wendi Winters, in the deadliest attack on journalists in the United States on record. In a video tribute at the luncheon, former colleagues spoke about Hiaasen’s influence on their writing, approach to storytelling and his encouragement of young journalists.

 

In addition to Quindlen, Stephens and Auletta, the Livingston national judging panel includes Christiane Amanpour of CNNi and PBS; Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune; Dean Baquet of The New York Times; John Harris of Politico; María Elena Salinas, independent journalist and producer; and Kara Swisher of Recode.

 

About the Livingston Awards:

The Livingston Awards for Young Journalists are the most prestigious honor for professional journalists under the age of 35 and are the largest all-media, general reporting prizes in American journalism. Entries from print, online, visual and audio storytelling are judged against one another, as technology blurs distinctions between traditional platforms. The $10,000 prizes are awarded annually for local, national and international reporting. The Livingston Awards are a program of Wallace House at the University of Michigan, home to the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Wallace House Presents event series. Learn more at wallacehouse.umich.edu/Livingston-awards.

 

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

The Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. The foundation believes that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit:  knightfoundation.org.

The Threat to Global Press Freedom: Censorship, Imprisonment and Murder

Vanessa Gezari, Itai Anghel, Leonard Niehoff and Jawad Sukhanyar
Clockwise: Vanessa Gezari, Itai Anghel, Leonard Niehoff and Jawad Sukhanyar

Knight-Wallace Fellows Vanessa Gezari, Itai Anghel and Jawad Sukhanyar with media law scholar Leonard Niehoff at the Eisendrath Symposium

March 26, 2019 | 3 p.m.
Rackham Amphitheatre, fourth floor
915 Washington Street, Ann Arbor

Watch the discussion »

 

 

 

On stage with the foreign correspondents of Wallace House at the Eisendrath Symposium

Harmful rhetoric towards journalists and the press casts doubt about the future of a free press and the safety of reporters. This was evident following the murders of five staff members at the Capital Gazette and Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. As democratic nations fall short in protecting press freedom, what are the implications for journalists of all nations? In alarming numbers, reporters around the world are persecuted, jailed, exiled and even killed for exposing the truth.

Knight-Wallace journalists Vanessa Gezari of The Intercept, Itai Anghel of Israeli TV, and Jawad Sukhanyar of The New York Times discuss how threats and state censorship impact their work. In a discussion led by the University’s media law and First Amendment scholar Professor Leonard Niehoff, they share their experiences reporting from Eastern Europe, the Middle East, South Asia and Africa and discuss what can be done to protect journalists and foster press freedom around the world.

The Eisendrath Symposium honors Charles R. Eisendrath, former director of Wallace House, and his lifelong commitment to international journalism.

 

About the Speakers

Vanessa Gezari is a 2012 Knight-Wallace Fellow and The Intercept’s national security editor. She has reported from four continents, nine countries, and many corners of the United States for outlets such as the Washington Post, Slate and the New Republic. She is the author of “The Tender Soldier,” about an experimental U.S. military program and its use in Afghanistan, and an adjunct professor at Columbia Journalism School.

Itai Anghel is a 2019 Knight-Wallace Fellow and a correspondent and documentary filmmaker for UVDA, a weekly investigative current affairs and documentary program on Israeli TV, Channel 2, where he also worked as a senior foreign affairs correspondent. Previously, he was a correspondent and chief editor of foreign affairs at Galatz (GLZ) Radio Station. He received the Sokolov Award, the highest award for outstanding journalism in Israel, in 2017, and he is a five-time recipient of the Best TV Documentary in Israel award from the Israeli Forum of Documentary Filmmakers.

Jawad Sukhanyar is a 2019 Knight-Wallace Fellow and a reporter for The New York Times in Afghanistan. He joined the Times in 2011 and is now the longest serving reporter in the paper’s Kabul bureau. Sukhanyar covers human rights and women’s issues and also covered the 2014 disputed Afghan presidential election. He worked as a researcher on a book about a couple who escaped an Afghan honor killing for the author Rod Nordland. Until 2011, he was a freelance reporter and researcher for various foreign news organizations. He also served as interpreter and researcher on a biography of former Afghan president Hamid Karzai for the author Bette Dam.

About the Moderator
Leonard Niehoff  is a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, where he teaches courses in Media Law, First Amendment, and the history of banned books, among other things. He is the author of more than one-hundred articles, many in the field of free speech, and is currently at work on a book about the First Amendment. He has also practiced media and First Amendment law for over thirty years, representing numerous print publications, broadcasters, online media, and journalists. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School.

 

Free and open to the public.

This event is produced with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Michigan Radio and the Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies are co-sponsors of the event.

How to report and produce break-out work: Exploring Livingston Award winning investigations

Michael S. Schmidt, Christina Goldbaum, Chris Davis

Livingston Awards winners Michael S. Schmidt and Christina Goldbaum speak with Chris Davis at 2018 IRE Orlando

June 15 | 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Oceans 4
2018 IRE Orlando

 

Meet the 2018 winners of the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists. From landing their first journalism jobs to breaking investigative award-winning pieces, they will examine ways to get noticed, dig deeper and tell powerful stories.

Panelists:

  • Michael S. Schmidt, 2018 Livingston Award winner for national reporting. A full year before the #MeToo movement gained traction, Michael Schmidt and Emily Steel dug into a decade old lawsuit filed against Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly. What the Times’ team uncovered would lead to the discovery of $45 million in sexual harassment settlements involving O’Reilly and topple cable news’ biggest star.Schmidt is a Washington correspondent for The New York Times. For the past year, his coverage has focused on Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into links between Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia and whether the president obstructed justice.
  • Christina Goldbaum, 2018 Livingston Award winner for international reporting. Christina Goldbaum’s on-the-ground reporting on growing U.S. military engagement and counter-terrorism efforts in Africa has become essential reading. In her series for The Daily Beast, Goldbaum pieced together a military raid that is alleged to have resulted in the deaths of 10 Somali civilians, including at least one child.Goldbaum is an independent journalist based in Mogadishu. She has written for The New York Times, Foreign Policy, USA Today, The Daily Beast, VICE and The Wall Street Journal, and has produced TV segments for “PBS NewsHour,” Netflix and “VICE News Tonight” on HBO.

Moderator:

  • Chris Davis, Vice-President for Investigative Journalism at Gannett and Livingston Awards judge. Davis oversees USA Today’s major investigative efforts at Gannett’s newspapers across the country, providing guidance to national, regional and local watchdog projects. Previously, he was the deputy editor for investigations and data at the Tampa Bay Times. As an I-team editor, he led investigations that earned three Pulitzer Prizes and two Livingston Awards.

 

Sponsored by the Knight Foundation

2018 Livingston Winners Announced

2018 Livingston Award winners (clockwise from top left): Riham Feshir, Tracy Mumford, Meg Martin, Ronan Farrow, Emily Steel, Michael S. Schmidt, Christina Goldbaum and Walt Mossberg, recipient of the Richard M. Clurman Award

 

The Livingston Awards for Young Journalists were awarded today to stories that exemplified the best in investigative reporting and narrative storytelling across platforms.  The winners included a podcast exploring a traffic stop that ended in a fatal police shooting streamed on social media, print exposés detailing explosive sexual assault allegations against Bill O’Reilly and Harvey Weinstein, and an investigation into a U.S. military operation that killed Somali civilians. The awards recognize the best journalism by professionals under age 35 across of all platforms, including text, visual and audio storytelling.

 

The $10,000 prizes honor outstanding achievement in local, national and international reporting. In this exceptional year, the Livingston judges awarded two winners in the national reporting category for stories that led to the #MeToo movement and a national shift in recognition of sexual harassment, assault and abuse of power.

 

The Livingston Awards also honored Walt Mossberg with the Richard M. Clurman Award for mentoring. The $5,000 prize is given each year to an experienced journalist who has played an active role in guiding and nurturing the careers of young reporters. The prize is named for the late Richard M. Clurman, former chief of correspondents for Time-Life News Service and architect of the Livingston Awards.

 

Livingston judges María Elena Salinas of Investigation Discovery, Ken Auletta of The New Yorker, Dean Baquet of The New York Times, John Harris of Politico and Kara Swisher of Recode introduced the winners today at a luncheon in New York City.

 

“These winners represent the power of fearless reporting across a range of journalistic forms,” said Livingston Awards Director Lynette Clemetson. “With reporting that catapulted issues to national prominence and unpacked complex topics through long-form exploration, this year’s winners demonstrate the social and political impact of ambitious journalism.”

 

The 2018 winners for work published in 2017 are:

 

Local Reporting

Riham Feshir, Meg Martin and Tracy Mumford of Minnesota Public Radio News, for the podcast series, “74 Seconds,” a deconstruction of the July 2016 shooting death of Philando Castile by police officer Jeronimo Yanez and coverage of the ensuing trial. Through meticulous and balanced reporting, the series put a human face on both the victim and the officer who pulled the trigger.

 

“Listeners told us that they came away with a better understanding of the criminal justice system, police training, gun rights and race,” said Feshir. “They said they were more empathetic and engaged citizens after listening to our stories.”

 

National Reporting

Ronan Farrow of The New Yorker, for “Investigation of Harvey Weinstein,” a groundbreaking exposé on the alleged assault and rape by Hollywood powerbroker, Harvey Weinstein, and the sprawling system of spies the producer employed to keep the stories silent. Farrow’s investigation unleashed the #MeToo movement and precipitated the criminal investigation and arrest of Weinstein.

 

“Helping to share the stories of survivors of sexual harassment and assault has been deeply rewarding. These women did a great service for survivors everywhere,” Farrow said. “What they did – and continue to do – is incredibly brave.”

 

National Reporting

Emily Steel and Michael S. Schmidt of The New York Times, for “O’Reilly Thrives, Then Falls, as Settlements Add Up,” an investigation uncovering $45 million in sexual harassment settlements involving Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly. Steel and Schmidt’s stories ignited media outlets everywhere to report on allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse against powerful men and emboldened a progression of women to come forward and tell their own stories of sexual abuse.

 

“It’s just been so amazing to see how much the world has started to change,” said Steel. “Article after article, woman after woman found the courage to share their stories and the world listened.”

 

International Reporting

Christina Goldbaum, of The Daily Beast, for “Strong Evidence that U.S. Special Operations Forces Massacred Civilians in Somalia,” an on-the-ground investigation of a botched U.S. military raid that is alleged to have resulted in the deaths of 10 Somali civilians, including at least one child. While stories of conflict in Africa fell off the radars of many American news outlets, Goldberg was there to shine a light on growing U.S. military engagement and counter-terrorism efforts in the region.

 

“Reporting this story demonstrated to me in real world terms how the perpetrators of violent crimes will take any measures to protect themselves, and that justice for victims of those crimes is both elusive and a feat worth striving towards, no matter how difficult attaining it can be,” said Goldbaum, whose work was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

 

Mentoring Award

Walt Mossberg was honored with the Richard M. Clurman Award for his commitment to fostering the careers of numerous technology reporters. Mossberg is the creator of the Personal Technology column in The Wall Street Journal and co-founder of AllThingsD, Recode and the Code Conference. In a video tribute at the luncheon, several technology reporters spoke about Mossberg’s influence on their careers.  View video>>

 

In addition to Salinas, Auletta, Baquet and Swisher, the Livingston judging panel includes Christiane Amanpour of CNNi and PBS; Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune; Anna Quindlen, author; and Bret Stephens of The New York Times.

 

Funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the University of Michigan to support the vital role of a free and independent press, the awards bolster the work of young reporters, create the next generation of journalism leaders and advance civic engagement around powerful storytelling. Other sponsors include the Indian Trial Charitable Foundation, the Mollie Parnis Livingston Foundation, Christiane Amanpour and Dr. Gil Omenn and Martha Darling.

China’s Soft Power: Understanding Beijing’s Growing Worldwide Influence

Louisa Lim, Mark Magnier and Dayo Aiyetan

Knight-Wallace Fellows Louisa Lim, Mark Magnier and Dayo Aiyetan at the Eisendrath Symposium

March 20, 2018 | 3 p.m.
Rackham Amphitheatre, fourth floor
915 Washington Street, Ann Arbor

Watch the discussion
Have a question about the topic? Tweet using #WallaceHouse.

 

 

On stage with the foreign correspondents of Wallace House
China’s move to change the constitution, allowing President Xi Jinping to remain in power, could have a major impact on its global influence. A panel of Knight-Wallace international journalists examines China’s growing clout and how this power is being deployed around the world, with implications for media, academia and the entertainment industry. Is Beijing already influencing what we read and watch or are fears of its influence overblown?

The Eisendrath Symposium honors Charles R. Eisendrath, former director of Wallace House, and his lifelong commitment to international journalism.

 

About the Speakers
Dayo Aiyetan is a 2018 Knight-Wallace Fellow,  investigative reporter and founder and executive director of the International Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news agency in Abuja, Nigeria. In this role, he has trained more than 100 reporters, aiming to promote a culture of data-driven accountability journalism in Nigeria.

Louisa Lim is a 2014 Knight-Wallace Fellow and the author of “The People’s Republic of Amnesia; Tiananmen Revisited.” She reported from China for a decade for NPR and the BBC. She is now a senior lecturer in Audio Visual Journalism at the University of Melbourne and the co-host of the “Little Red Podcast,” a monthly podcast focusing on China beyond the Beijing beltway.

Mark Magnier is a 2018 Knight-Wallace Fellow and the Beijing-based China economics editor for The Wall Street Journal, where he oversees coverage of the world’s second-largest economy and its seismic impact on Chinese society and the rest of the world. Previously, he served as bureau chief in New Delhi, Beijing and Tokyo for the Los Angeles Times.

 

About the Moderator
Mary Gallagher is a professor of political science at the University of Michigan, where she is also the director of the Center for Chinese Studies, and a faculty associate at the Center for Comparative Political Studies at the Institute for Social Research. Her research areas are Chinese politics, comparative politics of transitional and developing states, and law and society.

 

Free and open to the public.

For questions about the event email: WallaceHouseEvents@umich.edu

This event is produced with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Michigan Radio is a co-sponsor of the event.

2017 Livingston Winners Announced

2017 Livingston Award Winners: Claire Galofaro, Brooke Jarvis, Ben Taub and the late Gwen Ifill

 

Stories about economic despair in Appalachia, the human toll of border crossings, and President Bashar al-Assad’s authorization of mass murder in Syria won the Livingston Awards today. The $10,000 prizes for journalists under the age of 35 are the largest all-media, general-reporting prizes in the country.

The Livingston Awards also honored the late Gwen Ifill with the Richard M. Clurman Award for on-the-job mentoring. The $5,000 prize named for the late Richard M. Clurman, former chief of correspondents for Time-Life Service and architect of the Livingston Awards.

Livingston judges María Elena Salinas of Univision News, Kara Swisher of Recode and Code Conference and Bret Stephens of The New York Times introduced the winners today at a luncheon in New York City. Former Livingston judge and winner, Michele Norris presented the Richard M. Clurman Award.

“These winners underscore the vital work and absolute necessity of journalism in documenting the human experience,” says Livingston Awards Director Lynette Clemetson. “Through meticulous reporting and exceptional storytelling these reporters crafted richly detailed, affecting narratives that added depth, nuance and new understanding to often oversimplified issues.”

The 2017 winners for work published in 2016 are:

Local Reporting

Claire Galofaro, 34, of The Associated Press, for the series “Surviving Appalachia,” a devastating portrait of a rural landscape on the brink of extinction. Galofaro examines the rise of Donald Trump, captures the despair of hundreds of people betrayed by a crooked lawyer’s disability fraud scheme and documents a day in a small West Virginia city where 28 people overdose in a four-hour period.

“The lesson I learned most vividly from reporting these stories is that a generally-improving American economy means nothing to people who look out their window and see only devastation and decay,” says Galofaro. “There is a consequence of forsaking these blue collar places.”

 

National Reporting

Brooke Jarvis, 32, of The California Sunday Magazine, for “Unclaimed,” an investigative narrative about an unidentified migrant bed-bound in a San Diego hospital for 16 years and the networks of immigrant families searching for their missing loved ones.

“We talk constantly about immigration and immigration reform without enough understanding of the human lives that are involved,” says Jarvis. “I think the more we can empathize with people, instead of thinking of them a abstractions, the better off we all are.”

 

International Reporting

Ben Taub, 25, of The New Yorker, for “The Assad Files,” an investigation revealing the workings of an independent agency and their efforts to capture and smuggle government documents that link mass torture and killings in Syria to the highest levels of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

“Everyone knew that the Assad regime was committing an astonishing array of war crimes and crimes against humanity,” says Taub. “But for me, what mattered was showing not only that these crimes were taking place but also that they can be traced back to orders that Assad had signed – that his criminal culpability is not in question. If international law is credibly applied in Syria, this is the body of evidence that will be used against Assad in court.”

 

On-the-Job Mentoring

The late Gwen Ifill was honored with the Richard M. Clurman Award for her commitment to counseling, nurturing and inspiring young journalists. Ifill served as co-anchor and managing editor of “PBS NewsHour and moderator and managing editor of “Washington Week” until her death in November 2016. Her family will donate the prize money to the Gwen Ifill Fund for Journalism Excellence established by WETA, her public broadcasting home.

“Gwen provided counsel and guidance to hundreds of journalists in a way that was not available to her as a young journalist,” says Rochelle Riley, columnist for the Detroit Free Press. “She rose to the top of her profession, all with one hand reached behind her back to help others rise.”

 

Funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the University of Michigan to support the vital role of a free and independent press, the awards bolster the work of young reporters, create the next generation of journalism leaders and advance civic engagement around powerful storytelling.

Leaks, Whistleblowers and Big Data: Collaborative Journalism Across Borders

Obermayer, Guevara, Richard Perrin

 

Wallace House Presents the investigative journalists behind The Panama Papers and Luxembourg Leaks at the inaugural Eisendrath Symposium

February 20, 2017 | 3 p.m.
Rackham Amphitheatre, fourth floor
915 Washington Street, Ann Arbor

Event is free and open to the public.

 Watch the full video of the event.

 

A panel of Knight-Wallace Fellows and the deputy director for The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) will share their stories about the biggest data leaks in history, the establishment of global networks for investigative reporters and the seismic impact of collaborative journalism.

The Eisendrath Symposium honors Charles R. Eisendrath, former director of Wallace House, and his lifelong commitment to international journalism.

It is produced with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Michigan Radio is a co-sponsor of the event.

Will Potter, a 2016 Knight-Wallace Fellow and Marsh Professor of Journalism at the University of Michigan, will moderate the discussion.

Panelists:

  • Bastian Obermayer is a 2017 Knight-Wallace Fellow and deputy head of the investigative unit for Süddeutsche Zeitung, the largest national daily newspaper in Germany. He is the reporter initially contacted by the anonymous source of The Panama Papers. Obermayer is also the author of several books, the most recent of which is the story of The Panama Papers.
  • Marina Walker Guevara is the deputy director of The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). A native of Argentina, she has reported from a half-dozen countries and her investigations have won more than 25 national and international awards. Walker Guevara managed some of journalism’s most consequential investigations on global corruption including The Panama Papers, which involved more than 370 reporters from 107 media organizations in 76 countries. Other investigations include Swiss Leaks, Luxembourg Leaks and Offshore Leaks.
  • Edouard Perrin was a 2016 Knight-Wallace Fellow and is a documentary investigative reporter for Premières Lignes Télévision in Paris. He is the reporter who revealed Luxembourg’s secret tax deals with major international corporations in 2012, the story that morphed into Luxembourg Leaks. He produced two documentaries on the topic, earning him several awards and a criminal indictment in Luxembourg. Acquitted in June 2016, Luxembourg appealed the initial decision and retried Perrin in December 2016. A new verdict is expected on March 15, 2017.
  • Laurent Richard is a 2017 Knight-Wallace Fellow, investigative journalist and editor-in-chief of Premières Lignes, a television production and news agency based in Paris. He oversaw Premières Lignes Télévision’s coverage of the Luxembourg Leaks in 2014. Richard is currently developing a collaborative journalism network devoted to publishing the work of reporters who are threatened, jailed or killed.

Michigan Radio is a co-sponsor of the event.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation is a national foundation with strong local roots. We invest in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Our goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, which we believe are essential for a healthy democracy. For more, visit knightfoundation.org.

 

 

In Support of Our International Community Following Executive Order on Immigration

We at Wallace House, home of the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Livingston Awards, remain steadfast in support of our international Fellows and of the alumni and community who make our programs stronger. Welcoming international Fellows to Wallace House for an academic year of research and study at University of Michigan is central to our work, our mission and our values.

As we proceed through application season for our 2017-18 Fellows, we will continue to follow closely changes to U.S. policy and practices on immigration. Political decisions regarding immigration policy will not affect our evaluation or acceptance of applicants.

Wallace House exists to support the work and development of journalists. In doing so, we support the essential work of journalism to inform and engage the public, to pursue and present verifiable facts and complex truths and to hold the powerful to account. Welcoming international journalists enriches our mission. We will not shut our mouths. And we will not restrict our welcome.

Lynette Clemetson,
The Charles R. Eisendrath Director of Wallace House
Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Livingston Awards
University of Michigan

2016 Livingston Winners Announced

2016 Livingston winners
2016 Livingston Winners. Front row: Michael LaForgia, Lisa Gartner, Charles Eisendrath, Adrian Chen. Back row: Nathaniel Lash, Daniel Wagner, Mike Baker

 

Stories about re-segregation and the neglect of black students, the predatory practices of Warren Buffet’s mobile-home empire, and the spread of pro-Kremlin propaganda on social media won the 2016 Livingston Awards. The $10,000 prizes for journalists under the age of 35 are the largest all-media, general-reporting prizes in the country.

The Livingston Awards also honor an on-the-job mentor with a $5,000 prize named for the late Richard M. Clurman, former chief of correspondents for Time-Life Service (1960-1969) and originator of the Livingston Awards.

Funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the University of Michigan to support a new emphasis on digital media efforts, the program continues to see an increase in digital submissions, with 21-percent more than in 2015. Since the funding initiative began two years ago, the number of digital entries increased 125 percent. The overall number of entries increased 53 percent.

Livingston judges Dean Baquet of The New York Times, John Harris of POLITICO, Kara Swisher of Recode and Code Conference, and Ken Auletta of The New Yorker introduced the winners at a luncheon in New York City.

“The judges have a remarkable record in singling out for early recognition journalists who go on to leadership, including Thomas Friedman, Christiane Amanpour and David Remnick,” said Charles R. Eisendrath, founding director of the program at the University of Michigan. “Adding a prize for mentors who provide indispensable guidance at critical moments in a developing career help complete an important circle of celebration.”

The 2016 winners for work published in 2015 are:

Local Reporting

Lisa Gartner, 28, Michael LaForgia, 32 and Nathaniel Lash, 24, of Tampa Bay Times, for “Failure Factories,” an investigation into the high failure rates and violence in five Florida elementary schools.

In 2007, the Pinellas County School Board voted to end racial integration and then failed to deliver on promises of more money, staff and resources to re-segregated schools. Analyzing mountains of data and interviewing more than 100 parents, students, teachers and administrators, the reporters found the five elementary schools had more violent incidents than all of Pinellas County’s other 17 high schools combined.

“We wanted to dig deeper into why our black students were failing at the worst rates in the state,” says Gartner, the Times’ education reporter. “The data led us to what the story was: these five schools and the 2007 vote.”

National Reporting

Mike Baker, 31, of The Seattle Times and Daniel Wagner, 34, of The Center for Public Integrity and BuzzFeed News, for “The Mobile-Home Trap,” an investigation into the predatory practices of Warren Buffet’s mobile-home empire. The series revealed how Clayton Homes, a part of the Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate, and its lending subsidiaries target minority homebuyers and lock them into ruinous high-interest loans.

“Our story showed that Clayton had not reinvented and perfected mobile-home lending, but instead had quietly bought up much of the rest of the industry, creating a near monopoly in many markets,” says Daniel Wagner. “In addition, it showed how reverse redlining, a practice typically associated with lending to urban minorities, is a serious problem in rural areas.”

International Reporting

Adrian Chen, 31, of The New York Times Magazine, for “The Agency,” an investigation into an internet trolling organization located in St. Petersburg, Russia, responsible for spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda and manufacturing false stories about unrest and disaster in the United States.

“The Russian government has been successful at using the internet to discredit political opposition and spread pro-government propaganda,” says Chen. “We think of the internet as enabling revolutions and protests, but it seems equally useful as a technology of government control.”

On-the-Job Mentoring

Charles R. Eisendrath received the Richard M. Clurman Award for his dedication to mentoring young journalists. A former Time correspondent based in Washington D.C., London, Paris and Buenos Aires, Eisendrath came to the University of Michigan as a Journalism Fellow in 1974. He stayed to join the University faculty and later head the master’s program for journalism. In 1980, Richard Clurman asked Eisendrath to design and direct the Livingston Awards. In 1986, Eisendrath became the third director of the Michigan Journalism Fellowships and transformed a financially strapped sabbatical program into the prestigious, globetrotting Knight-Wallace Fellowships and built a $60 million endowment to maintain them in perpetuity. For four decades, he positively influenced the careers and lives of hundreds of journalists. Eisendrath, who is retiring, will donate his prize money to the Livingston Awards endowment.

In addition to Auletta, Baquet, Harris and Swisher, the Livingston judging panel includes Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international correspondent and host of “Amanpour;” Ellen Goodman, author and co-founder of The Conversation Project; Clarence Page, syndicated columnist and editorial board member of the Chicago Tribune; and Anna Quindlen, author.