WUSF Public Media was recognized recently for its outstanding work over the past year, receiving three regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for its pandemic, news and election coverage.
The WUSF newsroom won in two categories in the Large Market Radio Division for Continuing Coverage and Excellence in Innovation. Health News Florida won in the Small Market Radio News Series category.
“I think the coverage came to us, more than us coming to it,” said WUSF General Manager JoAnn Urofsky. “The past year has been truly extraordinary, and the news team stepped up to the challenge to inform and enlighten the residents of our state about the most vital issues we’ve seen in years – a contentious election, a worldwide pandemic and economic turmoil we have not seen in several generations.”
The team usually plans out what it will cover each year, but then the pandemic hit with a vengeance, nearly putting the election on the back burner, Urofsky said. “That wasn’t what was on people’s minds. People were thinking about the pandemic with the economic shutdown, isolation, the mental health issues that arose, the things to do so you would not get the coronavirus.”
The Continuing Coverage award recognizes the voter-centric collective work of the news staff on the 2020 presidential election. Examples included feature stories on the satellite meetings of the Iowa Caucus taking place in Florida, Republican women supporting President Trump, how Florida seniors were voting in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic, and the Hispanic vote in the Tampa Bay and Central Florida region, according to WUSF. An election-day newscast, live election night coverage and a segment from WUSF’s Florida Matters public affairs show filled out the entry.
The Excellence in Innovation award was given to “The State We’re In” created by WUSF and its collaborative partners at WMFE in Orlando, and the national public media community engagement initiative called America Amplified.
Health News Florida was recognized for “Committed,” a look at the state’s Baker Act, which allows Floridians to be committed, involuntarily, for psychiatric evaluation.
The project, edited by Health News Florida Editor Julio Ochoa and reported on by WFSU journalist Lynn Hatter, was conceived and produced as a project for the Fund for Journalism on Child Well-Being, a program of the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2020 National Fellowship.