1. Provide the title of your story or series and the names of the journalists involved.
"Terrell Starks, 1986-2010: Amid pain, joy of life"
"Area researchers target the 'crisis' of lung cancer"
"A Weighty Decision"
"Out of the Shadows"
All by Laura Ungar.
2. List date(s) this work was published or aired.
1. Terrell Starks: May 26, 2010
2. Lung cancer: June 20, 2010
3. Weighty decision: Sept. 12, 2010
4. Out of the shadows: Nov. 1, 2010
3. Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
1. The Terrell Starks story is the conclusion of a project in which a reporter and photographer followed a man dying of sickle-cell disease. As he died, he taught others how to live.
2. The lung cancer story, part of a year-long series on medical discoveries in Kentucky, looks at renewed efforts to fight lung cancer, which kills Kentuckians at the highest rate in the nation. The disease has consistently been under-funded despite the fact that it's America's biggest cancer killer.
3. The "Weighty Decision" story looked at the controversy and hope surrounding obesity surgery as its popularity surges in a state with high rates of obesity.
4. "Out of the shadows" reported from India, traces the efforts of a University of Louisville psychologist who is working to spark a "mental health movement" to reduce the rising rates of suicide in India.
4. Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
The lung cancer and obesity surgery stories required lots of medical data from such sources as the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kentucky Cancer Registry. They also required the use of numerous medical studies. The story on suicide in India required similar medical data and studies. While some was relatively easy to find through the World Health Organization, some of the other data required understanding Indian government agencies and which had the best, appropriate data. Figuring that out, and finding the data, required significant extra reporting. The reporter had to request some disciplinary records for doctors under Kentucky's open records law to check on doctors performing obesity surgery, including one doctor whose patient died.
5. Explain types of human sources used.
All of the stories in this entry used people to illustrate them, and the Terrell Starks piece was focused entirely on a person's life and death. That story was the result of about five months of following Starks as he died and capturing his last days with his family and friends through a significant online project including video, an ongoing blog in real time and a Facebook page devoted to the story. Writing this story required gaining the trust of Starks and his family and being there at the most intimate of times.
6. Results (if any).
Readers called after all the stories to say they were touched or learned new things from them.
7. Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
No.
8. Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
To cover a complex, busy beat like medicine, my advice is not to get lost in constant crush of daily stories. You have to become a master juggler. It's important to remain open to good enterprise stories, because the beat is full of them. Also, using people to illustrate stories is crucial because they bring issues alive.