1. Provide the title of your story or series and the names of the journalists involved.
"Homeless and pregnant"
"A young abortion doctor's dilemma"
"An uncommon gift"
All by Megan Ogilvie.
2. List date(s) this work was published or aired.
"Homeless and pregnant," March 13, 2010
"A young abortion doctor's dilemma," Nov. 21, 2010
"An uncommon gift," Dec. 11, 2010
3. Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
In "Homeless and pregnant," Megan writes about the people who care for society's most downtrodden and desperate. Megan's first big obstacle was gaining the trust of the nurses, who are hugely protective of their clients. Then, Megan had to gain the trust of the women. The story chronicles the Homeless At-Risk Prenatal Program, the only one of its kind in North America, and tells readers about the nurses who help women with horrifically blighted pasts have the safest pregnancy possible.
For the story, "A young abortion doctor's dilemma," Megan wanted to find out who were the young doctors of today taking up medicine's most controversial surgery. It took her six months to research and write the story because so few doctors, at first, would speak to her about abortion training and practice. Her patience resulted in a story that tells the deeply personal journey of a young obstetrician who is trying to decide whether he will be an abortion provider.
In "An uncommon gift," Megan tells readers about the people, and their doctors, who agree to take part in transplant's most ethically precarious surgery. Toronto General Hospital has the only program in North America that allows people to donate half of their liver to a stranger. Megan spent one year on this story; it took her six months to get the hospital to agree to allow her to follow a donor into the operating room and an additional four months to find a donor who was willing to participate in the story.
4. Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Medical studies, position reports and internal documents were used as in traditional journalism. No FOI or public records act requests were required.
5. Explain types of human sources used.
Human sources were key to each of these three stories. Megan's goal was to tell stories that hadn't been told in Canada before. To do this, she had to cultivate sources, gain the trust of professionals and patients and wait for the right people to tell the stories. For all three stories, Megan waited from between six months and one year. Some reporters' strength is in investigations. Megan's is getting people to open up and to tell their story.
6. Results (if any).
The results for each of these stories were in the response from readers. For "Homeless and Pregnant" readers offered funds to the HARP program, an 80-year-old man who raised money through his church; and the nurses were asked to talk about their innovative program at conferences. For "An abortion doctor's dilemma," women wrote in with their personal stories of having an abortion, often telling Megan this was the first time they had told anyone else about their experience. She was overwhelmed with the response. And after "An uncommon gift" was published, Toronto General Hospital had more than 20 people offer their liver to a stranger within the first week. Doctors and patients from the hospital wrote to Megan to tell her the story gave them hope that people cared about their plight while they waited for an organ.
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.
None.
8. Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
Be patient and persistent. A story may take a year to come together. The great thing about being a beat reporter is the opportunities beyond the daily news. Every person you talk to a news story is a source or the start of a feature story. Twp of these stories came from a daily news assignment. "Homeless and pregnant" from a Board of Health meeting. "An uncommon gift" from a provincial report on organ donation rates. Take people out for coffee. Always be straightforward with what story you want to tell. If you are honest, sincere and open, people will tell their story.