Economic Hardship Reporting Project

Last updated

Economic Hardship Reporting Project
Type of site
Journalism
Headquarters
New York City
,
US
Created by Barbara Ehrenreich
Editors
URL economichardship.org
CommercialNo

The Economic Hardship Reporting Project (EHRP) is an U.S. nonprofit organization that supports independent journalists covering social inequality and issues surrounding economic justice. Founded by Barbara Ehrenreich, it funds and co-publishes independent journalism at publications including the New York Times , the Guardian, the New Yorker, Teen Vogue , and Vice with the aim to mobilize readers of these mainstream outlets to query and disrupt systems that perpetuate economic hardship.

Contents

EHRP's work has been profiled by outlets such as Vogue, Forbes, Democracy Now!, the Nonprofit Quarterly , Wisconsin Public Radio, and the International Journalists Network. Its executive director is Alissa Quart.

History

Inspired by the Farm Security Administration and the Works Progress Administration New Deal initiatives of the Great Depression, EHRP was founded in 2012 by writer, journalist, and activist Barbara Ehrenreich in response to the 2008 recession and with the aim to help working-class journalists stay in the field. [1] In a 2015 article published in the Guardian , she wrote, "In America, only the rich can afford to write about poverty," summing up the media climate EHRP aims to transform. [2] In 2022, EHRP's executive director Alissa Quart told Columbia Magazine:

"Around 30,000 newspaper reporters lost their jobs between 2008 and 2015. Media tends to be made by rich people, for middle-class people, about poor people. We exist in part to change that equation so more of the people writing about the working poor or struggling middle class are themselves working poor or struggling middle class." [1]

Work

The EHRP funds and co-publishes independent journalism at publications including the New York Times , the Guardian, [3] the New Yorker, Teen Vogue , and Vice. Reporting under the organization takes the form of investigative articles, such as one on how oil and gas wells are harming plant workers and neighboring communities, and personal essays that depict poverty's impact on societal and individual levels, including Bobbi Dempsey's essay about Medicaid’s lack of hearing aid coverage. The organization also supports TV segments, including economic reporting by KITV’s news desk in Hawaii, and documentaries produced by outlets like PBS's Frontline, Scientific American , and The Intercept. EHRP-supported journalism also takes the form of podcasts, including ones produced with the Nation, To the Best of Our Knowledge, and Fast Company , illustrations published in the Guardian and the Nation, and poems focused on workers' rights and reproductive justice. A number of projects focus on U.S. Midwestern and Southern rural communities. [1]

Documentaries

The EHRP has produced the following documentaries:

– The Last Holdouts
– The Last Clinic
– Jackson [1]
– American Reckoning

With the Intercept, it has also produced three separate film docuseries: Precarity,Freedom Dreams, and Insecurity. [4]

Organization and funding

As of January 2023, EHRP has a seven-person staff, including executive director Alissa Quart, who joined it in 2013, [1] managing director David Wallis, and special correspondent Ray Suarez. Former Columbia Journalism School instructor Deborah Jian Lee is an editor. [5] She told Columbia University's alumni magazine, "It’s often hard for people to understand how broader systems impact inequality, so my goal is to tell human stories." [1] Journalist and author Helaine Olen sits on its advisory board.

In addition to a roster of freelance contributors, [6] EHRP supports 11 reporting fellows as of January 2023, including Joseph Rodriguez and Molly Crabapple. [7] A 2022 Forbes article shared that "roughly 38% of [EHRP’s] contributors are people of color, and about 67% are women." [8]

In 2022, Quart shared the aim to help economically vulnerable journalists in an article about the EHRP in International Journalists Network's magazine:

"Working with writers from these backgrounds also involves rethinking how writers are paid. We pay people upfront, usually, 50% especially if they are lower-income and communicate that to us. Paying 50% or paying on time made a huge difference. Part of what we are about as an organization is keeping journalists in the business. If that means that piece comes out later or doesn't come out at all, it is still more important for the majority to get this 50%, and that they can still try to work as reporters." [9]

In late 2017, when Gothamist and DNAinfo were both shuttered by their owner, EHRP allocated $5,000 to three reporters from these outlets who had lost their jobs. [10]

The organization is funded both by individual donations and organizational grants which include, or have included, Acton Family Giving, Ford Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, the Melville Charitable Trust, the Omidyar Network, Open Society Foundations, and the Puffin Foundation. [11]

Impact

EHRP's work has impacted national policies. In 2017, an investigation into the high rates of farmer suicides in the U.S. co-published by EHRP and the Guardian [3] directly influenced Washington State legislator J.T. Wilcox and Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota to sponsor and introduce laws and funding for more accessible mental healthcare programs for farmers. Wilcox is quoted as saying, "Without the reporting of The Guardian's Debbie Weingarten, I and so many others would have remained in the dark about this public health crisis." [12]

In 2022, the U.S. Treasury Department was prompted to issue guidance on the use of federal housing stability funds after EHRP-supported reporting in the Salt Lake Tribune revealed those funds were being used to pay legal bills for evictions. EHRP's investigation with USA Today , [13] called "Dying For Care," was cited by the Biden administration in its argument for reform of the U.S. nursing home industry. [14]

In 2021, EHRP worked on more than 400 editorial placements "with a potential reach of more than 1.6 billion" according to Meltwater, a media monitoring company.

Critical and other reception

EHRP's work was profiled by Vogue in 2018, [10] and Forbes , [8] Democracy Now!, [15] and the International Journalists Network in 2022. [9] Suarez was also interviewed in the Nonprofit Quarterly for "Going for Broke" in 2022 [16] and the series discussed on Wisconsin Public Radio's Morning Show. [17]

In 2019, EHRP's Jackson documentary won an Emmy [1] [18] for Best Documentary, Social Issue [19] [20]

The first season of EHRP's podcast, "Going for Broke with Ray Suarez," co-produced with the Nation, was named one of 2021's best podcasts by the Atlantic. [21] That same year EHRP was named Best Non-Traditional News Source in NYU's 2021 American Journalism Online Awards [22]

In October 2021, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mentioned EHRP's "Boss Workers" project, a collaboration with Mother Jones and Solutions Journalism Network that documented the rise of worker co-ops during the pandemic, as an example of a story "of democracy working in hopeful ways and coolest evidence-based reporting." [23]

Other awards and honors

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Joy, Julia (Fall 2022). "5 Media Organizations That Spotlight Underreported News". Columbia Magazine.
  2. ↑ Ehrenreich, Barbara (August 6, 2015). "In America, only the rich can afford to write about poverty". The Guardian.
  3. 1 2 Weingarten, Debbie (December 11, 2018). "Why are America's farmers killing themselves?". The Guardian .
  4. ↑ "HOW THE ENDLESS PAPERWORK OF THE PANDEMIC KEPT PEOPLE FROM RECEIVING BENEFITS". The Intercept. December 27, 2022.
  5. ↑ "Team". Economic Hardship Reporting Project. March 12, 2018.
  6. ↑ "Journalists". Economic Hardship Reporting Project. March 12, 2018.
  7. ↑ "Awards & Press: EHRP-Supported Illustrations Win Bernhardt Labor Journalism Prize". Economic Hardship Reporting Project. September 20, 2022.
  8. 1 2 "Executive Director of Economic Hardship Reporting Project Amplifies the Voices of Independent Journalists". Forbes .
  9. 1 2 Vujanic, Lela (July 5, 2022). "This platform spotlights poverty reporting in the U.S." ijnet.org.
  10. 1 2 Read, Bridget (July 18, 2018). "Good Journalism for Hard Times". Vogue.com.
  11. ↑ "Funders". Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
  12. ↑ "Governor signs Wilcox bill to help reduce agricultural worker suicides". Washington State House Republicans. March 15, 2018.
  13. ↑ Stein, Letitia; Fraser, Jayme; Penzenstadler, Nick (March 10, 2022). "Dying For Care". USA Today.
  14. ↑ Penzenstadler, Nick; Stein, Letitia; Fraser, Jayme (March 17, 2022). "White House ready to crack down on nursing homes". USA Today.
  15. ↑ "Barbara Ehrenreich Remembered: How She Covered Poverty & Started Economic Hardship Reporting Project". Democracy Now! .
  16. ↑ "Profit at What Cost? An Interview with Ray Suarez, host of Going for Broke". Nonprofit Quarterly . December 21, 2022.
  17. ↑ "New season of 'Going for Broke' shares stories of Americans living on the edge". WPR. November 4, 2022.
  18. ↑ "Outstanding Social issue Documentary – "Jackson"". The Emmy Awards via YouTube. 2019.
  19. ↑ "MINEES ANNOUNCED FOR THE 35TH ANNUAL NEWS & DOCUMENTARY EMMY® AWARDS". July 14, 2014. Archived from the original on August 2, 2019.
  20. ↑ "Outstanding Social issue Documentary – "Jackson"". The Emmy Awards via YouTube. 2019.
  21. ↑ "THE 50 BEST PODCASTS OF 2021". The Atlantic . December 27, 2021.
  22. ↑ "American Journalism Online Awards – 2021 Winners". NYU Journalism Institute.
  23. ↑ Ocasio-Cortez, Alexandria. "I'll start: Here's a great story about the rise in worker coops across the US during the pandemic and the increased popularity of workplace democracy". Twitter.
  24. ↑ "The Debra E. Bernhardt Labor Journalism Prize". LaborArts: Tamiment Library/NYU .
  25. ↑ "Honoree: Share Going for Broke with Ray Suarez – Economic Hardship Reporting Project co-published with The Nation". Webby Awards .
  26. ↑ EHRP team (June 24, 2022). "EHRP Wins Sigma Delta Chi Award From The Society Of Professional Journalists". Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
  27. ↑ "2022 News and Issues – Team". NPPA.org.
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