The Global Editors Network announced that ProPublica projects are in the running for two Data Journalism Awards. Sixty-three finalists in the competition were narrowed down from 471 submissions.
Color of Debt by Paul Kiel, Annie Waldman and Al Shaw is a finalist for News Data App of the Year (Large Newsroom). This project measured, for the first time, the prevalence of judgments stemming from debt collection lawsuits. Through an analysis of court judgments in three cities -- St. Louis, Chicago and Newark -- and interactive maps, the data showed that the heaviest use of collection lawsuits consistently overlapped with majority black neighborhoods.
Sisi Wei, a ProPublica news applications developer, is a finalist for Best Individual Portfolio. Wei’s projects told stories using large data sets, helping readers see how large and diffuse national phenomena relate to them personally. These projects included, Debt by Degrees: Which Colleges Help Poor Students Most, Money as a Weapons System: How U.S. Commanders Spent $2 Billion of Petty Cash in Afghanistan, and Surgeon Scorecard.
Winners will be announced in June. See a list of all finalists here.