Marshall Plan and signal cleveland Awarded in 2024 Community-focused journalism award from the Online News Association Within the large newsroom category, this category honors journalism shaped by collaboration with the public.
“Have you ever been confused by the judging part of your ballot? I have,” said data editor David Eads. “We are honored to partner with Signal Cleveland to answer the community's questions about judges, an important and often overlooked part of local elections.”
“Know Your Judge: A Guide to Cleveland Judges” was created to address critical information gaps about Cuyahoga County judges that make it difficult for voters to make informed decisions in judicial races. In 2020, nearly 30% of Cuyahoga County residents did not vote in judicial races, even if they voted in the presidential election.
To address this information gap, The Marshall Project is partnering with Signal Cleveland to provide voters with information about judges in their counties. They solicit questions from candidates directly from Cleveland residents to understand what the guide will cover and collaborate on data collection, design and distribution. The Marshall Plan also cleveland recordkeeper, They train residents to attend public government meetings. Recordkeepers help identify candidates’ knowledge gaps and collect information, including financial disclosures and campaign contribution records.
The first edition of the guide, released ahead of the March 19 primary election, provides residents with profiles of Cuyahoga County's current judges and judicial nominees. Its campaign was supported by leaflets distributed to voters, a bus shelter advertising campaign and community meetings. An updated version will be released before the election.
In an earlier announcement, The Marshall Project also won an ONA Award for climate change feature coverage for our first full-length cartoon, which illustrates California officials' decision decades ago to build a prison complex on a dry lake bed. , and how climate change affects our lives. The comic “In Harm's Way” is also a finalist in the Visual Digital Narrative category. A series of social media videos explaining how inflation affects the cost of goods in prisons has been named a finalist in the Digital Video Storytelling category.
The organization has previously received several ONA awards, including the 2023 Overall Excellence in Online Journalism Award.