Investigative Reporting Program and Alums Win Big in SPJ Contest

November 4, 2013

UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism alumni earned top honors in the

Society of Professional Journalists’ Northern California Chapter 2013 awards

contest.

Jason Marsh (’05) of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley was

honored for his piece, “Why Inequality Is Bad for the One Percent,” which

examines how income disparity negatively affects both the wealthy and the poor.

Sasha Khokha (’04), Grace Rubenstein and Patricia Flynn of KQED Public

Radio; Bernice Yeung of The Center for Investigative Reporting; and the

Investigative Reporting Program at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of

Journalism was honored for their explanatory series, which is part of a larger

project with Frontline and Univision, exposing how undocumented women who

work in the fields experience sexual abuse and rape by supervisors and others in

positions of power.

Carrie Ching (’05), Sarah Terry-Cobo (’08) and Arthur Jones of The Center for

Investigative Reporting was honored for their explanatory piece, “The Hidden

Cost of Hamburgers,” a story that shows how America’s beef consumption has a

significant affect on human health and the environment.

Ching was also honored in the journalism innovation category for her graphic

storytelling and as a member of the Center for Investigative Reporting group that

uncovered the sexual assault of a mentally disabled woman in state care, part of

a multiplatform investigation into the abuse of developmentally disabled residents

in California’s state-run institutions. Also honored for that CIR project was Ryan

Gabrielson and Marina Luz.

David Ferry (’12) and Nancy Updike were honored for the “This American Life”

feature examining the Native American disenrollment process.