In the spring of 2021, MIT Technology Review announced a grant that will focus on researching the different ways technology and data are being used to address inequality issues during the pandemic.
With support from the Heising-Simons Foundation – a Los Altos and San Francisco, California-based family foundation that supports projects focused on climate and clean energy, community and opportunity, education, human rights, and science – our call was aimed at reaching out to journalists find who could report thoughtfully and with insight into the systematic, technological and challenges that Covid has brought into covert communities. Grant recipients will each receive a minimum of $ 7,500 for their work and the chance to publish in the world’s oldest technology publication.
We are pleased to inform you that the scholarship holders:
LaVonne Roberts, a New York-based freelance science, health and technology journalist, will write about the introduction of high-tech immersive charging rooms for healthcare professionals as a pilot extends from doctors to other frontline hospital workers. According to the jury, your work stands out from the crowd with a clear effect and a convincing assignment.
Elaine Shelly, a Georgia-based freelance writer and documentary filmmaker, examines the effects of the long Covid on black Americans and how we can better understand the disease and its cultural implications. The judges hoped their work could fill in a missing element of the existing pandemic reporting. “Elaine Shelly’s coverage is focused on the lives of black women – and her own experience with long-term symptoms of Covid-19 – and will delve into the overlapping pressures of chronic disease, medical racism and misogyny,” they said.
Chandra Whitfield, A Colorado-based author and multimedia journalist examines how black women have been particularly hard hit by the interface between pandemic and domestic violence – and how to collect relevant data. The judges said she had “identified an important public policy issue” and prepared a proposal “with purpose and urgency”.
And our newsroom community goes on Rob Chaney, which covers the environment and science in the Missoulian of Montana. Rob and colleagues have examined the results of the Covid response and a surge in federal funding in the native communities of Montana, particularly the Blackfeet Reservation. The jury agreed that his proposal was the “clear winner” in its category.
The contributions were assessed by a panel of experienced journalists and researchers who were very familiar with the controversial topics: Alexis Madrigal, Co-host of the public service KQED radio Forum; Krystal Tsotsie, Geneticist at Vanderbilt University and board member of the Native BioData Consortium; Mark Rochester, a veteran investigative journalist and managing editor for Inewsource, a nonprofit newsroom in San Diego; and Seema Yasmin, Journalist, physician and director of the Stanford Health Communication Initiative.
