Winners of the 18th annual Barlett and Steele Awards were celebrated at a Phoenix ceremony on Nov. 20, with James B. Steele – one of the duo for whom the awards are named – praising the winners’ focus on vulnerable populations.
“There’s a theme that kind of runs through all the winners this year, and it’s a theme of individuals being oppressed by various factors,” Steele said. “All of these stories are … in different parts of the country and yet that theme is constant through all of them.”
At the start of the event, a moment of silence was held for the other half of the reporting duo, Don Barlett, who passed away last month at the age of 88.
The Barlett & Steele Awards are administered by the Reynolds Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. The awards were created in 2007 to honor the best in investigative business journalism.
Caitlin Thompson, a recent Cronkite graduate, won this year’s Outstanding Young Journalist award for her thorough National Public Radio (NPR) investigation of a leading sale-leaseback company that financially stranded some of its customers.
Centering the experience of people who were negatively impacted by these sale-leaseback transactions was crucial for Thompson’s investigation. However, getting human sources to share their stories, especially those who have experienced trauma, can be challenging.
Thompson overcame this obstacle by assuring her potential sources that they were not alone and that their experience with the company was not an isolated incident but rather one of many similar cases.
“One of the people who sold his house to this company … He didn’t know that he was not alone and learning that, I think, is actually what kind of convinced him to participate in the story,” Thompson said.
Jodie Fleisher from Cox Media Group and David Hilzenrath from KFF Health News won Gold in the Regional/Local category for their investigation into the Social Security Administration’s billions in overpayment clawbacks that are compromising the livelihoods of some of the nation’s most vulnerable people.
Fleisher also highlighted the importance of focusing on how an issue affects ordinary people in investigative business journalism. “You have to center the people and what’s going on in their lives and how things could be improved by them speaking up and talking about what’s going on,” Fleisher said about getting sources on board to share their stories. “The approach I take with folks is ‘I’m hoping you can help me with this.’ People generally want to be helpful.”
Margie Mason and Robin McDowell from the Associated Press (AP) won Gold in the Global/National category. Mason commented on the responsibility that reporters have to ensure sources know how sharing their experiences with the world could impact their lives.
“Sometimes you get something really good, and it’s really juicy, and you want to use it, but you have to stop yourself and pull back and say … How is this going to impact them?” Mason said. “When I think about my stories and the sourcing you always want to get it … but you need to think about more than just getting it.”
Thompson added, “People don’t owe you their story. They don’t owe me anything so if they want to help me tell this story, I have such profound appreciation for it. And, that genuine appreciation, I think, comes through and that helps people know that I really care.”
Steele closed the evening with a thread that carried throughout the discussion: “I think one of the greatest phrases that’s emerged from this today is that ‘You are not alone.’ I think we’ve all tried to use that point with people who are reluctant to talk, especially when it’s [about] such a widespread problem.”
To learn more about all of the winners of the 2024 Barlett and Steele Awards and to read or listen to interviews with some of the winners on how they did their investigations, visit the awards page here. Watch the full panel conversation here.
