The Marshall Project and Signal Cleveland were honored with the 2024 Gather Award in Community-Centered Journalism by the Online News Association in the large division newsroom category, which is awarded to journalistic work that is shaped by collaboration with the public.
“Have you ever been bewildered by the judge section of your ballot? I have,” said data editor David Eads. “We’re honored to be recognized for collaborating with Signal Cleveland to answer the community’s questions about judges, who are an important and often overlooked part of local elections.”
“Get to Know Your Judges: Cleveland Judge Guide” was created in response to the critical information gap about judges in Cuyahoga County, which makes it hard for voters to make informed decisions in judicial contests. In 2020, nearly 30% of residents didn’t vote in judicial contests in Cuyahoga County, even when they cast a ballot in the presidential election.
To address this information gap, The Marshall Project partnered with Signal Cleveland to equip voters with information about the judges in their county. They solicited questions for candidates directly from Cleveland residents to inform what the guide would cover, as well as working together on data collection, design, and distribution. The Marshall Project also collaborated with the Cleveland Documenters, who train residents to attend public government meetings. The Documenters helped to identify knowledge gaps about the candidates and collected information, including financial disclosures and campaign donation records.
The first iteration of the guide was published ahead of the March 19 primary and provided residents with profiles of current judges and judicial nominees from Cuyahoga County. Its outreach was supported by a flyer distributed to voters, a bus shelter advertising campaign, and community meetings. An updated version will be released ahead of the general election.
In an earlier announcement, The Marshall Project also won an ONA for topical coverage of climate change for our first longform comic that showed how decades-old decisions by California state officials to locate a prison complex in a dry lakebed, coupled with climate change, is endangering incarcerated people. The comic “In Harm's Way” was also a finalist in the visual digital storytelling category. A series of social media videos explaining how inflation affected the cost of goods in prison was a finalist in the digital video storytelling category.
The organization has previously won a number of earlier ONA awards, including the Award for General Excellence in Online Journalism in 2023. The awards, granted by the Online News Association, honor excellence in digital journalism by news organizations around the world.
