Documented was selected as a finalist in three categories in the Local Independent Online News Publishers (LION) awards and one category for the Online Journalism Awards for the organization’s work on WhatsApp and covering the coronavirus pandemic.
Last year, Documented began distributing a newsletter in Spanish via WhatsApp named Documented Semanal. Many of the subscribers to the newsletter are undocumented Spanish speakers in New York City. This year, in response to the pandemic, Documented began creating resources to help the community that has formed around the WhatsApp newsletter more easily find critical aid, such as food or rental relief. Now all the Spanish articles published on our site are in response to questions from our WhatsApp community.
In recognition of this work, Documented is a finalist for the LION Awards for Best Coverage of Underserved Communities and Technology Innovation of the Year, along with the Online Journalism Award Gather Award in Engaged Journalism.
Documented was also nominated for the LION Award for Best Coronavirus Coverage by a solo newsroom. This was for our work creating resources guides to help immigrants navigate the pandemic as well as our reporting on the Justice Department’s insistence on keeping the immigration courts open, conditions in Immigration and Customs Enforcement jails and ICE’s continued arrests of teenage immigrants from shelters in the New York area.
You can read more about Documented’s approach to journalism in this Medium post by Audience Editor Nicolás Ríos.
