The IowaWatch Connection radio program collected seven awards, including three for first place, for large market radio reporting at the 2016 Iowa Broadcast News Association convention in Waterloo, Iowa, on April 23.
Each week program host and producer Jeff Stein examines an IowaWatch story in depth during the 23-minute program.
The program’s winning entries were:
- First place: Political coverage, for a series on the mood of the electorate leading up to the 2016 Iowa precinct caucuses.
- First place: In-depth/series, for a two-part report on criminal justice reform. Part one. Part two.
- First place: Public service, for a report on the exodus of college graduates leaving Iowa for jobs elsewhere.
- Second place: Spot news coverage, for a report by host Jeff Stein on gun violence in Iowa.
- Second place: General reporting, for a report from Simpson College 2014 journalism graduates about illnesses students keep hidden while attending college.
- Third place: Feature reporting, for a story about graffiti and street art.
- Third place for use of an actuality and honorable mention for in-depth/series for a Lauren Mills report on water toxins in Iowa lakes.
The IowaWatch Connection, a statewide audience engagement program, was launched in July 2014. AARP Iowa is the program’s underwriter through June 30. The program was launched in 2014 with a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation through the Investigative News Network (now the Institute for Nonprofit News). The Iowa State Bar Association was an underwriter for the program in 2015.
Program host and producer Jeff Stein also is executive director of the Iowa Broadcast News Association and a noted Iowa broadcast historian. Awards were determined by independent, out-of-state judges.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE IOWAWATCH CONNECTION, AND TO HEAR PODCASTS OF ITS PROGRAMS