ABC Owned Television Stations premieres Our America Equity Report in local newscasts September 28. The report tracks and measures racial equity across 100 of the largest U.S. cities. The eight stations in the group include WABC New York, KABC Los Angeles, WLS Chicago and WPVI Philadelphia.
On September 28, viewers in the eight ABC markets will see local news stories on health insurance inequities found in the report.
ABC’s data journalism team, led by Director of Data Journalism John Kelly, analyzed more than 10 million data points across five quality-of-life categories: policing, housing, education, health and environment. Using the data journalism tool, “the stations go beyond the statistics to tell the stories of marginalized communities; and through solutions journalism, the stations additionally provide local and national resources to encourage a pathway to build more equitable communities,” said ABC Owned Television Stations.
“The Equity Report represents an incredible amount of hard work and commitment from our data journalism team,” said Anna Robertson, VP of content & partner Innovation at the ABC group. “Our hope is that the Equity Report will become a vital tool toward progress around racial equity in our cities. By giving our communities access to dig into the data themselves, we can empower people to understand each other better and seek solutions to some of the biggest challenges we face.”
The results from the Equity Report are used by ABC News and ABC Owned Television Stations’ investigative and race and culture journalists, who examine social issues, explore historical meaning, and provide greater context to the inequities impacting underrepresented communities.
“The most rewarding result of this project is how it’s powering local journalism of consequence,” said Kelly. “While the Equity Report helps document and track the disparate quality of life people of color are experiencing, the full impact is seen when our reporters take those hard facts into neighborhoods to tell people’s stories or our investigators interview local leaders to hold them accountable.”
