MPR News Youth Series Wins Casey Medal

Jul 27, 2011

The Journalism Center on Children and Families has chosen the Youth Series from MPR News as first place winner in the audio category. Winners were chosen for their "masterful storytelling, deep reporting and maximum impact."

The Youth Series was the creation of MPR News producer Sasha Aslanian, who helped six high school and college-age reporters from diverse backgrounds tell compelling first-person stories on issues of social importance.

"These young people bring fresh perspectives and crucial information to MPR listeners," Aslanian says. "This award demonstrates how valuable those perspectives are to understanding the important stories in our communities."

Here's what the Casey judges had to say about the Youth Series:

Some of those stories were heart-breaking: Brenda's experience as an undocumented 19-year-old fearing her family could be separated; Roy Lee Spearman Jones' account of leaving home and sleeping behind trash cans because he is gay; and Antonio Gonzalez's portrait of six children grieving after their mother's sudden and mysterious death. If what we do is about helping each other understand each other, then this is as good as it gets.

The stories are archived here: Young Reporters

American Public Media's American RadioWorks also received an Honorable Mention award for its documentary Testing Teachers by producer Emily Hanford. Casey judges called the one-hour program "a balanced, well-documented examination of teacher quality and the way it could be improved."

The Journalism Center on Children and Families, which bestows the Casey Medal, is a nonprofit affiliate of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.