Benjamin Ashford|Scripps Howard Awards Recognizes InsideClimate News for National Reporting on a Divided America

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The InsideClimate News series “Finding Middle Ground: Conversations Across America“ has been chosen as a finalist for the Scripps Howard Awards honoring the best journalism of 2017.

ICN was recognized in the category “Topic of the Year—Divided America,” along with ProPublica, for its project “Documenting Hate,” and VICE News, for its documentary “Charlottesville: Race & Terror.”

In our series, ICN contributing writer Meera Subramanian set out across the country in search of middle ground on the contentious topic of climate change, an issue frequently sketched in black and white, a battle between deniers and alarmists.

Her lyrical and compassionate stories take readers inside a Georgia peach farming family’s conversations about the future of their orchards as temperatures rise, a West Virginia community’s search for answers in the wake of historic flooding, a family of Wisconsin dogsled racers debating the disappearing snow their sport relies on, and a clean energy revolution in the community of Sweetwater, Texas. 

She captures the complicated connections that Americans have to the places that sustain them—and just how tangled our notions about climate change can be. The stories were edited by Robin Marantz Henig. 

ProPublica’s “Documenting Hate” project, in partnership with other news outlets, compiles and verifies hate crimes to fill a gap in unreliable national data on the subject.

VICE News’ “Charlottesville: Race & Terror” is a 22-minute documentary that goes behind the scenes with white nationalist leaders and counter-protesters amid violent clashes in the city.

The Scripps Howard Awards chose finalists in 15 categories from among 900 entries received from U.S. news organizations. Winners will be announced March 6. The Scripps Howard Foundation presents more than $170,000 in prize money to the winning organizations and journalists.