Community service award entry

Missouri Press Association 2013

Community outreach on a public safety issue

The Missourian has done investigative reporting on the topic of sexual assault. One story in particular
looked at how drastically underreported sexual assaults are at MU, and
at college campuses nationwide.
But is a traditional story enough on
its own?
In conjunction with the publishing of
that investigation, we spent time in
the newsroom talking about our role
as journalists. We had watched and
listened as public conversations on
this topic unfolded that were destructive and uninformed, and we wanted
to inject information and intelligent
questions into those conversations.
We also realized that the readers who
most would benefit from being educated by our story college students
might not find it in traditional ways.
As a response to those concerns, we
created a discussion guide called,
LETS TALK: The underreporting
of rape and sexual assault at MU
(top right). The guide had a goal of
going beyond facts and context into
encouraging intelligent conversation.
We wanted to challenge readers to
expand their thinking.
In addition to publishing it on our
website, we turned it into a threepage handout that delievered key
facts in a visual format (see attachment). We handed out hundreds
of copies around campus and also
emailed it to campus programs and
departments that have a goal of

educating students on this topic,

inviting them to use it as part of
their efforts.
With social audiences in mind, we
created a version of the information
in the form of a infographic optimized for social sharing. We invited
readers to share it with their Facebook and Twitter audiences. We
also colleced social media feedback
to the outreach effort (see right).
Nate Anton, Evan Townsend and
Joy Mayer, Columbia Missourian
community outreach team