Award
Winners
2001
MEDIA AWARD
The ASA Media Awards
recognize journalists whose work has had an exceptional impact on public awareness
of issues related to aging at the national and local/regional levels. Copies
of the winning entries are on display in the Exhibit Hall. The Media Awards
are sponsored by The Senior Network Inc. The Senior Network is the leading
marketing communications company providing access to and expertise in the
mature market.
NATIONAL
LEVEL
Wendy
Bonifazi
Freelance Writer
Fort Collins, CO
Wendy Bonifazi's goal
as a journalist is to improve the lives of elders who will need long-term
care services for themselves or their families.
Personal and professional
experience led Ms. Bonifazi to recognize the shortcomings of eldercare services.
She realized it would take more than consumer advocacy, marketplace dissatisfaction
and regulations to improve them. She now writes for trade journals such as
Contemporary Long Term Care so she can reach the providers who exert
influence over consumer care and can persuade them to consider changes. As
a contributing writer and columnist, she has produced more than 65 features,
investigations and news stories since 1998.
Her articles are also
read by regulators, policymakers, consumer advocates and consumers nationwide.
Contemporary Long Term Care receives more positive reader response
for her work than for that of any of their other writers. Even her research
stimulates change: When she asked regulators what counseling is mandated for
rape victims in long-term care facilities, they said they had never thought
about mandating counseling but vowed to promote new state requirements.
Ms. Bonifazi comes up
with topics herself by identifying elder needs, problematic issues, and questions.
She examines highly publicized programs and researches extensively, seeking
little-known, unpublicized eldercare practices and developments in aging.
Her articles challenge established thinking by providing hard-hitting examples
and accurate, practical information focusing on best practices and proven
innovations. "It's not enough to convince readers that their beliefs and policies
are misguided," she says. "They need real successes and practical how-to's
to change for the better . . . I must often appeal to readers' self-interests,
to convince them to improve quality of life."
Wendy Bonifazi's reputation
for diligence, objectivity and fairness has persuaded providers to speak candidly
on their failures and problems as well as successes.
Her work in 2000 included
features on the importance of personal possessions to institutionalized elders;
their need for intimate and sexual relationships; facilities' responsibility
for widespread malnutrition; families' need for support and respite; rethinking
relationships between providers and ombudsmen; and improvements in frontline
staffing.
Ms. Bonifazi seeks out
varied perspectives and insights for her articles, going beyond industry,
government and research sources to include the voices of elders themselves.
"By quoting elders who are patients, family members and caregivers, I remind
readers who they are supposed to serve, while countering ageism and showing
that elders themselves have answers to many provider questions and problems,"
she says.
Bonifazi's journalism
awards reflect the breadth and scope of her work on aging and caregiving.
In 2000 she earned the American Academy of Neurology's Media Fellowship for
science/neurology reporting. "A Day in the Life of a Certified Nursing Assistant,"
which profiled the difficulties and dedication of a long-term care CNA, won
the 1999 Association of Rehabilitation Nurses Media Excellence Award. Ms.
Bonifazi also received recent awards from the American Society of Business
Press Editors and the American Business Press.
Ms. Bonifazi earned an
associate degree in nursing and bachelor's degrees in psychology and journalism
from Utica College of Syracuse University. She has taught journalism at Colorado
State University. In addition to working and raising her family, Ms. Bonifazi
volunteers as the special projects ombudsman for Larimer County, Colo.
Honorable
Mention
John F. Wasik, MA
Consumer's Digest
John
F. Wasik is an award-winning editor and writer. He has written eight books
and his articles have appeared in major national periodicals. He is currently
the special projects editor of Consumers Digest magazine, which has
a readership of 7 million.
The two pieces ASA is
honoring appeared in the magazine's "special report" series in 2000. They
examined two different financial subjects affecting older adults. Each detailed
illicit practices frequently aimed at elders, described consumer protection
measures, and examined how little government agencies were doing to protect
the most vulnerable members of our society.
"The Fleecing of America's
Elderly" took an in-depth look at how legal devices such as power of attorney
are routinely abused--often by family members--to steal money and property
from frail or disabled elders. The article estimated that some 5 million older
adults may be victimized by this silent crime, which is rarely reported and
is not even tracked by FBI Uniform Crime Statistics. Mr. Wasik researched
the story by reviewing data from academic studies and adult protective services
agencies in every state and by interviewing experts on crimes against elders.
The article described how these crimes are usually carried out and enumerated
steps that family and community members can take to prevent the crimes.
"Avoiding the Cemetery
Trap" tackled cemetery pricing and regulation. Cemeteries are not regulated
by the Federal Trade Commission's Funeral Rule and are monitored only loosely
by state agencies--most states have no cemetery regulation. Elders are overcharged
frequently and quietly. His article presented common pricing abuses, comparisons
of cemetery costs by metropolitan area, and suggestions on how to save money
on burial expenses. Like financial abuse of elders, this subject is rarely
covered in the mainstream media. Mr. Wasik's research uncovered predatory
industry practices that merit attention by federal and state authorities.
In addition to his writing,
Mr. Wasik has spoken and lectured around the United States. His investigative
reporting has received numerous honors, such as the National Press Club Consumer
Journalism Award and the "Best of the Best" Award for business writing. He
received a bachelor's in psychology and a master's in communication from the
University of Illinois at Chicago.
LOCAL/REGIONAL
LEVEL
Maureen West and Betty
Reid
The Arizona Republic
Betty
Reid and Maureen West, reporters for the Arizona Republic, collaborated
to research and write a series of articles on an underexamined issue in the
Southwest. Adults across the continent struggle to help their aging parents.
For urban Native Americans whose elderly parents live in remote hogans on
distant reservations, the duties of family present difficult sacrifices.
Every two weeks, Betty
Reid, a Navajo tribe member, drives four hours to be with her mother and aunt
in an isolated one-room home with no electricity, running water or phone.
Ms. Reid chops wood, carries water from their well and helps herd their sheep.
Her mother and aunt think of their lives as raditional and normal. What is
not traditional, however, is the absence of young people, who now typically
live in cities where jobs are available.
Ms. Reid joined with
Maureen West, a veteran writer on aging and demographic issues, to examine
the situation of older Native Americans living alone in remote areas. Because
80 percent of Navajo elders do not speak English, Ms. Reid and Ms. West traveled
as a team to interview people. They would arrive at each home with a customary
sack of flour or sugar as a household gift.
Their story, titled "Old
and Alone," as well as their subsequent coverage of medical and social issues
on the reservations, has led to increased state support of traditionally underfunded
reservation services. The public's reaction to their coverage has been overwhelmingly
positive. Urban Arizonans can easily forget that a large portion of Arizona
is reservation land. These articles have helped fill in the picture of the
diverse elder population of the Southwest.
Ms. Reid is a Navajo
journalist who writes for the "Arizona Diary," a Sunday section in the Republic.
She joined the paper in 1992, and has since covered law enforcement, education
and local news; she also writes feature stories about Navajo life. Before
she joined the staff of the Republic Ms. Reid worked for the Gallup
Independent and at the now-defunct Navajo Times TODAY, where she
wrote about Navajo affairs. She is a graduate of the University of Colorado,
Boulder.
Ms. West covers aging
and health stories for the Arizona Republic. She has worked at the
Arizona Republic and at its now-defunct sister publication the Phoenix
Gazette for 10 years. During the 1996-97 academic year she studied aging
issues at Stanford University as a Knight Journalism Fellow. In 2000 she received
the International Longevity Center's first Hugh Downs Award for excellence
in reporting on aging. This is her second ASA Media Award since 1999. West
graduated from the University of Iowa School of Journalism, and has reported
for newspapers in Lexington, Ky.; Daytona Beach, Fla.; and Fayetteville, N.C.
Honorable Mention
Marsha King
The Seattle Times
Marsha
King, a veteran reporter with the Seattle Times, has won many regional journalism
awards. Two years ago, she started the newspaper's first beat on aging, giving
readers a regional perspective on the major aging-related issues emerging
across the country. Her stories have received a tremendous response because
they touch the issues that her readers find most critical.
The Seattle Times is the
largest newspaper in the Pacific Northwest. It has a stated commitment to
providing original, in-depth coverage of aging issues. In her two years on
the “age beat,” Ms. King has written about the plight of inner-city African
American elders, the politics of Social Security, the trend toward corporations
providing eldercare benefits to their employees, the search to make spiritual
connections with Alzheimer's patients, and the anxious quest by aging boomers
to reinvent themselves. She has investigated the local track record of a troubled
nursing home chain. And she pioneered a story about a local couple suing for
visitation rights to their grandchildren -- a case that led to a groundbreaking
Supreme Court decision on grandparents' rights.
Ms. King’s stories often
play directly off the news, offering an original perspective on key issues.
Before most of the national media and politicians discovered the issue of
prescription drug prices, she wrote about elders in the Seattle area who traveled
to Canada to purchase their medication at lower prices.
In an earlier career,
she was director of communications for a statewide banking corporation. A
graduate of the University of Missouri, Ms. King lives in Seattle with her
reporter husband, two college-student daughters and a Labrador retriever.
