DONATE
An image from "Can you survive Indiana’s legislative session? The game."
ILLUSTRATION: Lauren Chapman / IPB NewsIndiana Public Broadcasting received a National Edward R. Murrow Award in New York City on Monday. Lauren Chapman accepted the national honor for Excellence in Innovation for creating “Can you survive Indiana’s legislative session? The game.”
The interactive project transforms the complex process of Indiana lawmaking into an Oregon Trail-style adventure — complete with 8-bit visuals and tongue-in-cheek nods to how a bill can “die of dysentery.”
The Edward R. Murrow Awards are among the most prestigious honors in broadcast and digital journalism. IPB News won in the large market radio category.
Chapman, Indiana Public Broadcasting's digital editor, built a statistical model based on hundreds of bills filed between 2019 and 2020 in the Indiana General Assembly. Random number generators reflect the actual likelihood of legislation passing through various stages of the lawmaking process.
The project has been adopted as a teaching tool by advocacy groups as well as university and high school educators.
Indiana Public Broadcasting News is a statewide collaboration of NPR and PBS stations. Following the loss of state funding in July, Indiana stations decided to eliminate the reporting team at the end of the year.
Support WFYI. We can't do it without you.