Best of the AP

Best of the Week - First Winner March 15, 2024

AP shows itself best of class in election coverage Super Tuesday

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In the runup to Super Tuesday, The Associated Press showed why it’s at the top of the class when it comes to elections coverage.

As Super Tuesday neared, the AP had an issue on its hands: how will it call races that night when it would have no VoteCast poll — but the TV networks had their exit polling, which could have put the AP at a competitive disadvantage? Serena Hawkins, data scientist for AP’s Decision Team, got to work.

In just two weeks, she researched, developed, tested and deployed a new approach to race calling that allowed the AP to declare Donald Trump and Joe Biden winners in several states with a very small return of counted votes.

That new model, used by the AP on Super Tuesday, put AP’s race calls ahead in states where the TV networks didn’t have a poll, and only a few minutes behind in states where they did — and with no errors in its calls.

Meanwhile, the AP, for the first time, was able to deliver its vote count directly to news consumers through a new immersive elections experience on APNews.

The effort was captained by development lead Linda Gorman, with team members Ryan Best, Michelle Minkoff Carlson, Chaithra Chandraiah, Shelly Cheng, Chad Day, Phil Holm, Dan Kempton, Humera Lodhi, Maya Sweedler, Pablo Barria Urenda and Robert Weston. On the night of Super Tuesday, the recirculation rate for these pages was, in a word, stratospheric.

For all these reasons, Serena Hawkins and the Elections Data Visualizations Team are Best of the Week — First Winner.

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Best of the Week - Second Winner March 15, 2024

AP leads on abduction of hundreds of children in Nigeria, securing first confirmation

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In one of the largest school kidnappings since the 2014 abduction the Chibok girls in Borno state, gunmen terrorizing northwestern Nigerian communities stormed a school in Kaduna state and seized nearly 300 children as they were about to begin the day’s learning, marching them into nearby forests.

Despite complicated communications Correspondent Chinedu Asadu managed to confirm the incident, the location and get the first on-the-record estimate of how many children were abducted — hours before the school revealed details to the state government.

AP’s first video and photos moved many hours ahead of key competitors. Photographer Sunday Alamba rushed to Kaduna city to organise follow up ground reporting while climate reporter Taiwo Adebayo and investigative reporter Grace Ekpu worked with Asadu on an explainer, timeline and further video elements.

AP was the first Western news agency to reach Kuriga, where Alamba and Asadu teamed up to provide strong all-formats material, securing the first interviews with eyewitnesses and shocked parents.

AP’s reporting was widely used by clients, with the video alone racking up over 1,000 uses. It was also one of AP’s leading stories on APNews during the period of publication.

For securing multiple firsts and working outside their native formats to deliver strong all-formats coverage, Asadu, Alamba, Adebayo and Ekpu earn Best of the Week — Second Winner.

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