Digging Into Opioid Settlement Dollars? Let us help!
As part of our series of resources helping journalists cover the opioid lawsuit settlement funds, we hosted a fireside chat with MuckRock’s Dillon Bergin on Wednesday, May 28 at 1:00 p.m. EST.
In this 30-minute webinar, Dillon breaks down how he worked with West Virginia University students and Reporting on Addiction to create an open-source database that tracks spending in West Virginia’s 55 counties. From filing FOIAs to organizing information from email replies, photo copies of checks and bank statements, Dillon and WVU students who have led this project since January will discuss what they’ve learned about compiling this necessary information, and preview the reporting to come from their findings.
This didactic session offers tips, resources and tools you can use to break down barriers to public access to opioid settlement spending in your community and clearly present this critical, community-level information. Our conversation will help to inform and shape your reporting and help you walk away with stories you can take on today.
Dillon Bergin is MuckRock's data reporter. He uses data and public records to power investigative reporting with partner newsrooms. He's also the director of the Data Liberation Project and hosts FOIAFriday, a monthly community podcast about all things public records. Dillon was a member of the Documenting COVID-19 team, a project funded by MuckRock and the Brown Institute for Media Innovation. Before that, he was a Report for America corps member with Searchlight New Mexico and a Fulbright Germany Journalism Fellow.
