ASA - American Society on Aging

2003 Awards Programs
Recognizing Excellence in the Field of Aging

Award Winners

The ASA Media Awards recognize journalists whose work has had an exceptional impact on public awareness of issues related to aging at the local or regional levels.

2003 MEDIA AWARDS

LOCAL & REGIONAL MEDIA

Melissa Russo

WNBC-TV

As a government affairs reporter for New York's WNBC-TV, Melissa Russo has drawn attention to the struggles of New York's most vulnerable citizens, accumulating a body of work that has repeatedly led to changes in government policy. She considers herself a 21st-century version of the muckraking journalist, exposing social wrongs. The consequences of some of her stories support this view.

Ms. Russo has broken several stories that have led directly to investigations, changes in policy and new legislation on both the state and local levels. She has exposed injustice in the city's homeless shelter system, state adoption laws, and state mental health services for abused children in foster care. For seven years, her award-winning work on older-adult issues has attempted to show aspects of their lives rarely covered in the media, in addition to national stories like access to prescription drugs. Some have, like her other stories on other issues, affected public policy.

Her five-part series covering many subjects concerning older New Yorkers-the image of elders, city budget cuts to the department of aging, elderlaw, prescription drugs, and public benefits-saved some programs and senior centers from cuts, and contradicted the Commission on Aging's stance that the planned cuts would not adversely affect people's lives.

In 2000, Ms. Russo challenged the Giuliani administration's policy of suing elders for much of their retirement savings to recoup government funding spent on their spouses' nursing home care. After the reports aired, Mayor Rudy Giuliani called for an end to the policy, which threatened to force many elders onto public assistance.

Other topics she has covered include the affordability of drugs, substance abuse and the high care-management caseload and its impact on homebound elders. She challenged the state of New York on the difficulty of obtaining certain drugs through Medicaid, and profiled a Medicaid-funded assisted-living residence in New York City.

Her reports on issues affecting older adults have earned two recent honors: The Voice Award from the Council of Senior Centers and Services of New York and the Media Makes a Difference Award from New York's Joint Public Action Campaign for the elderly. Ms. Russo has a bachelor's degree in political science from Tufts University and a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. Her particular interest in covering senior policy grew from her relationship with and care of her grandmother.

Her work at WNBC has earned several Emmy nominations, but what she most values is the opportunity to give people a voice. Because television is the key source of information for older Americans, reporting on issues of concern and featuring “how-to” stories provide a benefit for them. In addition, the positive view of older adults she has promoted in her stories is a benefit for every generation.

Honorable Mention

Pam Kelley and Ames Alexander

The Charlotte Observer

Pam Kelley and Ames Alexander are given honorable mention for their coverage of aging issues in North and South Carolina. In 2002, their collaboration on several stories focusing on elders won the National Press Club's Consumer Journalism Award.

Their work includes a series on the assisted-living boom in the Carolinas. They examined the fallout from the explosion of construction of these facilities, including staffing and financial problems that have resulted in poor care, neglect and even death. The series concluded with a comprehensive guide to help families choose the best facility for their needs. The series represented an impressive commitment by the newspaper to follow the story for a year.

One in-depth investigative report was a profile of the North Carolina Senior Citizens Association, a controversial nonprofit run surreptitiously by insurance agents, offering free seminars to steer older adults to long-term care policies from their company.

Other subjects have been covered in educational or human-interest pieces. One article presented a multifaceted discussion of the controversial practice of Medicaid planning; another told the story of a group of elder women sharing their experiences.

Pam Kelley has covered family and aging issues at The Charlotte Observer since 1999. Before moving to the aging beat, she covered higher education for 12 years, winning numerous awards for stories that included a profile of a Hmong student at Davidson College and a series detailing how colleges slight women's athletics. Ms. Kelley has a journalism degree from UNC Chapel Hill.

Ames Alexander is an investigative reporter, the winner of more than 25 journalism awards. He has written about a variety of subjects, including the child molesters, killers and other criminals who have taught in North Carolina's public schools; the lives endangered by Charlotte's slow ambulance service; rampant problems in new home construction in the Carolinas; and inside deals that in 1991 led to New Jersey's biggest bank failure. He was also among the reporters who worked on "Taking Back Our Neighborhoods," a series on inner-city crime, which was a 1995 Pulitzer Prize finalist.

These writers from different journalistic domains have combined hard-hitting reportage with compassion to cover the complexities of the aging beat.