The podcast is part of an IowaWatch Connection-Humanities Iowa series on Pulitzer Prize-winning Iowa journalism. The series is part of the Pulitzer Prizes Centennial Campfires Initiative, a joint venture of the Pulitzer Prizes Board and the Federation of State Humanities Council and Humanities Iowa, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities in celebration of the 2016 centennial of the Prizes. The Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism—IowaWatch was awarded a $4,500 Humanities Iowa contract as a partner in the Pulitzer project. IowaWatch selected the topics covered in IowaWatch Connection programs and how to report them. Other Iowa media outlets involved in the project are Iowa Public Television and Iowa Public Radio.
The second in a series of programs on Pulitzer Prize-winning Iowa journalists and the stories they told that added to our state’s history. This program is part two of a two-part series, remembering a ground-breaking series by former Des Moines Register reporter Jane Schorer Meisner that helped remove the stigma from rape.
“If we make it a personal story, people care because there is a name, there is a face on that story,” said Nancy Ziegenmeier Ludwig, the assault survivor at the center of the stories.
“Once it’s personalized, people pay attention more. And that’s what Jane’s story did. With Jane’s words, I think even without pictures, just with Jane’s words, she reached many, many, many people that I hope were helped,” she said.
Listen to learn more.