Excellence in Online/Digital Journalism - Immersive Storytelling

Jasen Lo, Massarah Mikati, “150 Years Of Chinatown,” The Philadelphia Inquirer

ABOUT THE WORK: After publishing “150 Years of development, displacement, and resilience in Philly’s Chinatown,” reporters Massarah Mikati and Jasen Lo received email after email from community members, most of which said the same thing: they have never seen their local paper dedicate so much energy to telling the stories of the Chinatown community in Philadelphia.

“I wanted to let you know how blown away we are by the displacement and resistance story and map you and your colleagues made,” one reader wrote. “You have created such a resource that is sure to be used by generations.”

That’s exactly what the reporters set out to do when they first started working on the project. After over a year of consistently covering Chinatown’s response to the proposed Sixers’ arena, they wanted to go deeper. By placing the arena proposal into historical context, the reporters told the story of the cultural treasure that Chinatown is and how well-founded fears of gentrification and displacement were.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Jasen Lo creates cool internet for the city of Philadelphia through data, code and design. He currently works at the Philadelphia Inquirer, and has previously worked at the Kontinentalist and the Associated Press.

Massarah Mikati is a communities and engagement reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer. From Upstate New York to Houston, she has dedicated her career to presenting humanized, contextual and nuanced narratives for communities of color. She graduated from The Ohio State University in 2017 with a B.A. in journalism, Middle East studies and Francophone studies, and is the proud daughter of Lebanese immigrants.

Judges’ comments: “The immersive elements of this piece were vital to its storytelling. Without it, the piece would only have a fraction of the impact. We commend the journalists for their ability to capture the essence of Philly's Chinatown, its activism and continued fight against the 76ers arena development.”

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