The Markup’s investigation into internet disparities, “Dollars to Megabits, You May Be Paying 400 Times As Much As Your Neighbor for Internet Service,” won the National Association of Black Journalists’ 2023 Salute to Excellence award in the category of digital media, single-story feature. The award recognizes the best journalism covering the Black experience or addressing issues affecting the worldwide Black community.
The investigation showed that four internet service providers—AT&T, Verizon, EarthLink, and CenturyLink—disproportionately offered lower-income, least-White, and historically redlined neighborhoods slow internet service for the same price as for speedy connections in other parts of town. Our investigation produced the first nationwide disparate impact analysis of the speeds and prices internet service providers directly offered to consumers, and was the first to show where inequitable effects of tier flattening (charging internet customers the same rate for differing levels of service) have occurred.
“Dollars to Megabits” is the first investigation in The Markup’s series Still Loading. Since it published in October 2022, we have continued our ongoing coverage by providing:
- Five steps anyone can take to search for a better deal on broadband, and in the process, potentially help improve crucial government broadband data
- Step-by-step instructions on how to look into internet disparities in your own neighborhood
- An interactive map readers can use to see the data we collected in 45 major cities—at the address-level
Check out all our stories in the series.
Congratulations to the entire team for recognition of their hard work: Leon Yin, Aaron Sankin, Joel Eastwood, Gabriel Hongsdusit, Paroma Soni, Jeremy Singer-Vine, Maria Puertas, Jill Jaroff, and Evelyn Larrubia.
A big congratulations to all of this year’s NABJ Salute to Excellence award winners.
