Futuro Media Launches Investigative and Special Projects Division With Premiere of Multimedia Investigative Story

Deep-Dive Story on Border Patrol to be Released this Friday, December 2nd, 2022

New York (November 28, 2022) – Futuro Media announced the premiere of its first investigative story, produced by the newly launched investigative unit, Futuro Investigates. This unit is part of the organization’s Futuro Unidad Hinojosa division, led by Pulitzer Award winner Maria Hinojosa and Emmy Award winner Peniley Ramírez.

In the year-long multiplatform investigation Death by Policy: Crisis in the Arizona Desert, Hinojosa and the investigative team dig into how the Border Patrol’s decades-long deterrence policies have knowingly placed migrants in danger, pushing them to cross from Mexico to the U.S. in more hostile terrain such as the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. 

With a one-hour episode, articles in English and Spanish, and a data analysis package, this multimedia story reveals how the Border Patrol relies on volunteer humanitarian groups such as the Blue Armadillos to conduct part of their rescues. 

The investigative team visualizes the impact of the growing number of deaths through data analysis and field reporting. Death by Policy: Crisis in the Arizona Desert will premiere on Latino USA on December 2. 

“The highest level of journalism is doing deep investigations that lead to accountability. I am honored to be able to lead the only unit of its kind in the United States,” says Maria Hinojosa. “This is our moment to do investigations the way we want to. I like to joke and take that quote from the movie ‘Captain Phillips,’ ‘I am the captain now!’ In my case, ‘I am 60 Minutes now!’”

Futuro Unidad Hinojosa develops highly creative multimedia projects that deeply enhance the ongoing work of Futuro Media’s journalism and original programming. 

Latina-founded and women-led, Futuro Investigates is on a mission to create a new definition of investigative work in the tradition of the best American journalism. It centers humanity along with data and field reporting that holds the powerful accountable and confronts challenges that communities of color face across the Americas.

“I’m honored to work with audio legend Maria Hinojosa in creating an innovative storytelling platform for investigative journalism as we pursue in-depth reporting that matters to communities often ignored by mainstream media,” Peniley Ramírez said. “It is thrilling to experience the challenge of leading a mostly female team that gives opportunities to new generations of investigative journalists of color and holds power accountable.”

Later this week, Futuro Media will launch a new media site, futuroinvestigates.org, where the organization will publish investigative and special projects in English and Spanish in audio, video, text, and data visualizations. For more information on Futuro Unidad Hinojosa and Futuro Media, visit www.futuromediagroup.org.

Follow Futuro Investigates on Social Media: 

Twitter @fuhinvestigates

Tiktok @futuroinvestigates

Instagram @futuroinvestigates

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About Futuro Unidad Hinojosa: 

Futuro Unidad Hinojosa is the investigative and special projects division of the Pulitzer-award-winning organization Futuro Media, led by Maria Hinojosa and Peniley Ramírez. Founded in 2020, this entrepreneurial division enhances Hinojosa’s legacy of human and in-depth reporting for television and audio. This division develops highly creative multimedia projects and original programming alongside new specialized investigative and data analysis techniques that Ramírez has developed as an investigative correspondent for major news media outlets. Within this division, Futuro Investigates is the only investigative unit in the United States dedicated primarily to Latino/a and other communities of color, reporting in English and Spanish.

About Futuro Media: 

Winner of a 2022 Pulitzer Prize, Futuro Media is an independent, nonprofit organization producing multimedia journalism that explores and gives a critical voice to the diversity of the American experience. Based in Harlem and founded in 2010 by Pulitzer-award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa, Futuro Media is committed to telling stories from points of view often overlooked by mainstream media. Futuro Media produces Peabody Award-winning Latino USA, the longest-running national Latino news and cultural public radio program; In The Thick, a politics podcast from the perspective of journalists and issue experts; Latino Rebels, a pioneering digital news outlet founded by Julio Ricardo Varela that reaches millions through its website and podcast; Futuro Studios focuses on original podcasts and programming; and Futuro Unidad Hinojosa focuses on investigative journalism and special projects.

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