Favorite Visual Stories Of 2018

Members of the NPR Visuals team used their skills in photography, illustration, data visualizations and video to tell stories that reflect the world around us. The year was filled with political news as we tracked the 2018 midterm elections. We continued our coverage of Puerto Rico’s recovery efforts after Hurricane Maria significantly damaged the island in 2017. Photographers documented South American migrants who traveled in caravans in hopes of reaching the U.S.

We worked closely with the NPR investigations team on stories about a silent epidemic of sexual assault of people with intellectual disabilities and how the government has not intervened in continued health problems associated with coal mining. As part of the Above The Fray fellowship, we worked on stories in Papua New Guinea, which has one of the highest rates of intimate partner violence in the world. NPR’s international desk reported on the many facets of China’s influence around the globe in its series China Unbound.

Stories about everyday life in the U.S. kept us busy as we examined what it’s like in prison when working on a college degree or raising children. By partnering with Gene Demby on NPR’s Code Switch team, we explained the lasting history of housing segregation in the country. We dug into home price data 10 years after the Great Recession to see where housing affordability stands.