L.A. Times Reporting Earns Journalism Excellence Award from the Asian American Journalists Association

A group of current and former Los Angeles Times reporters has won a Journalism Excellence Award from the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) for coverage of the January 2023 mass shooting in Monterey Park and its aftermath. The AAJA’s awards honor the best in journalism among its members.

Times Community Engagement Editor Anh Do, City Editor Cindy Chang and former Times staffers Jeong Park and Debbie Truong received the Excellence in Written Reporting, News award for their reporting on Monterey Park. Times staff writers Summer Lin, Hailey Branson-Potts and Brittny Mejia also contributed reporting to the winning entries.

The Times’ coverage brought attention to some often overlooked issues, such as isolation and loneliness among Asian American elders and the rise in gun ownership among Asian Americans, and details, such as Chinese-speaking police officers who worked long hours to translate the survivors’ and witnesses’ testimonies.

The competition’s judges called the series of reports “inspired storytelling on a breaking news cycle” and noted that it “highlights how one single event affects whole communities and the way they think and relate to larger society and each other.”

Earlier this month, The Times’ staff was recognized as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting for coverage of the mass shooting.

The AAJA awards will be presented during its gala in Austin, TX, this August. To learn more, visit awards.aaja.org.