Chicago’s Thriving Investigative Journalism Partnerships – MacArthur Foundation

Chicago’s Thriving Investigative Journalism Partnerships  MacArthur Foundation

The MacArthur Foundation supports creative people and effective institutions committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. In addition to selecting the MacArthur Fellows, we work to defend human rights, advance global conservation and security, make cities better places, and understand how technology is affecting children and society. Chicago news organizations Illinois Answers, Injustice Watch, and Investigative Project on Race & Equity create a collaborative environment that expands capacity, reaches more people, and sparks change. As federal immigration agents descended on the Chicago area in the fall of 2025, journalists from nine local, nonprofit newsrooms sprang into action. Fanning out across the city, they conducted interviews, operated a tip line, and reviewed videos and other material on dozens of uses of tear gas and pepper spray.

The result was a sweeping investigative project that, among other concerns, reported that in two-thirds of those instances, chemical irritants were deployed against peaceful protestors and that agents continued using the irritants even after a federal judge barred them from doing so. Nearly impossible for a single newsroom to handle comprehensively, the project exemplifies an extensive and growing effort in Chicago by nonprofit newsrooms to collaborate and produce ground-breaking investigations into issues that impact communities. Investigations have covered criminal justice, housing, public health, race, and education, among other topics. “It used to