Author: mscaching

California Lost: China Camp


Frank Quan’s family has lived at China Camp, catching and selling shrimp, since the 1890s. He’s the last remaining resident of a Chinese fishing village that once thrived on San Pablo Bay. Now the state is closing China Camp State Park along with dozens of other parks because of budget cuts. What will happen to Frank?

This is the first of a series of video profiles I produced for a project from the Center for Investigative Reporting called California Lost. This video also appeared on The Huffington Post, Fresno Bee, and KQED.org.

Video produced by Carrie Ching
Story reported by Joanna Lin

California Lost: Coachella


In the heat of the desert, more than 30,000 farmworkers have set up makeshift homes in overcrowded trailer parks – often without access to clean water, electricity and sewage systems. Some, like Ana Sanchez, are demanding basic rights to safe living conditions.

I shot and edited this multimedia profile, part of a series I produced for the Center for Investigative Reporting called California Lost. The video appeared on The Huffington Post, New America Media, KPCC.org, the SF Chronicle’s iPad app, Mun2 (NBCUniversal’s LA network for Latinos), and several blogs. I also produced a Spanish-language version of the video. Read the print feature by Patti Leigh Brown and learn more about the story.

California Lost: Maywood


The Martin family has lived in Maywood – an industrial city southeast of Los Angeles – for 15 years. After a series of illnesses in the family, they agreed to have tests done to find out what toxics and heavy metals they carry inside.

I edited this multimedia profile of the Martin family, part of a series I produced for the Center for Investigative Reporting called California Lost. The video was shot by Josiah Hooper and photographs were shot by Daniel Anderson. This feature appeared on The Huffington Post.

Suspect America


After 9/11, the government began encouraging local police, private security and everyday Americans to report so-called “suspicious activity” that may indicate a security threat. Taking photos of landmarks, walking “nervously” and writing in a notebook are all activities that have led to people being stopped and questioned. Could you be next?

This animated feature was published online with an investigative reporting package by the Center for Investigative Reporting and NPR called Under Suspicion. This is the second animated feature I’ve produced for CIR, working closely with the very talented illustrator/animator Arthur Jones.

“Suspect America” won an award for Explanatory Journalism from the Society of Professional Journalists (Northern California) in 2012.

Directed and produced by Carrie Ching
Reporting and research by G.W. Schulz, Andrew Becker, Tia Ghose, Daniel Zwerdling, Margot Williams
Illustration and animation by Arthur Jones
Music by Lukasz Stasinski and Erik Haddad

June 20, 2011 mscaching Comments Off on Sex Trafficking: How it Works

Sex Trafficking: How it Works



Photojournalist Mimi Chakarova explores the dark underworld of sex trafficking in Eastern Europe in a 2009 multimedia series, a prelude to THE PRICE OF SEX documentary. See more on the multimedia website http://priceofsex.org. This video was produced by Mimi Chakarova and Carrie Ching and edited by Carrie Ching.

The Price of Gas


What’s the price of gasoline? In the U.S. it’s about $4 a gallon. But some experts say the true price of gas is much higher. What about the costs of pollution, and the global and local problems caused by it? Who pays for those? This animated feature from the Center for Investigative Reporting calculates the carbon footprint and other “external costs” of gasoline use in the U.S.

I produced this animated feature with reporter Sarah Terry-Cobo and illustrator Arthur Jones. The video was a huge success for CIR/California Watch and was featured online by Time, Rolling Stone, Fast Company, Grist, Mother Jones, AlterNet, TreeHugger, Huffington Post, KQED, and many other blogs and publications.

“The Price of Gas” won journalism awards from the Society of Professional Journalists (Northern California) and Best of the West. It was also a finalist for the 2011 Video Journalism award from the Online News Association.

Reported by Sarah Terry-Cobo
Produced by Carrie Ching and Sarah Terry-Cobo
Sound mix and editing by Carrie Ching
Animation and illustration by Arthur Jones

The Price of Sex


This multimedia project showcases the work of photojournalist Mimi Chakarova. After the collapse of communism in 1989, millions of former Soviet bloc residents migrated abroad, breathing life into one of the oldest criminal enterprises—the trafficking of humans into sexual slavery. Since then, thousands of Eastern European women have been sold into prostitution. Mimi has been documenting this phenomenon for the past seven years. I worked closely with her to create a multimedia presentation using her photography and video interviews she collected of sex trafficking survivors. I edited all of the videos, produced the multimedia map, and managed production of the website—from conception and design through content development, construction, and launch.

See the complete project at priceofsex.org.

Timeline: Evidence Ignored


I designed this interactive timeline for The Chauncey Bailey Project using Vuvox.com. It accompanied an Oakland Tribune story reporting that Sgt. Derwin Longmire, the lead detective assigned to investigate journalist Chauncey Bailey’s 2007 shooting, had many ties to Your Black Muslim Bakery—and several members of the bakery were suspects in Bailey’s murder. Reporters discovered Longmire had been presented with evidence that Yusuf Bey IV, the bakery CEO, was likely involved in the murder, but the detective failed to document that evidence in the case file. This timeline tracked Longmire’s many connections to the Bey family.

The Chauncey Bailey Project won two Online Journalism Awards in 2009. This timeline was one of three features submitted to the Online News Association, which cited the project’s strong “timeline storytelling techniques” in the award for best investigative journalism website.

Top Greenhouse Gas Polluters


This map, produced for California Watch, shows the top 100 carbon dioxide-producing facilities in the state, according to data released by the California Air Resources Board. Power plants and oil refineries appear to be the largest culprits. I researched and mapped the individual facilities on a Google satellite image using Mapbuilder.net. I designed custom markers to visually show the amount of carbon dioxide emissions from each facility, and calculated conversions to demonstrate the scale and impact of those emissions.

Web of Influence


This was one of the first Flash projects I designed. The interactive chart shows which 2008 presidential candidates had fundraisers who also worked as lobbyists for foreign governments. It ran with a story published on ABCNews.com.

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