While picture editing for the Columbia Missourian I noticed our photographers were going to the same areas for assignments and feature hunts. Wondering which parts of town were overlooked, I coded the 1,114 photo requests our department received in 2018 to identify our underreported areas. After mapping the data, I spoke with city workers who completed community needs assessments in each of those areas to find out what issues residents were facing.

Fellow picture editor Emily Nevils joined me in building a team of visual journalists that would complete the project. The two of us reached out to businesses, churches, community gathering places and individuals in each area to find stories for our photographers and videographers.

While piecing together the project, we worked with documentary journalist Phoebe Mussman to weave each of the following individual stories together using video. Phoebe was sent to community gathering places to find b-roll that would cohesively lead readers through town.