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Julie Watts

Consumer-Investigative Reporter, News Anchor, Host, Digital Journalist

  • Categories:
  • On Air
    • Investigative Reporter
    • ConsumerWatch Correspondent
    • News Anchor / Host
    • #NewsMom Reports
  • Off Camera
    • Digital Journalist
    • Emmy® Awards Chair
  • Formerly Known As…
    • Meteorologist (AMS)
    • General Assignment Reporter
    • Video Journalist

Interactive Reporting: A Social Experiment

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A Social Experiment: Passionate Parents Prompt Change
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FacebookLIVE: Car Seat Combustion Test
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FacebookLIVE: Q & A With UPPAbaby Founder
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THE BACKSTORY: 2016 Toxic Safety Year End Summary
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This is not your typical TV news story. It is part social media and part old fashion journalism. The experiment in interactive reporting gave a voice to our our most engaged viewers and ultimately prompted change.

The Backstory: Toxic Safety 

Our 2015-2016 investigation into toxic flame retardants in children’s car seats gained national attention – prompting action by lawmakers, industry groups, consumer advocates and federal regulators. Then, a year later, a company announced the first-ever flame-retardant-free car seat.

For decades the industry said it couldn’t be done so we knew that the new seat was newsworthy. But after more than a year of covering car seats, we were struggling to come up with a unique way to tell this story for a general news audience.

So, we decided to let some of our most engaged viewers help us tell the story.

Our audience, on air and online, had played a crucial role in the initial investigation. Their comments, questions and concerns on social media strengthened our commitment and often determined our direction.

It seemed fitting that we invite them back to participate – in real time via FacebookLIVE – as we produced the story on this latest development.

FacebookLIVE: Car Seat Combustion Demonstration

First, we commissioned a car seat combustion demonstration at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. We invited viewers to join us via FacebookLIVE as we lit the new flame-retardant-free seat on fire.

The FacebookLIVE format allowed us to visually demonstrate the federally required testing procedures while answering questions in real time. It gave our most engaged audience a unique opportunity to see firsthand how a manufacturer could meet the federal flammability standard without retardants.

FacebookLIVE: UPPAbaby Q&A

Then, we invited viewers to interview the company’s founder along with us via FacebookLIVE. After years of false advertising from allegedly-green car seat manufactures, many parents were skeptical of the claims. The interactive format provided a first-of-its-kind opportunity for concerned parents to ask the car seat manufacturer tough questions – either submitting them in advance or asking them live.

A Social Experiment: Passionate Parents Prompt Change

We found the FacebookLIVE platform freed us from many of the traditional restrictions of local TV news. The long-form format allowed us to provide context and background information related to the questions we asked. The interactivity enabled us to visually demonstrate complicated concepts while addressing audience questions in real time.

We took cues from the online questions and feedback when deciding how to best summarize the issue for a general news audience – then we wove some of those questions directly into the narrative to create what we hoped would be a unique and engaging piece.

The FacebookLIVE video served as our primary sound and b-roll. A selection of real-time social media comments, questions and reactions provided a unique character for the story.

Our goal was to be informative, but also to demonstrate how passionate viewers had been crucial to our investigation – and how those viewers ultimately prompted change.

Watch the story in its original form on Facebook here:

Featured NewsMom Reports

Interactive Reporting: A Social Experiment

This is not your typical TV news story. It was part social media and part old fashion journalism. The experiment in interactive reporting gave a voice to our our most engaged viewers and ultimately prompted change. [Continue/View Demo]

Investigating Child Credit Freezes

After years of reporting on child ID theft and credit freezes, Julie set out to freeze her toddler’s credit. What she discovered led to a year-long series of editorial blogs that ultimately prompted a new state law and this series of KPIX consumer reports. [Continue/View Demo]

Investigating Car Seats Chemicals

It began as a NewsMom.com editorial and expanded into a KPIX-CBS investigation exposing false advertising, legal loopholes and outdated federal regulations that systematically expose millions of children to concerning car seat chemicals. [Continue/View Demo]

Featured Investigative Reports

Supermarket Shocker

What began with a single complaint about an overcharge at the grocery store expanded into a nationwide investigation.

As a result of persistent undercover and computer assisted reporting, this series holds one of the nation’s largest grocery retailers accountable for disproportionately overcharging customers and violating a court order. [Continue/View Demo]

UN-Covered California

“UN-Covered California” began with a single complaint about doctors refusing to accept insurance policies purchased on the state’s ACA health insurance exchange. It evolved into in-depth continuing coverage spanning more than 30 reports over the course of a year.

The series exposed a widespread practice of bait & switch and revealed that state regulators weren’t investigating complaints or enforcing state law. Ultimately, this reporting prompted changes by insurers and forced action by state regulators and law makers. [Continue/View Demo]

“Filled” With Fear

When Chrysler owners told ConsumerWatch they were “filled with fear” every time they filled their tank, we began investigating a known fuel tank defect that caused the cars to stall on the road.

Public records revealed that the car maker assured NHTSA it would address the issue months earlier. Chrysler also told the regulator that it would pay to fix the potentially dangerous defect in each of the affected cars. However, we discovered that the car maker had not followed though. [Continue/View Demo]

Fool’s Gold

It began with a local complaint about a fraudulent gold buyer and expanded into a five-state undercover investigation that exposed a pattern of fraud and deceit within one of the nation’s largest gold buying operations.

As a result, THR & Associates was forced to shut down, putting an end to the company’s predatory practices in as many as 160 different cities each week. The company’s CEO is now the subject of multiple state and federal investigations. [Continue/View Demo]

Public Storage

In this three-part series, we investigated questionable insurance practices and security measures at the nation’s largest storage company.

Over the course of several months, this undercover investigation revealed that unlicensed Public Storage employees were illegally selling insurance to customers. We also compiled data that demonstrated the insurance company behind those policies was regularly denying valid claims. [Continue/View Demo]

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Featured ConsumerWatch Reports

California UN-Confidential

“Reporting this isn’t going to change anything.” That was the response we got from one of the largest state agencies in California when we first questioned why it was violating state privacy laws and putting millions at risk for identity theft.

When we first asked the agency’s PIO what it would take to remove the SSNs from its mailings, she laughed out loud and said “that’s not going to happen.” Three months (and several news reports) later, it did. [Continue/View Demo]

“TSA Cares” Making Changes Following ConsumerWatch Story

While you may be obligated to let TSA inspect your bags, TSA says it is not obligated to put your things back the way they found it.

After a viewer complained that their expensive instrument was repeatedly damaged when TSA failed to re-pack it properly, we started asking questions. We found TSA was not abiding by the instructions posted on its own website and convinced the agency to alter it’s official policy. [Continue/View Demo]

Is Xfinity Public Wi-Fi Hijacking Your Phone?

Most web surfers know that public Wi-Fi is much more vulnerable to hackers than your average private home network, but we discovered that Xfinity public Wi-Fi may automatically connect you to its unsecured public network without your knowledge, even at home.

We put the public Wi-Fi network to the test and demonstrated how easy it is to hack. We also revealed that once you log onto Xfinity public Wi-Fi, your device remains connected to the Xfinity network – even after a factory reset. [Continue/View Demo]

Highway Terror – Ford Catastrophic Cars

When we discovered that one of the nation’s largest automakers was refusing to buy back cars with potentially dangerous safety defects, we started asking questions.

The objective of this story was to educate drivers about their rights when dealers can’t diagnose or repair a problem. Ultimately, Ford agreed to buy back the car featured in our report. [Continue/View Demo]

ID Theft – Continuing Coverage

It’s not a matter of if, but when your identity will be compromised.

From interviewing convicted ID thieves who reveal tricks of the trade, to developing an unprecedented method of protecting your child from ID Theft, this composite includes four unique ID theft stories. [Continue/View Demo]

When Coverage Counts

Sandbags weren’t enough to save this seaside town from flooding. Businesses were shuttered, insurance claims were filed, and then the unexpected happened. ConsumerWatch uncovers why some policyholders were paid while others were not.

The research gathered for this series prompted The Harford (Part 1) to reverse all of its Capitola claim denials, and became the primary evidence in a class action lawsuit against Allied/Nationwide (Part 2). In addition, FEMA (Part 3) launched its own investigation into the pay-out practices of its contracted insurers. [Continue/View Demo]

More Posts from this Category

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