Arkansas Covid is managed by The University of Arkansas School of Journalism and Strategic Media. What began as a personal project for Misty Oprin, a journalist, small business owner, and mother of two, grew to a website and interactive Twitter page. As interest grew for daily updates, Misty partnered with Dr. Rob Wells, assistant professor in the journalism department. A growing workload led to a shift of management for the site. The School of Journalism and Strategic Media now allows students to gain experience reporting real-time data and news through the site. The school devotes a mix of graduate and undergraduate students to daily management of Arkansas Covid and Misty continues to provide analysis as needed.
The core goals for Arkansas Covid are:
- Provide reliable, county-level Covid-19 data to help Arkansans make informed decisions for themselves and their families
- Fact-check data being presented by state and other sources to ensure accuracy
- Respond to reader questions seeking data-related information
- Make information easy to access and easy to digest through clear visualizations
- Uphold editorial standards of The Associated Press