Joanne Faryon

Journalist

Joanne Faryon is a journalist and documentary producer specializing in long-form multimedia projects. Her work has been broadcast on the PBS NewsHour; NPR; The National, CBC’s flagship TV news program, and across multiple PBS affiliates in California.

In 2014, she was the first journalist to report on California’s “vent farms,” special nursing home units where thousands of people are kept alive artificially, lingering for years in various states of consciousness. The project, which she produced for inewsource, was awarded the Columbia School of Journalism Meyer “Mike” Berger Award for outstanding human interest reporting, a first place Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) award for investigative journalism, two National Edward R. Murrow awards, a National Association of Health Care Journalism Award, the 2015 SPJ Mark of Excellence Award (San Diego chapter) and was nominated for a national Emmy.

Faryon has gone inside three California prisons to document how sentencing laws contribute to an aging, sick, and expensive prison population. Her documentary, Life in Prison: The Cost of Punishment, has been viewed more than one million times on YouTube.

Faryon was also the first journalist in California to raise questions about the efficacy of the whooping cough vaccine in her 2010 documentary When Immunity Fails. Data showed most of the kids who got sick were up to date with their immunization.

Faryon traveled to the Netherlands where scientists had discovered a new mutant strain of the disease. Faryon has been a recipient of the USC Annenberg Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism, two other National Edward R. Murrow awards, a Radio and Television News Association Golden Mike for investigative reporting, two regional Emmys and several San Diego SPJ awards.