Misty Orpin and Rob Wells
ArkansasCOVID.com, a startup news and data project built to prominence during the pandemic by Misty Orpin, is transferring its operations to the journalism program at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
The UA’s School of Journalism and Strategic Media will assume daily management next month.
Orpin, a journalist, former Northwest Arkansas Council trails director and marketing chief for husband Leo Orpin’s Black Apple cidery, started the website in March from her laptop. Recognizing a need for updated and compelling data, she built a multimedia site as a personal project and soon gained applause for its “data visualizations, frequent Twitter updates and Orpin’s analysis,” according to a news release from the university.
The Twitter feed, @arkansascovid, has 11,000 followers, including state officers, business leaders and journalists.
Previously: Arkansas Business talks to Orpin about her website and what COVID-19 data businesses should watch.
Orpin teamed up in May with Rob Wells, a UA assistant professor of journalism who provided an intern to help Orpin present daily demographic data.
The internship, the news release said, was sponsored by Arkansas Soul, a site devoted to recruiting and training African American journalism students, and the Northwest Arkansas Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Overworked, Orpin soon asked if the UA program could take over the site full time. The school, part of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, will help staff the project with a mix of graduate students and pupils from Wells’ data journalism class. It affords students “an extraordinary opportunity to work with a real-time data journalism website,” the release said.
Orpin will still offer analysis and commentary, and the transition is expected to be completed by Sept. 14.
“I’ve been so gratified at the way the community has embraced this platform and created a welcoming space to share information about COVID in our state,” Orpin said in a statement. “Its growth in the past few months wouldn’t have been possible without help from the partnership with the UA. I’m thrilled to be handing it off to the UA team, in whom I have utmost confidence to shepherd it to even greater usefulness for everyday Arkansans.”
Larry Foley, chair of the School of Journalism and Strategic Media, called the project a benefit to both students and the public.
“This is a real opportunity for our school to work on a project that delivers critical information,” Foley said. “Misty Orpin has done a great job with her work and we are honored to move it forward. Dr. Rob Wells is the right person to lead his student team, at this most important time when all of us need data to help negotiate the rough waters of this dangerous, contagious virus.”
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