Preserving Knowledge - Wallace House Center for Journalists

Laura Santhanam is health editor at Mississippi Today.

For days after this year’s presidential inauguration, I stepped away from each interview I conducted with data archivists, librarians, legal experts, health researchers and political scientists feeling like I had attended a funeral. Federal datasets were disappearing from government websites — the kind of information that makes most people’s eyes glaze over, but that has provided evidence documenting the realities of climate change, health disparities, racial and gender inequities, for years, if not decades.

As a journalist who covers health, science and medicine, these data gave strength and purpose to the anecdotes my reporting uncovered, elevating individual stories and giving them context.

It helped that people passionate about preserving knowledge were scrambling to save datasets before they were digitally set ablaze, like a modern-day burning of the Library of Alexandria. Without those data, anyone with the loudest microphone — and the most power — could more easily level baseless assertions about vaccine science, rising sea levels or the economy.

A week after my Knight-Wallace Fellowship ended, I participated in a panel discussion hosted by the U-M Center for Political Studies. By then, volunteer data rescuers were finding lost datasets. Many that resurfaced had been compromised. Variables had been stripped away that had once recorded racial and gender diversity of respondents.

We urged them to weave caveats that acknowledged the mishandled data, or where data was no longer being collected.

Organizers booked a room at the U-M Institute for Social Research, assuming a couple dozen people would trickle in. The room filled to capacity with more than 80 people, with a few dozen more on Zoom. It was an inspiring act of collective will.

One of the gifts of the fellowship is the ability to meet and work with faculty. Josh Pasek, a political scientist who explores the intersection of politics, communication and misinformation, was on the panel with me, and he is passionate about steering efforts to save data and understand how to measure the truth going forward.

In June, the two of us traveled to the University of Southern California to share what we had learned with journalists in the Center for Health Journalism. Reporters in the program’s National Fellowship had launched six-month investigations into complicated health issues affecting their communities, and many hoped to rely on data to demonstrate their findings.

Josh and I shared strategies they could use as researchers and storytellers. We urged them to weave caveats that acknowledged the mishandled data, or where data was no longer being collected. We encouraged transparency with their newsrooms and audiences about what has been lost. We also stressed to this roomful of eager journalists that their reporting was more important than ever. At a time when our records are at risk, fearless reporting may be our one hope for shining a light on our world and the decisions that shape it.

This article is part of Rising to Meet the Moment, a series from the Fall 2025 issue of the Wallace House Journal, featuring reflections from Knight-Wallace alumni, Wallace House board members and the Livingston Awards community on meeting today’s challenges with focus, resilience and resolve. Read more stories from our series:

Christopher Baxter, “Unexpected hope“

Lynette Clemetson, “Stepping up with focus and resolve“

Hayes Ferguson, “Nurturing innovation, adaptability and purpose“

Stephen Henderson, “Choosing civility“

Samantha Henry, “The future of our profession: student journalism“

Tracy Jan, “News deserts and fewer watchdogs“

Margaret Low, “Game Over? Not a chance“

Peggy Lowe, “Defunded, but not defeated“

Amy Maestas, “Building trust through community collaborations“

Kunal Majumder, “Defending the right to report“

Seema Mehta, “Why we keep reporting“

Rachel Rohr, “Swift action for the hardest hit“