“Hooked: Tracking Heroin’s Hold on Arizona” will simultaneously air on January 13 at 6:30 p.m. on every broadcast TV station and most radio outlets across Arizona. The 30-minute commercial-free investigative report was produced by Arizona State University student journalists and focuses on the growing perils of heroin and opioid use.
Sean Walsh, Executive Director at The Meadows, contributed to the project which was supported by The Meadows. Walsh was a member of the Steering/Planning Committee in charge of coordinating the large undertaking, and also chaired the Recovery/Response Committee. In this role, Walsh worked with different representatives from the treatment community around the state of Arizona to coordinate, staff, and oversee the 100-phone call center. The call center, sponsored by the Arizona Broadcasters Association (ABA), will be manned by trained professionals during and after the telecast for viewers seeking counseling or needing more information on heroin and opioid addiction.
“The growing heroin and opioid problem is reaching epidemic levels and has become a critical public health issue,” Walsh said. “I’m proud to be involved in this massive project that will no doubt save lives.”
The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU has produced packages of digital stories and data analyses that will be available on the Web, an accompanying mobile tablet app, plus Spanish-language and radio versions of the documentary.
The TV stations committed to the simulcast include:
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