My Stories
Here are stories I wrote or edited as a misinformation reporter at NewsGuard, special projects fellow at Business Insider, a graduate student reporter at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, and more. The pieces span business, education, climate, race and health, and oftentimes live at the intersections of these topics.
If you're interested in examples of my work rating the credibility of websites or fact-checking health misinformation, please contact me at elisayjxu@gmail.com.
Dozens of pro-China social media and blog accounts are spreading the false claim that an experimental U.S. military weapon caused the August 2023 Maui wildfires — in what appears to be part of a coordinated online campaign to portray the U.S. military in a negative light, NewsGuard has found.
I conducted research and contributed to this special report. Read more at NewsGuardTech.com.
Every year, Insider surfaces 100 leaders across 10 industries who are driving unprecedented change and innovation. The T100 does more than highlight career milestones; it features the power players behind the most significant trends of the year.
I led the project as co-series editor and I reported sustainability transformer Jack Harries' profile for this cross-newsroom initiative. Read more at Business Insider.
Restaurant owners have had to navigate threats of eviction, understaffing, and anti-Asian sentiments, but expanded their online presence and offerings to stay in business.
Read more at South Side Weekly.
Iesha Malone, a teacher at Chicane Collegiate Middle School in Roseland, decided to open her bookstore Rose Café to help fill the book desert in Roseland — the Far South Side neighborhood where she was born and raised.
Read more on Medill Reports.
Annie Xiang makes her online Chicago-based tea business about more than selling single-origin loose-leaf tea to customers. It’s about amplifying the stories of the Chinese farmers who cultivate tea and humanizing them in the process.
Read more on Medill Reports.
It’s a strange time. A pandemic has completely changed people’s everyday lives, and the end is nowhere in sight. At a time where the world seems to be out of your control, practicing self-care and protecting your mental health is even more essential. Here are five ways to incorporate self-care into your everyday routine during quarantine.
Read more at YHM Magazine.
Water is something that none of us can survive without. It keeps us hydrated, it helps us cook, it keeps us clean. Yet there are more than 2 billion people worldwide who don’t have access to this basic necessity of clean water.
Read more at YHM Magazine.
NewsGuard identified 141 brands that are feeding programmatic ad dollars to low-quality AI-generated news and information sites operating with little to no human oversight.
I conducted research for this misinformation monitor. Read more at NewsGuardTech.com.
In 2020, Potes became the first Latino DACA recipient to win a Rhodes Scholarship, a prestigious fellowship award that gives students from around the world the opportunity to study at Oxford University.
Read more at Business Insider.
When Theresa Dardar, a member of the Pointe au Chien Indian Tribe, first caught wind of Hurricane Ida’s trajectory towards coastal Louisiana, she planned to stay with her brother’s family in Houma, Louisiana to wait out the storm. But as she kept watching the news, she started to think that maybe Houma — a city 30 miles from the coast — wasn’t far enough.
Read more on Native News Online.
Megan Banias started her online clothing company, Chicago for Keeps, during summer 2020. The racial reckoning that began that summer — sparked by the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and others in encounters with police — made her realize she wanted to give back to Black communities in Chicago.
Listen to the story on Medill Reports.
The sun was shining as the Washington University in St. Louis baseball team took to Kelly Field for their doubleheader against DePauw University on March 20. As the sports anthem “Another One Bites the Dust” boomed from the loudspeakers, athletic staff — the only fans allowed in the stands — cheered for their Bears.
Read more on Washington University's The Source.
Ah, cooking. We’ve all been stuck at home cooking, whether for ourselves or for our loved ones, a bit more lately during quarantine. But if you’re like me, cooking (and eating) the same few dishes on repeat is getting a little old.
Read more at YHM Magazine.
