The award is named for Philip Meyer, a groundbreaking journalist and professor who has championed the use of scientific methods in the media.

Thomas Hargrove, Fred Schulte and David Donald are the only reporters to have won the award twice.

Reuters analyzed Westlaw data from 3.2 million federal civil suits filed between 2006 and 2016.

By presenting their first findings in a video, the Journal showed non-technical audience the threads of extreme content that the bots were pushed into viewing.

The combination of simulations and analysis in uncovering this troubling and sometimes appalling content was, in the judges' view, an important extension of the social science methods that the Philip Meyer Award is meant to recognize.