NEWS RELEASE
HEARST MULTIMEDIA NEWS COMPETITION WINNERS NAMED
San Francisco – The winners in college multimedia journalism were announced in the William Randolph Hearst Foundation’s Journalism Awards Program, in which 108 undergraduate journalism programs at universities across the nation are eligible to participate. The category of this competition was news, with 49 entries submitted from 30 schools.
First Place has been awarded to Katie Meek, a senior from Western Kentucky University. Katie will receive a $2,600 scholarship for her winning multimedia piece titled “What’s Inside Counts” from WKUPJ.com. Western Kentucky University will receive a matching grant, as do the journalism departments of all scholarship winners. Katie also qualifies to participate in the Hearst National Multimedia Championship, which will be held this June in San Francisco.
Other multimedia scholarship winners are:
Second place, $2,000 award, Tyler Essary, Western Kentucky University
Third place, $1,500 award, Erin O’Connor, Arizona State University
Fourth place, $1,000 award, Luke Rafferty, Syracuse University
Fifth place, $1,000 award, Jessica Boehm, Arizona State University
The sixth through tenth place finalists are:
Sixth place, certificate, Robert Cameron, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Seventh place, certificate, Viviana Lopez Bonilla, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Eight place, certificate, Brianna Soukup, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Ninth place, certificate, Peter Snarr, San Francisco State University
Tenth place, certificate, Abigail Johnson, Pennsylvania State University
The 55th annual Journalism Awards Program includes five writing competitions, two photojournalism competitions, one radio competition, two television competitions, and three additional multimedia competitions. The program offers up to $500,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends annually.
The Multimedia judges are: Tiffany Campbell, Managing Editor, Digital, WBUR 90.9, Arlington, VA; Sue Morrow, Assistant Multimedia Director, Sacramento Bee, CA; Kate O’Brian, President, Al Jazeera America, New York, NY.
Western Kentucky University is in first place after the second of four competitions in the Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition with the highest accumulated student points. It is followed by: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Arizona State University; University of Missouri; Syracuse University; Temple University; San Francisco State University; University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Pennsylvania State University; Kent State University. The final intercollegiate winners will be announced in April after the last competition is processed. The top three intercollegiate winners earn $10,000, $4,000 and $2,000 respectively.
# # #
Contact: Jan Watten
415.908.4565
jwatten@hearstfdn.org
