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2009 NEW MEDIA AWARDS
I. BEST USE OF PHOTOGRAPHY & AUDIO (natural sound)
1st Place:
A Mother's Risk
In Sierra Leone, one in eight women die in childbirth, a problem that gets little attention from international donors who are far more focused on global health threats such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
Adama Sannoh, unable to find transportation to a medical facility, spent a sleepless night suffering from symptoms of eclampsia. She and her baby later died at the hospital before she could deliver.
Producer, Audio Editor - Megan Rossman
Photo Editors - Megan Rossman, Carol Guzy, Tom Kennedy
Photographer, Audio Reporter - Carol Guzy
Text Editor - Heather Farrell
NOTES: This had all the elements: great photos, audio and really strong natural sound and interviews. Finding a story and following it. The editing of the photos and audio together is very strong.It's an incredibly compelling situation. Kudos to the photographer for recording audio in that situation. It must have been difficult looking for a difficult situation and being able to navigate that situation, still telling a compelling story.
2nd Place:
"Muskrat Queens"
Two girls from Dorchester County, Md., participate in a beauty pageant and muskrat skinning competition during the 63rd Annual National Outdoor Show in Golden Hill, Md.
Notes:This is a well told slice of Americana life - a great find. The photographer did a great job of finding an unusual aspect of our culture and getting into different aspects of the pageant. There was a good variety of of shots and it was tied together well. It flowed and brought the viewer through from beginning middle and end. It had a sense of humor without making fun.
3rd Place:
Shelter for the Scarred
More than a year has passed since a Federal court confiscated Michael Vick's pit bulls. While fighting dogs are often euthanized, many of Vick's received a second chance from animal shelters, rescue groups and individuals across the United States.
Producer - Whitney Shefte
Photographer, Audio Reporter - Carol Guzy
Photo Editor, Audio Editor - Whitney Shefte, Carol Guzy
Text Editor - Mike McPhate
NOTES:This could have been a tighter edit. It didn't need as many chapters as it had . It would have been stronger as a tighter piece. It was well shot, good audio and some great moments. Great job on gaining access to all those dogs and following it through. The pieces were well crafted overall.
Award of Excellence:
World of Words
Alferd Williams left school when he was 6 years old to harvest crops after his father became ill. More than six decades later, Williams is back in the classroom—learning to read with first-graders in Ms. Hamilton’s class. This piece is part of our ongoing series, Reinventing Your Life.
A look inside China’s training ground for young gymnasts.
Produced by: Andrea Rane, Coburn Dukehart and Jessica Wanke/NPR; Audio Produced by Jack Zahora/NPR; Reported by Louisa Lim/NPR; Photographs by Ariana Lindquist for NPR. Supervising producers: Meghan Collins Sullivan and Keith Jenkins/NPR
NOTES: This was a clear first place in this category. The pacing and the natural sound and the length of photo duration. There were no weak ponts. It was well written. It's long but it didn't feel long. It held your interest for the entire piece. This was a "laptop moment" as apposed to a "driveway moment".
NOTES:The narration should have started from the beginning instead of the title slides. The first 30 seconds should be something that grabs you. It didn't grab me because of the titles slides. - Seth Gitner
The title slides weren't easy to read. They worked against the intro.
Other than that, it was an excellent story with great photography and natural sound.
A former marine and his young Iraqi bride try to get by in Ozark, Mo.
Produced by: Andrea Rane, Coburn Dukehart and Jessica Wanke/NPR; Audio Produced by Jack Zahora/NPR; Reported by Louisa Lim/NPR; Photographs by Ariana Lindquist for NPR. Supervising producers: Meghan Collins Sullivan and Keith Jenkins/NPR
NOTES:We really liked this story. It was complex but it was told well but for the ending. It dropped off and left us wondering. If there had been a conclusion to the story it probably would have placed higher.
Reporter Frank Langfitt contrasts the striking difference in Beijing’s old neighborhoods from 2002 to 2008.
Produced by Coburn Dukehart/NPR, Edited by Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR; Reported, photographed and narrated by Frank Langfitt/NPR
Award of Excellence:
PHOTOGRAPHER'S JOURNAL: FOLLOWING MCCAIN
A photographer recounts documenting Senator John McCain on the campaign trail.
Overall notes:This was a difficult category to judge. We re-ordered the winning entries several times depending on how we interpreted the rules. We liked the idea of awarding innovation in multimedia as a way of driving the industry forward. But at the same time there were different types of story telling and it was hard to differentiate between individual pieces purely on the quality of story telling. Apples to oranges. A key element of our decision making was trying to understand what the core concept of a piece was and then evaluating how well it achieved it. In the end our choices reflected several different types of multimedia story telling - all done well.
1st Place:
A Guide to Nationals Park
Take a tour of the new home of the Washington Nationals, complete with stops in the dugout, clubhouse, control room and more.
We liked the interactivity. Like the views you could get from different spots in the stadium. Not just photos, panoramas. A great variety of different ways to experience the space and the people within the space.3-D fly around was a good use of obtaining assets by other means.
Interactive Panoramas by Ben de la Cruz / washingtonpost.com
Diversity is a signature of the D.C. region's more than 1 million Catholics, for whom Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Washington is a monumental event. These nine active Catholics, from varying walks of life, discuss their faith and the issues they hope Pope Benedict will address during his historic trip.
NOTES:
This project was a portrait series because it was done as audio panoramas. The panoramas operated around the focul point of the person and the audio both introduced the viewer to the person and the scene. In addition the disciples were well chosen disciples were the choice of the people featured in the panoramic portraits were chosen based on the D.C. area's divers catholic population. Audio was critical to the success of the project.
More than a quarter of New Orleans's pre-Katrina population has yet to return to the city, leaving some neighborhoods lightly populated and others deserted. These neighborhoods appear especially lonely at twilight, when streetlights illuminate what remains.
James Lo Scalzo, US News & World Report
NOTES: Conceptually it was different. The photographer chose to tell the story using the ghost town deserted areas devastated by Katrina. Through haunting images and appropriate natural sound the viewer is immersed in this ghostly landscape. It's telling a different story.The audio edit could have been smoother.
Award of Excellence:
Video Haiku: The Campaign in Moments
A periodic series of images captured from the world of presidential politics. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/campaign08/haiku/index.html Interactive by: Alexandra Garcia - washingtonpost.com. Videos by Ben de la Cruz - washingtonpost.com
Writer - Kevin Merrida - The Washington Post
NOTES:We liked the use off food data and calorie data. There were some nice multimedia stories - the fat camp story stuck out. It's a very deep project htat contains a tremendous amount of information and it's presented in very interesting interactive ways. It has traditional photo galleries and videos in addition to interactive graphics and quizzes. There are many aspects of the project to allow the user the opportunity to go as deep as they want with this issue.
NOTES:We all loved the interactive graphic. Probably one of our favorite aspects of the whole new media category. Some of the video stories were too loosely edited. The presentation on the main page was not cohesively designed. Some of the video stories were much too long. For example, "Where They Were" would have been much more affective if each of the voices in the piece could be accessed separately rather than a linear 19 mintue presentation. The search feature wonderfully useful and is a key feature of the piece.
NOTES:A tremendous amount of data in this project. Interesting photo galleries interesting 3-D graphics. It had it a good variety of elements. It was presented in an accessible way allowing users to interact with it. If there had been one personal story, it would have elevated the project.
Judges' overall comments: We were impressed with the quality and the scope of the new media being produced by the WHNPA membership.It's clear that the organizations are beginning to embrace the web as a viable publishing platform and the best multimedia is being produced by journalists who are investing their time, money and effort into online viewership.
Slideshow requires Flash player. If you see a gray box above, use this link to the MULTIMEDIA CONTEST
WHNPA STUDENT CONTEST
View winning entries in the 2009 WHNPA student contest.
Michael Mullady, San Francisco State is the Student Photographer of the Year.
John W. Adkisson, UNC Chapel Hill, and Matt Eich, Ohio University, received Awards of Excellence.
THE EYES OF HISTORY™ 2008
Scroll down for the 2008 Still Contest, Video Contest, New Media Contest, followed by prior years (2007 - 2000)
STILL PHOTOGRAPHY
Click the image above or this link to view the prize-winning photos:
STILL CONTEST JUDGING HOSTED BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE)
PRESS RELEASE - WINNERS (PDF) BEST USE OF PHOTOGRAPHY (NEW MEDIA)
First Place:
Struggle in Mississippi Delta:
African American farmers in the deep South struggle as major portions of federal
crop subsidies are given to large industrialized farms. Agricultural towns like
Shelby and Mound Bayou in Mississippi suffer from poverty, crime and high
unemployment.
Producer: Whitney Shefte
Photo Editor: Whitney Shefte
Photographer: Carol Guzy
Second Place:
Abductions Hold Haiti Hostage
Despite the presence of thousands of U.N. troops and a new military offensive to
root out gangs, armed thugs still rule much of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where many of
the 2 million residents live in tin or cinder-block shacks.
Producer: Dee Swann
Photo Editors: Dee Swann, Alexandra Garcia
Photography: Michel du Cille
Third Place:
For Them. By Them.
For six weeks, 30 teenagers, most of whom are from Southeast D.C., have worked
tirelessly on proposals for a $300,000 project to enhance their community.
Producer: Dee Swann
Photo Editor: Dee Swann, Tom Kennedy
Photographer: Carol Guzy
Award of Excellence:
The Lost Boys – Transforming Fort Dimanche
The boys warehoused at Fort Dimanche are the products of poverty, child abandonment,
rampant homelessness and an educational system that has failed to enroll 1 million
school-age children. A group using seed money from pop star Wyclef Jean hopes to
turn the children's prison into Haiti's first child rehabiliation center.
Additional Work by Michel du Cille / The Washington Post and Nelson Hsu and Lindsay
McCulough / washingtonpost.com
Producer: Nancy Donaldson – washingtonpost.com
Photography: Michel du Cille – The Washington Post
Photo Editing: Nancy Donaldson and Lindsay McCullough – washingtonpost.com
Design: Nelson Hsu – washingtonpost.com
Award of Excellence:
Fixing D.C.’s Schools: A History of Washington Education
Take a photographic journey through the history of D.C.'s schools: from the
inception of the school system to the tumultuous era of racial integration to the
numerous reform efforts of the present, the schools have long reflected changes in
the city and the nation.
In Kentucky bootleg denture-makers exist here for a reason: Kentucky has the highest
proportion of adults under 65 without teeth and about half of the residents lack
dental insurance. "People need teeth, but they can't afford to go to dentists for
dentures," said one bootlegger who has seen the shame of a 14-year-old girl who
would not lift her head because she had lost most of her teeth from malnutrition,
and the do-it-yourself pride of an elderly mountain man who, unable to afford a
dentist, pulled his own infected teeth with a pair of pliers.
Fairs and festivals bring together communities too often too busy to share in
experiences. This series of audio slideshows puts a fresh face on the fun of a
little friendly competition.
Producer: Alexandra Garcia
Audio and Photo Editing: Alexandra Garcia & Sarah L. Voisin
Photography: Sarah L. Voisin | Audio Reporting: Sarah Hollander & Sarah L. Voisin.
Award of Excellence:
Why We Compete | Adrenaline
Jumpers take part in the 2007 Bridge Day on the New River Gorge Bridge in
Fayetteville, W.Va.
Burning Man
What type of religious experience would you expect at a festival dedicated to
radical self-reliance and carnal pleasure, revolving around rituals described as
pagan? Welcome to Burning Man, where you can talk to God from a phone booth and
listen to the gospel choir while watching a temple burn.
‘Continuous War’: Cluster Bombs in South Lebanon
Cluster bomblets may look like toys – small cups of heavy metal with a fold of
ribbon dangling from each bomblet’s detonator – but their affects are leaving a far
more destructive legacy, particularly among civilians in southern Lebanon, which was
hit hard during the summer 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
A look back in sounds and photos to mark the 50th anniversary of "West
Side Story."
Reporter and audio producer: Jeff Lunden
Slideshow producer: Trey Graham
Mix engineers: Josh Rogosin, Neal Rauch
Photo researchers: Frannie Kelley, Patrick Jarenwattananon
Photo editor: Coburn Dukehart
Award of Excellence:
An IED Attack Unfolds
Washington Post photographer Andrea Bruce recounts an encounter with a roadside bomb
while embedded in Baqubah, Iraq. The June 2004 attack seriously injured two soldiers
who were traveling in an unarmored Humvee.
Eastern Chad has become a temporary home for hundreds of thousands of Sudanese
fleeing violence in the Darfur region. Their plight has become intertwined with
110,000 Chadians who have also become subject to banditry and violence, imperiling
international food and medical aid efforts.
The frozen landscape, dry valleys and active volcanoes that make up Antarctica
provide a living laboratory for scientific study and a wondrous journey for those
traveling to the ends of the Earth. Experience the continent with this special
report.
Project by Lindsay McCullough, George Steinmetz, Adam Kipple, Amar Bakshi, and Alicia
Cypress
For decades, the District's public schools have resisted scores of reform plans and
multiple changes in leadership to remain among the most troubled in the nation. As
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty orchestrates the latest attempt to fix the schools, The Post
is examining why the problems have been so difficult to solve.
Project by Liz Heron, Nelson Hsu, Adrian Holovaty, Nancy Donaldson, Dee Swann and
Ben de la Cruz
onBeing is a project based on the simple notion that we should get to know one
another a little better. What you’ll find here is a series of videos that takes you
into the musings, passions, histories and quirks of all sorts of people. The essence
of who they are, who we are.
Project by Jennifer Crandall, Jesse Foltz, Rob Curly, Deryck Hodge, Tom Kennedy,
Ju-Don Roberts and Liz Spayd.
