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.
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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.
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 Contest Archive page has links to prior years' contests dating back to the year 2000.
