Department of Music News

Three Western Kentucky University students finished in the top 10 in the first photojournalism and multimedia competitions of the 2021-2022 Hearst Journalism Awards Program.

Sam Mallon, a senior from Silver Spring, Maryland, finished sixth in the Photojournalism Features and News Competition, while Zane Meyer-Thornton, a senior from Los Angeles, California, finished seventh. Gabi Broekema, a senior from Bowling Green, placed sixth in the Multimedia Narrative Storytelling Competition.

WKU is in fourth place in the Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition after the first of two contests. Arizona State University and University of Florida are tied for first place with the highest accumulated student points in the first photo competition followed by Ohio University; WKU; University of Kentucky; Michigan State University (tie); Pennsylvania State University (tie); University of Maryland (tie); San Francisco State (tie); University of Oregon; and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

WKU is in third place in the Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition after the first of four contests. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is in first place with the highest accumulated student points followed by University of Southern California; WKU; San Francisco State University; Arizona State University; California State University, Fullerton; University of Maryland; Syracuse University; University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; and New York University.

In 2020-2021, WKU’s School of Media won the Hearst Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition for the fifth straight year and the 27^th time in the past 32 years and finished third in the Overall Intercollegiate Competition, its 12^th straight top five national ranking. WKU also finished second in the Hearst Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition, an event it has won eight times in 10 years.

WKU has finished in the top eight nationally in the Hearst program for 28 straight years and has won four overall national championships -- 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2018.

WKU students have won 15 Hearst individual national championships since 1985 — photojournalism in 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2014 and 2016; multimedia in 2015; writing in 1985; and radio news in 2006.

Often called “The Pulitzers of college journalism,” the Hearst program consists of five writing, two photojournalism, one audio, two television and four multimedia competitions. The points earned by individual students in the monthly competitions determine each discipline’s Intercollegiate ranking. The winners are those schools with the highest accumulated student points in each category.

Funded and administered for 62 years by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, the Hearst Journalism Awards Program offers up to $700,000 in scholarships, grants and stipends annually; 103 colleges and universities with accredited undergraduate journalism schools are eligible to participate.

Contact: School of Media, (270) 745-4144

- WKU -

Western Kentucky University prides itself on positioning its students, faculty and staff for long term success. As a student-centered, applied research university, our students expand on classroom learning by integrating education with real-world applications in the communities we serve. Our hilltop campus is located in Bowling Green, Kentucky, which was recently named by Reader’s Digest as one of the nicest towns in America, just an hour’s drive from Nashville, Tennessee.