WKU News

WKU’s School of Media finished fourth in the nation in the Hearst Journalism Awards Program’s 2021-2022 Overall Intercollegiate Competition.

WKU has finished in the top five nationally for 13 consecutive years and has placed in the top eight for 29 straight years with four overall championships in 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2018.

WKU won the Hearst Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition for the sixth straight year and placed second in the Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition. The School of Media received awards of $10,000 and $4,000.

The top 10 in the 2021-2022 Overall Intercollegiate Competition are University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Arizona State University, University of Florida, WKU, Syracuse University, University of Missouri, Pennsylvania State University, University of Oregon, University of Southern California and University of Montana.

In this year’s final multimedia contest, WKU students won the Team Multimedia Digital News/Enterprise Story Competition.

The team of Gabi Broekema of Bowling Green, Addison LeBoutillier of Owensboro, Brenna Pepke of Memphis, Tennessee, Zane Meyer-Thornton of Los Angeles, California, and Sam Mallon of Silver Spring, Maryland, will receive a $3,000 award for their winning multimedia piece titled Appalachia’s Burden. WKU students Lily Thompson of Paoli, Indiana, and Chris Kohley of Streamwood, Illinois, finished eighth in the competition.

The top 10 finishers in the Hearst Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition are the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, WKU, University of Southern California, University of Oregon, University of Missouri, University of Nevada, Reno, Syracuse University, Arizona State University, San Francisco State University, and Pennsylvania State University.

The top 10 finishers in the Hearst Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition are WKU, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Arizona State University, University of Florida, Ohio University, University of Kentucky, Michigan State University, San Francisco State University, University of Montana (tie), University of Oregon (tie) and University of Iowa.

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.

WKU has won the Hearst photojournalism title 28 times in the past 33 years and has won the multimedia title eight times in 11 years. Since 1985, WKU students have won 15 Hearst individual national championships — 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.

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.