WKU News

Western Kentucky University senior Rhiannon Johnston won the Hearst Journalism Awards Program’s 2024 National Multimedia Championship this week in San Francisco, California.

Johnston, an advertising and photojournalism major from Louisville, received a $10,000 award for her first-place finish. Johnston, who also received a $1,000 award for Best Multimedia Story of the Year, is WKU’s 17^th Hearst individual national champion since 1985 and third multimedia champion since 2015. (View story)

WKU junior Brett Phelps, a photography and strategic marketing major from Bardstown, finished third in the National Photojournalism Championship and received a $5,000 award. (View photos)

Often called “The Pulitzers of college journalism,” the Hearst program includes five writing, two photo, one audio, two television and four multimedia competitions offering up to $700,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends. Currently, 105 member universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs are eligible to participate in the Hearst competitions.

 Johnston and Phelps were among 29 finalists who competed June 1-6 in the 64th National Writing, Photojournalism, Audio, Television and Multimedia Championships.

The Hearst Championships are the culmination of the 2023-2024 Journalism Awards Program.

WKU’s School of Media & Communication finished sixth in the Hearst program’s 2024 Overall Intercollegiate Competition. WKU has placed in the top eight overall for 31 straight years with four overall championships in 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2018. In the 2023-2024 Hearst program, WKU finished second in the Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition, fourth in the Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition and 10^th in the Intercollegiate Broadcast Competition.

WKU students have won 17 Hearst individual national championships since 1985 — photojournalism in 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2014 and 2016; multimedia in 2015, 2023 and 2024; writing in 1985; and radio news in 2006.

For information, contact School of Media & Communication at (270) 745-4144.

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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.