WKU News

WKU’s School of Journalism & Broadcasting has won its fourth overall national championship in the Hearst Journalism Awards Program.

WKU placed first overall after winning the Hearst Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition and the Hearst Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition and finishing fifth in the Hearst Intercollegiate Writing Competition.

The championship continues three decades of success for WKU’s School of Journalism & Broadcasting in the Hearst program, often called “The Pulitzers of college journalism.” WKU won overall titles in 2000, 2001 and 2005 and has finished in the top three overall for nine straight years and in the top eight nationally for 25 straight years.

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.

Two WKU students will compete for 2018 individual national championships June 3-7 in San Francisco. Gabriel Scarlett, a junior from Maumee, Ohio, is a national photojournalism finalist and Srijita Chattopadhyay, a senior from India, is a national multimedia finalist.

WKU’s School of Journalism & Broadcasting will receive a $25,000 award for the overall championship and $10,000 awards for the multimedia and photojournalism championships during the Hearst program’s awards ceremony on June 5 in San Francisco. WKU won the multimedia title for the seventh straight year and the photojournalism title for the 24^th time in the past 29 years.

• Top 10 finishers in the 2018 Hearst Overall Intercollegiate Championship: WKU, first; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, second; Pennsylvania State University, third; University of Florida, fourth; University of Nebraska-Lincoln, fifth; Syracuse University, sixth; University of Missouri, seventh; Indiana University, eighth; Arizona State University, ninth; and Ohio University, 10^th.
• Top 10 finishers in the 2018 Hearst Intercollegiate Multimedia Championship: WKU, first; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, second; University of Nebraska-Lincoln, third; University of Florida, fourth; Syracuse University, fifth; Pennsylvania State University, sixth; University of Oregon, seventh; University of Missouri, eighth; San Francisco State University, ninth; and University of Montana, 10^th.
• Top 10 finishers in the 2018 Hearst Intercollegiate Photojournalism Championship: WKU, first; Ohio University, second; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, third; University of Missouri, fourth; Pennsylvania State University, fifth; University of Nebraska-Lincoln, sixth; Central Michigan University, seventh; San Francisco State University, eighth (tie); Syracuse University, eighth (tie); and Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, 10^th.
• Top 10 finishers in the 2018 Hearst Intercollegiate Writing Competition: Indiana University, first; Pennsylvania State University, second; University of Nebraska-Lincoln, third; Syracuse University, fourth; WKU, fifth; University of Florida, sixth; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, seventh; Arizona State University, eighth; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, ninth; and Oklahoma State University, 10^th.

The Hearst Journalism Awards Program, in its 58th year, consists of five writing, two photojournalism, one radio, two television and four multimedia competitions offering up to $700,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends; 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.

The points earned by individual students in the monthly writing, photojournalism, radio, television and multimedia competitions determine each discipline’s Intercollegiate ranking. The winners are those schools with the highest accumulated student points in each category. The overall Intercollegiate winners are the schools with the highest accumulated student points in the writing, photojournalism, broadcast and multimedia competitions.

Contact: School of Journalism & Broadcasting, (270) 745-4144