WKU News

WKU student Skyler Ballard finished second in the Hearst Journalism Awards Program’s National Multimedia Championship this week in San Francisco.

Ballard, a senior from Coxs Creek, received a $7,500 award and also won a $1,000 award for Best Multimedia Story of the Year.

Kathryn Ziesig, a May graduate from Brentwood, Tennessee, also was a national multimedia finalist and received a $1,500 award.

Gabriel Scarlett, a senior from Maumee, Ohio, was a finalist for the photojournalism championship and received a $1,500 award.

WKU’s School of Journalism & Broadcasting was recognized during the Hearst program’s 2018-2019 awards ceremony for its fifth-place finish in the Overall Intercollegiate Competition and received a $10,000 award for winning the Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition (its 25^th first-place finish in the past 30 years) and a $4,000 award for its second-place finish in the Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition.

WKU has finished in the top eight nationally in the Hearst program for 26 straight years and has won four overall national championships -- 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2018.

Often called “The Pulitzers of college journalism,” the Hearst program holds yearlong competitions in writing, photojournalism, radio, television and multimedia for journalism undergraduates. Journalism schools accumulating the most points earned by their students in each category are designated the winners of the Intercollegiate Competitions.

The Hearst Journalism Awards Program operates under the auspices of the accredited schools of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication. It is fully funded and administered by The William Randolph Hearst Foundation. Currently, 104 accredited undergraduate schools of journalism in the United States are eligible to participate in the program, which awards up to $700,000 in scholarships and grants annually. 

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