WKU News

San Francisco – Announcing the winners in the Multimedia One - Narrative Video Storytelling Competition of the 2019-2020 Hearst Journalism Awards Program.   There were 88 entries from 54 schools submitted in the first multimedia competition of the year. 

First Place has been awarded to Jiakai Lou, a senior from University of Montana.  Jiakai will receive a $3,000 scholarship for the winning multimedia piece titled 32 Below from The Montana Kaimin.  Jiakai also qualifies to participate in the National Multimedia Championship which will be held in Houston, Texas this June, 2020.  

The other top finalists are:
    Second place, $2,000 award, Kathryn Ziesig, Western Kentucky University 
    Third place, $1,500 award, Hope Davison, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
    Fourth Place, $1,000 award, Mackenzie Behm, University of Florida
    Fifth Place, $1,000 award, Owen Schatz, University of Oregon

The top five winning schools receive matching grants.

The sixth through tenth place finalists are:
    Sixth Place, certificate, Justin Bright, University of Florida
    Seventh Place, certificate, Nash Consing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    Eighth Place, certificate, Kenneth Ferriera, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
    Ninth Place, certificate, Michelle Hanks, Western Kentucky University
    Tenth Place, certificate, Jack Rodgers, University of Minnesota

University of Florida and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are tied for first place in the Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition with the highest accumulated student points from the first of four multimedia competitions.  
They are followed by: Western Kentucky University; University of Nebraska-Lincoln; University of Montana; University of Oregon; Syracuse University, University of Minnesota, New York University; Pennsylvania State University.

The final intercollegiate winners will be announced after the completion of the all four multimedia competitions and will be presented at the Intercollegiate Awards Ceremony this June in Houston.  
The top three intercollegiate winners earn $10,000, $4,000 and $2,000 respectively, 

The Multimedia judges are:  Danese Kenon, Director of Video & Photograph, Philadelphia Inquirer, PA;  Brian Storm, Founder & Executive Producer, MediaStorm, CA; Jarrad Henderson, Senior Multimedia Producer – Investigative and Enterprise Video Team, USA Today, VA.

The Journalism Awards Program, now in its 60th year, added multimedia to the competitions in 2010.  The program also includes five writing, one radio, two television, and two photojournalism competitions offering up to $700,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends.  104 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.