WKU News

WKU’s School of Media has finished second in the Hearst Journalism Awards Program’s 2019-2020 Overall Intercollegiate Competition.

WKU, which has placed in the top eight nationally overall for 27 straight years, won the Hearst Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition for the eighth time in nine years and won the Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition for the fourth straight year and 26th time in the past 31 years.

The top 10 finishers in the Overall Intercollegiate Competition are University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, WKU, Arizona State University, University of Florida, University of Missouri, Syracuse University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Oklahoma and University of Montana.

WKU student Lily Thompson, a senior from Paoli, Indiana, is one of six national finalists for the Hearst Photojournalism Championship. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Championship has been canceled as an in-person event. In its place, an alternative competition will be held for the qualifying individual finalists in photo, writing, radio, television and multimedia contests.

WKU students finished first and third in the Team Multimedia Digital News/Enterprise Story Competition of the 60th annual Hearst Awards Program.

The WKU team of Sofie Mortensen and Sara Krog won the competition and received a $3,000 scholarship for the multimedia piece titled “A Wounded Soldier.” The WKU team of Lydia Schweickart, Ella Corder, BreAnna Luker, Grace Pritchett, Nic Huey, Dalton Puckett, Emily Moses and Michelle Hanks placed third and received a $1,500 award.

The top 10 finishers in the Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition are WKU, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Florida, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Missouri, University of Montana, Syracuse University, Elon University, Arizona State University and Stony Brook University.

The top 10 finishers in the Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition are WKU, Arizona State University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Michigan State University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Ohio University, University of Missouri, Kent State University, University of Montana and Ball State University.

Often called “The Pulitzers of college journalism,” the Hearst Journalism Awards Program, in its 60th 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; 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.

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.

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.

WKU has won four overall national championships -- 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2018.

Contact: School of Media, (270) 745-4144