WKU News

Two WKU photojournalism graduates finished in the top 10 of the first multimedia competition of the 2020-2021 Hearst Journalism Awards Program.

Silas Walker, a May 2020 graduate from Portland, Oregon, finished sixth in the Multimedia Narrative Storytelling Competition. Michelle Hanks, a May 2020 graduate from Chattanooga, Tennessee, finished ninth.

WKU is in second place in the Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition after the first of four multimedia competitions. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is in first place. The rest of the top 10 is University of Missouri, New York University, San Francisco State University, University of Florida, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of North Texas, Syracuse University and California State University, Northridge.

In 2020, WKU won the Hearst Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition for the eighth time in nine years, won the Hearst Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition for the fourth straight year and the 26^th time in the past 31 years, and finished second in the Hearst Intercollegiate Overall Competition. WKU has finished in the top eight nationally in the Hearst program for 27 straight years and has won four overall national championships -- 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2018.

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.

Often called “The Pulitzers of college journalism,” the Hearst Journalism Awards Program, in its 61^st year, consists of five writing, two photojournalism, one audio, two television and four multimedia competitions offering up to $700,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends; 103 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, audio, 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 monthly competitions.

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