WKU News

WKU students won the final multimedia competition of the 2020-2021 Hearst Journalism Awards Program and the School of Media finished second in the Hearst Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition.

The WKU team of Michelle Hanks, Nic Huey, Silas Walker, Emily Moses, Grace Pritchett, Phoebe Alcala, Chase Sheehan, Breanna Luke, Hayley Watson, Dalton Puckett, Madihah Abri, Megan Strassweg and Katie Stratman won the Team Multimedia Digital News or Enterprise Story Competition for an entry titled “These Days.” The team and WKU’s School of Media received matching awards of $3,000.

The WKU team of Sam Mallon, Fatimah Alhamdin, Grace Bailey, Raaj Banga, Morgan Bass, Gabi Broekema, Alex Driehaus, Kennedy Gott, Morgan Hornsby, Missy Johnson, Cassady Lamb, Sam Mallon, Vonn Pillman, Rachel Taylor and Lily Estella Thompson placed sixth in the competition.

WKU students posted eight top-10 finishes in the four multimedia contests held this year.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill won the Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition followed by WKU, San Francisco State University, University of Florida, University of Missouri, Stony Brook University, Arizona State University, Elon University, Syracuse University and University of Montana. The top three intercollegiate winners receive awards of $10,000, $4,000 and $2,000 respectively.

Earlier this spring, WKU won the Hearst Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition for the fifth straight year and the 27^th time in the past 32 years. WKU has won the Hearst Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition eight times in the past 10 years.

In 2020, WKU 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.

Two WKU students will compete June 5-14 in the 61st annual National Writing, Photojournalism, Audio, Television and Multimedia Championships.

Chris Kohley, a spring 2021 graduate from Streamwood, Illinois, is one of six photojournalism finalists, while Sam Mallon, a senior from Silver Spring, Maryland, is one of five multimedia finalists. The championships will be held virtually again this year.

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.

Funded and administered for 61 years by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, the Hearst Journalism Awards Program offers up to $700,000 in scholarships, grants and stipends annually; 104 colleges and universities with accredited undergraduate journalism schools are eligible to participate.

Often called “The Pulitzers of college journalism,” the program consists of five writing, two photojournalism, one audio, two television and four multimedia competitions. The points earned by individual students in the monthly competitions determine each discipline’s Intercollegiate ranking. The winners are those schools with the highest accumulated student points in each category.

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