School of Media News

WKU students finished first and third in the first photojournalism competition of the 2020-2021 Hearst Journalism Awards Program.

Silas Walker, a May 2020 graduate from Portland, Oregon, received a $3,000 scholarship for winning the Photojournalism Features and News Competition. Chris Kohley, a senior from Streamwood, Illinois, received a $1,500 award for his third-place finish. WKU’s School of Media receives matching grants.

WKU is in first place in the Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition after the first of two contests and is followed by Ohio University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (tie), University of Kentucky (tie), University of Montana, Pennsylvania State University, University of Florida, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Arizona State University and Kent State University.

In 2020, WKU won the Hearst Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition for the fourth straight year and the 26^th time in the past 31 years, won the Hearst Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition for the eighth time in nine 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