Some great news: The NYCity News Service won three Society For Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards Saturday, April 10th – including our third consecutive first-place showing in the Best Independent Online Student Publication category for SPJ’s Region 1, which covers much of the Northeast. The honor puts us in contention for a national award later this year, so stay tuned.
Our Economic Pulse package, led by the interactive video vox-pop map put together last semester by the Interactive I sections, placed second in the Online News Reporting category. The Brooklyn immigration Project produced by last spring’s Craft II sections took the third-place prize in the Online In-Depth Reporting competition.
Congrats to all! Here are some more examples of the kind of fine work that’s earned the J-School much-deserved recognition:
•Walter Smith-Randolph’s video piece about the Truth Commission on Conscience in War made the News Service, as did Melissa Cooper’s video about a fun free show on Broadway. Melissa was assisted by Sam Roudman, who gets a belated shoutout for his article about Brooklyn’s Flood Studios. The story can be found in the latest issue of Overflow, which is now online.
•Danny Gold’s story about crime plaguing a seniors citizens housing development in Brooklyn made City Limits, as did Hannah Rappleye’s article about the NYPD’s controversial stop-and-frisk tactics.
•Chika Moses’ video coverage of the annual International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Slavery found a home on the UNA-USA World Bulletin website.
•Shane Dixon Kavanaugh took us to the circus in his latest piece for The New York Times’ Lens blog. Kerri MacDonald, meanwhile, offered a post about photographer Paolo Pellegrin, who chronicled the conflict over fresh water along the Jordan River for National Geographic’s Water Issue.
•Our (Fort) Greene Team helped keep The Local hopping, even during the break. The cause was aided by Ines Bebea’s interview with MoCADA’s Laurie Cumbo.
•David Montalvo’s piece about a recent United Nations meeting on trade in endangered species made The Daily Green, as did Chris Prentice’s story on new questions surrounding anti-bacterial products.
•Teresa Tomassoni’s story about domestic violence in same-sex relationships was featured in Gay City News.
•Jonathan Balthaser’s article about carpenters in college made the Daily News, along with Erin McCarthy’s story about how hungry Bronx residents are heading to Manhattan food pantries. Bobby Melok reported on a local hoops hero who was picked first in the WNBA draft, while Joe Tacopino wrote about threats against lawmakers who voted for health care reform.
•Over at NBC Local Integrated Media, Krissy Dolor noted that 3.5 million New Yorkers reportedly are on Facebook, while Katie Honan wrote about a seat-seeking pregnant woman who was ticketed on the subway.
•Lindsay Lazarski’s (’09) multimedia capstone about the educational challenges facing young undocumented immigrants made the News Service. Meanwhile, as you probably have read already, Class of ’08 grads Clark Merrefield, Rosaleen Ortiz, Dan Macht, Joshua Cinelli, Matt Townsend and Steven Bronner earned top honors in the 2009 Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards’ students category for their story, “Wrongful Conviction, Unequal Compensation,” which can be found on the 219 Magazine site.