Student-powered news outlets at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY have racked up more than 30 awards across three national competitions in recent weeks.
The honors, variously from Editor & Publisher, the Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) and the College Media Association (CMA), include multiple first-place prizes:
- The J-School’s NYCity News Service earned the top spot for Best College/University Website in Editor & Publisher’s EPPY Awards competition. Judges praised the “rich experience” offered by the “compelling” news site.
- Photobridge, a News Service collaboration with Paris’ ENS Louis Lumiere, notched a first-place EPPY for Best Photojournalism on a College/University Website. The judges hailed the project as “compelling, cross-cultural photojournalism with powerful insights into immigrant lives in New York and Paris.”
- The Newest New Yorkers, a cross-class News Service project examining challenges facing migrants, finished first in both ACP’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Reporting category, and in CMA’s Best News Package category.
- Natalie Robbins’ ‘There’s Power in Being Onstage’: Clown Finds Calling took first place in the ACP Ernie Pyle Human-Interest Profile competition — an award that came with a $2,200 check. This News Service piece also took a second-place CMA award for Best Arts and Entertainment Story.
- Christian Colón’s The Scars We Choose headed the Long Documentary category in CMA’s Audio and Film Festival competition.
- Emily Davis’s We Might be Related notched first place for Audio Documentary in the Festival.
- AudioFiles’ New Yorkers in Pursuit of Change episode took a first-place CMA award for Best Podcast.
- Safiyah Riddle’s AudioFiles report NYC’s Custodial Staff Gear Up For Contract Fight earned a CMA first-place award for Best Audio Newscast.
The News Service’s protest coverage also notched several honors:
- Jennifer Garcia and Joe Caffrey’s News Service video Campus Protest Arrests Spark Outcry placed second in CMA’s Audio and Video Festival’s News Package category. The piece also scored an honorable mention citation in ACP’s Broadcast News category.
- Luca GoldMansour and Melanie Marich’s CUNY Gave $4M No-Bid Contract to Private Security, Citing Gaza Protests took third place in CMA’s Best General News Story category.
- GoldMansour and Marich’s Pepper Spray and Surging Crowds: Videos Show Flashpoints at City College garnered a third-place EPPY for Best News Story on a College/ University Website. The story also earned honorable mention honors in ACP’s Multimedia News Story category. So did CUNY Grad Center Library Standoff Ends Peacefully After President Agrees to Share Demands, on which GoldMansour and Marich teamed with Lauren Rapp and Cris Seda Chabrier.
- GoldMansour’s lead photo for Pepper Spray and Surging Crowds: Videos Show Flashpoints at City College earned a CMA honorable mention for Best Breaking News Photo.
In other awards:
- The Mott Haven Herald, a student-powered site that covers a South Bronx neighborhood, took a third-place EPPY for Best College/ University-Produced Community or Niche Website category.
- Day Care Danger, a group-produced News Service special report, captured a third-place EPPY in the Best College/ University Investigative/ Documentary category.
- Eduardo Salazar’s AI Boom Poses Threat to Trans Community, Experts Warn came in third in ACP’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Reporting category. Salazar’s News Service report also won two CMA awards, placing second for Best Enterprise Coverage of Diversity and earning an honorable mention for Best Multimedia Feature Story.
The Mott Haven Herald won an EPPY Award. - Is a Cat’s Life Worth 40 Cents?, from the News Service’s group-produced Pets at Risk investigation, took second place for Best Feature Story in the CMA awards.
- Truth Headlam’s News Service piece From Starting Line to Starting Over: The Path to Launch a Sports Radio Network notched an honorable mention for Best Sports Feature from CMA.
- Jennifer Garcia and Joe Caffrey’s News Service video When New York Sports Teams Win, So Do Small Businesses came in third in the Sports Package category in CMA’s Audio and Film Festival.
- Naoufal Enhari’s News Service video Kayaking Instructor Spreads Love of NYC Waterways placed second in the Festival’s Short Documentary category.
- Sajina Shrestha’s AudioFiles report Momos as a Form of Resistance garnered an honorable mention in CMA’s Best Audio Special Event Coverage category.
- Matthew Ferrera’s News Service video Art Exhibit Dismantles Stereotypes of Incarcerated People scored an ACP honorable mention certificate for Broadcast Feature.
- Two News Service videos earned ACP honorable mentions for Broadcast Sports Story: Sonja Anderson’s Empowerment on Eight Wheels; and Naoufal Enhari and Ebony Prescod’s Going to New Lengths: Swimmer Sets Hudson River Record.
- Naoufal Enhari and Brianna Knibbs’ News Service video Anti-Arab Rhetoric on the Rise notched a CMA honorable mention for Best Video Special Event Coverage.
J-School news outlets have earned scores of awards over the years from organizations that include the Online News Association, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Society of Professional Journalists, among others.