2012 Online Journalism Awards finalists announced
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Finalists for the 2012 Online Journalism Awards, many pushing the envelope of innovation and excellence in digital storytelling and distribution, were announced today by the Online News Association and its academic partner, the School of Communication at the University of Miami.
A group of 34 industry-leading journalists and new media professionals teamed up to review entrants and select finalists. Twelve of those judges, representing a diverse cross-section of the industry, and 12 more internationally conferred to determine winners from independent, community, nonprofit, major media and international news sites.
The results will be announced at the 2012 ONA Conference and Online Journalism Awards Banquet on Saturday, Sept. 22, in San Francisco.
This year, ONA introduced category changes to ensure the awards maintain their innovative front edge by breaking out content by topic; categorizing entries by staff size rather than audience metrics, and assuming the use of the latest digital platforms and technologies. Eight awards come with a total of $33,000 in prize money, courtesy of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Gannett Foundation, which also is supporting innovative investigative work with two $2,500 awards.
“Once again, we were overwhelmed with the quality of work submitted,” said ONA Board member Josh Hatch, who, along with the Associated Press’ Director of Global Product Operations Ruth Gersh, co-chairs the Online Journalism Awards Committee. “The use of multimedia, the power of data and social media, and the ability of journalists to integrate them to inform, entertain, and emotionally connect with readers has set a high water mark.”
Here are the finalists, in alphabetical order:
Knight Award for Public Service
Abused and Used, The New York Times
Broken Shield, California Watch and Center for Investigative Reporting
Empty Cradles, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Homicide Watch D.C.
Stand Your Ground, Tampa Bay Times
General Excellence in Online Journalism, Small
FRONTLINE
Homicide Watch D.C.
St. Louis Beacon
The Texas Tribune
General Excellence in Online Journalism, Medium
California Watch
ProPublica
Slate Magazine
WNYC
General Excellence in Online Journalism, Large
CNN Digital
NYTimes.com
The Seattle Times
WSJ.com
General Excellence, Non-English, Small/Medium
20minutos.es (Spain)
Il Tirreno (Italy)
Rue89 (France)
Gannett Foundation Award for Technical Innovation in the Service of Digital Journalism
CartoDB
NewsCred
Open Source Election Tools, Los Angeles Times
Storify
Breaking News, Medium
Hurricane Irene Threatens New York City, WNYC
Occupy Nashville, The Tennessean
University of Alberta Shooting, Edmonton Journal
Breaking News, Large
The Death of Muammar Gaddafi, Al Jazeera English
The Fall of Tripoli, The Associated Press
Hurricane Irene, The New York Times
Occupy L.A., Los Angeles Times
Planned News/Events, Small
Congressional Primaries 2012, Knight News Innovation Laboratory, Northwestern University
Primary Night 2012, The Texas Tribune
Supreme Court and Health Care Reform, WebMD
Planned News/Events, Medium
12:51, Stuff.co.nz and The Press
Oscars Coverage, Slate Magazine
Planned News/Events, Large
Judging The Health Care Law, NPR
The L.A. Riots, 20 Years Later, Los Angeles Times
The Reckoning – America and the World a Decade After 9/11, The New York Times
Tenth Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks, Newsday.com
Explanatory Reporting, Small
Andrew Leonard: The Student Loan Crisis, Salon
Class: The Great Divide, St. Louis Beacon
EarthFix
The Farmer of the Future, Harvest Public Media
Putting Detroit’s Problems in Regional and Historical Context, Remapping Debate
Explanatory Reporting, Medium
College Completion: Who Graduates from College, Who Doesn’t, and Why It Matters, The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Opportunity Gap: Is Your State Providing Equal Access to Education?, ProPublica
Our Time to Lead: Immigration, globeandmail.com
Explanatory Reporting, Large
Connecting Music and Gesture, NYTimes.com
Gay Rights, State by State (and Beyond), The Guardian
A Record Chain of Kidney Transplants, NYTimes.com
Somalia: Where Famine Is a Crime, The Toronto Star
StateImpact, NPR and Public Media Stations in Eight States
Topical Reporting, Small
Counterspill
EarthFix
Nieman Journalism Lab
Topical Reporting, Medium
California Lost, California Watch
Continuing Coverage: NYPD Stop and Frisk, WNYC
Education Coverage and the Turnaround, Las Vegas Sun
Topical Reporting, Large
CNN Belief Blog, CNN
FiveThirtyEight — Nate Silver’s Political Calculus, The New York Times
Middle East Voices, Voice of America
Philly School Files, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Online Commentary, Small
Bear 71, National Film Board of Canada
Mary Elizabeth Williams, Lab Rat, Salon
Minorities Within a Minority Culture, The Mary Sue
Online Commentary, Medium
Kevin Drum Blog, Mother Jones
Mad Men Coverage, Slate Magazine
Nahlah Ayed: The Everyday Brutality That Is Assad’s Syria, CBC News
Slate Political Gabfest, Slate Magazine
Online Commentary, Large
Death and Dying — Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times
Grantland.com — Bill Simmons, ESPN
Lyndsey Parker Yahoo! Music, Yahoo!
The Seattle Times Editorial Section, The Seattle Times
Feature, Small
Bear 71, National Film Board of Canada
The Canoe Project, WLRN-Miami Herald News & Under the Sun on WLRN
Coal: A Love Story, Powering a Nation
Twitter by Post, The Morning News
Feature, Medium
Aftermath Special Presentation, ABC Open
Breaking Caste, globeandmail.com
The Education of Dasmine Cathey, The Chronicle of Higher Education
Feature, Large
Following the Dreamers: What Happened to the Seat Pleasant 59?, The Washington Post
Mauritania, CNN
Outside the Lines: A Man Obsessed, ESPN
Punched Out — The Life and Death of a Hockey Enforcer, NYT.com
Under Suspicion: Voices About Muslims in America, The Washington Post
Feature, Student
Finding the Uwharries, Carolina Photojournalism Workshop, University of North Carolina
Slab City Stories, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
Visualizing Florida, University of Miami Graduate Program in Multimedia Journalism
Gannett Foundation Award for Innovative Investigative Journalism, Small
No Choice: Florida Charter Schools Failing to Serve Students with Disabilities, StateImpact Florida (WUSF and WLRN-Miami Herald News Public Radio)
Gannett Foundation Award for Innovative Investigative Journalism, Medium
Broken Shield, California Watch
Decoding Prime, California Watch
Redistricting: How Powerful Interests Are Drawing You Out of a Vote, ProPublica
Terrorists for the FBI, Mother Jones
Gannett Foundation Award for Innovative Investigative Journalism, Large
The Fed’s Trillion-Dollar Secret, Bloomberg News
Methadone and the Politics of Pain, The Seattle Times
Stand Your Ground, Tampa Bay Times
Non-English Projects, Small/Medium
Mexodus, Borderzine.com (Mexico / U.S.)
To Understand the Crisis, 20minutos.es (Spain)
Whisper Jokes in the GDR – Protest Off the Record, Berliner Morgenpost (Germany)
Non-English Projects, Large
The Cords That Bind Us, El Tiempo (Colombia)
First Anniversary of Japan Earthquake, Universo Online (Brazil)
Portraits of Paraná, Gazeta do Povo (Brazil)
News and Online Commentary, Student
The Red Line Project — NATO Coverage, The Red Line Project, DePaul University
USC Shootings, Neon Tommy
The judges of this year’s awards were:
Rich Beckman, Knight Chair in Visual Journalism, University of Miami
Heather Billings, News Applications Developer, Chicago Tribune
Paul Bucci, Director, Digital Products, Pacific News Group
Neil Budde, CEO, Philadelphia Public Interest Information Network
Jeanne Carstensen, former Executive Managing Editor, The Bay Citizen
Ron Coddington, AME Visuals, Chronicle of Higher Education
Anil Dash, Founder, ThinkUp and Activate
Kat Downs, Interactive Projects Editor, Washington Post
Kathleen Ehrlich, Director of Digital Content, New York Public Radio
Alex Howard, Technology Writer and Editor, O’Reilly Radar
Elise Hu, Digital Editorial Coordinator, NPR
Rich Jaroslovsky, Technology Columnist, Bloomberg News; ONA founding president
Mark Katches, Editorial Director, Center for Investigative Reporting
Scott Klein, Editor of News Applications, ProPublica; Co-Founder of DocumentCloud
Colin Mulvany, Photojournalist and Multimedia Producer, The Spokesman-Review
Tasneem Raja, Digital Interactive Editor, Mother Jones
Ju-Don Roberts, General Manager and Senior Vice President, Everyday Health
Zach Seward, Senior Editor, Quartz
Will Sullivan, Mobile Product Manager, Broadcasting Board of Governors
Ryan Thornburg, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina
Matt Waite, Professor, University of Nebraska
Ben Welsh, Database Producer, L.A. Times
Dave Wright, Digital Design Director, NPR
Chrys Wu, User Engagement Strategist, Matchstrike LLC
Non-English Awards:
Rosental Alves, Director, Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, University of Texas, Austin
Paul Brannan, Independent Digital News Consultant, London
Arianna Ciccone, International Journalism Festival, Perugia, Italy
Wang Feng, Online Editor, South China Morning Post, Hong Kong
Katie King, Senior Product Manager, MSN UK, London; ONA board member
Tetyana Lokot, Head of New Media Sequence, Mohyla School of Journalism, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine
Dorothy Parvaz, Online Journalist, Al Jazeera English, Doha, Qatar
Angela Pimenta, PATRI Políticas Públicas, São Paulo
Eric Scherer, Director of Future Media, France Televisions, Paris
Mario Tedeschini-Lalli, Deputy Director Innovation and Development, Gruppo Editoriale L’Espresso, Rome; ONA board member
Nick Wrenn, Vice President of Digital Services, CNN International, Atlanta
Jose Zamora, Univision News, Miami
Judges were recused from discussing categories in which their own organizations were entered.
The judges did not name finalists in the Breaking News, Small and Explanatory Reporting, Student categories.
ONA did not receive enough entries to judge the General Excellence, Non-English, Large category. Those entrants have been notified and refunded. In addition, three student categories were combined to make up the News and Online Commentary, Student category. Those entrants have been notified.
Launched in 2000, the OJAs are the only comprehensive set of journalism prizes honoring excellence in digital journalism. OJA judging is accomplished in partnership with the University of Miami’s School of Communication.
About ONA
The Online News Association is the world’s largest association of online journalists. ONA’s mission is to inspire innovation and excellence among journalists to better serve the public. The membership includes news writers, producers, designers, editors, bloggers, technologists, photographers, academics, students and others who produce and distribute news for digital delivery systems. ONA also hosts the annual Online News Association annual conference and administers the Online Journalism Awards.
About the University of Miami School of Communication
The University of Miami School of Communication prepares analytical and responsible communication professionals for success in a global society. The School offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in journalism, broadcasting, advertising, public relations, visual journalism, communication studies and motion pictures. The School’s state of the art, all-digital facilities and resources are among the most advanced in the country. Approximately 1,500 students are enrolled.
About Knight Foundation
Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. We believe that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.
About the Gannett Foundation
The Gannett Foundation is a corporate foundation sponsored by Gannett Co., Inc. whose mission is to invest in the future of the communities in which Gannett does business, and in the future of our industry. It supports projects that take a creative approach to fundamental issues such as education and neighborhood improvement, economic development, youth development, community problem-solving, assistance to disadvantaged people, environmental conservation and cultural enrichment.