UBC Graduate School of Journalism students have won a prestigious 2012 Canadian Online Publishing Award.
Meg Mittelstedt and Alexandra Minzlaff won gold in the Best Video or Multimedia Feature category for their video project “Liberia’s lost generation: A Vancouver photographer reconstructs the country’s past.” Faculty members David Rummel and Dan McKinney were the editors for the project.
“Liberia’s lost generation” documents Jeff Topham, a freelance photographer and filmmaker who lives in Vancouver, and his brother Andrew’s return to their childhood home in Liberia. Together they created the unique visual project Liberia ’77, which showcases a collection of photographs documenting their experiences in Liberia prior to the 14-year civil war that destroyed the photographic history of an entire generation. Through Liberia ’77, Jeff and Andrew sought to give back to the country that profoundly impacted their lives and encourage others who have pre-war photographs to do the same.
The School of Journalism was also nominated for four other Canadian Online Publishing Awards this year.
The Reporting in Indigenous Communities’ website for Shxw’éyelh: Stories of Health and Healing was a finalist for best overall online-only publications.
Suzanne Ahearne, Sadiya Ansari and Heather Roy were nominated for best online-only article or series of articles category for their report on the wearing of hijabs in football. The article was supervised by faculty member Carolyn Pritchard.
Lucas Powers and Linsday Sample were also nominated in the same category for their story on the environmental cost of developing Vancouver’s waterfront. Faculty member Kathryn Gretsinger supervised the article.
Journalism professor Alfred Hermida was also a finalist for best blog in the blue division. It is the third year in a row that Prof Hermida’s blog, Reportr.net, has been nominated. He won the award in 2010.
Launched in 2009, the Canadian Online Publishing Awards recognize Canada’s best online editorial and design work in publication websites. The winners were chosen by independent judging panels of highly regarded industry professionals and experts.
Slideshow (homepage) feature image courtesy of the Topham family.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/39681278[/vimeo]
