UBC Journalism director Alfred Hermida has been nominated for an Online Journalism Award, one of the top accolades in digital journalism.
The associate professor and author is one of two finalists in the Online Commentary category for smaller media outlets for his commentary on the role of social media in major news stories including the Ebola crisis, the 2014 Ottawa shootings, the rise of ISIS and the Sydney siege.
Among the other Canadian finalists are The Globe and Mail, the Canadian press and Sheridan College.
The winners will be announced at the 2015 ONA Conference and Awards Banquet on Saturday September 26 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles.
Hermida looked at Ebola discourse on Twitter
‘Freshness of insight’
In the Online Commentary category, Prof Hermida is up against blogger and activist Marcell Shehwaro for her accounts of life in Aleppo for Global Voices.
The commentary award honours “a unique and powerful voice of commentary original to the web” that offers “freshness of insight and explanation,” says the ONA website.
Two of the Canadian finalists are in the Breaking News category. Both The Globe and Mail and the Canadian Press are nominated for their coverage of the 2014 Ottawa shootings.
The Globe is in the Large category for large news organisations and CP in the medium category.
The Globe is also up in Explanatory Reporting (large) for its multimedia feature, Saving Cyla, and in the Feature category (large) for Kim’s Choice.
Students Sheridan College’s Journalism Broadcast program are nominated for the #WhatAreTheChances? multimedia project in the Student Projects, Large category.
‘High-quality journalism’
The Online Journalism Awards, launched in May 2000 to honour excellence in digital journalism around the world, are administered by the Online News Association.
“This year, judges were swayed less by bells and whistles that didn’t add to the content, and instead zeroed in on high-quality journalism that was able to take flight on digital platforms,” said Joshua Hatch, ONA Board member and Online Journalism Awards Committee Chair.
“It goes to show what a democratic force technology has become to journalists around the world.”
The finalists and winners were chosen by 15 judges representing a diverse cross-section of the industry. There were a total of 994 entries that were initially screened by a group of 134 industry-leading journalists and new media professionals.
