Students and faculty in Reporting in Indigenous Communities are up for two COPAs.
UBC Journalism has nabbed nine nominations across four categories in the 2017 Canadian Online Publishing Awards.
The School leads the nominations in the COPA’s academic division, with nods for The Thunderbird, Reporting in Indigenous Communities and the International Reporting Program.
UBC’s Global Reporting Centre, staffed with some of the j-school’s faculty and alumni, is also nominated for the project “Strangers at Home.”
It’s the ninth year in a row that UBC Journalism has been recognized at the COPAs, which honour digital excellence in Canadian publishing.
- Six Canadian Online Publishing Award nominations for UBC Journalism
- UBC Journalism students win two national online publishing awards
“These stories illustrate the breadth and depth of interest and ability that our students have brought to the School,” said senior instructor Kathryn Gretsinger.
The Thunderbird website — produced by students and faculty in the first-year Integrated Journalism course — is up for four nominations.
Student Yao Xiao is nominated for Best Article for a feature on the rise of unregulated Chinese “sichu” restaurants, which are run out of people’s private kitchens in Metro Vancouver.
“Yao presented a really interesting story that a non-Chinese speaking audience would find surprising and newsworthy,” said Gretsinger, who was a faculty editor on the project.
Students Malone Mullin and Anya Zoledziowski collaborated on a feature that explored the Kratom plant and how it’s being used in the place of opiates in Vancouver.
Gretsinger said the story, which included a video feature, was a “passion project” for the students. “It required a great deal of research and work to make a lot of connections.”
And there’s more
The Thunderbird is also up for best brand packaging, which distinguishes editorial strategy and graphic branding.
The site is nominated alongside the students and faculty in Reporting in Indigenous Communities for their project “Tém:éxw: Stories of Land.” That project is also nominated for Best Series.
The International Reporting Program’s series “Surviving the City” is up for Best Video Content and Best Series. The multimedia project explored urban resilience in India, Colombia and China.
“The nominations celebrate the creativity our students, and speak to their commitment to develop and hone their digital journalism skills,” said School of Journalism director Alfred Hermida.
In 2016, UBC Journalism won two COPAs. This year’s winners will be announced Nov. 13 at a gala in Vancouver.
