Students and faculty at the UBC Graduate School of Journalism have received five nominations in the 2011 Canadian Online Publishing Awards.
The school is a finalist in the best online-only site, best online-only article or series, best video/multimedia feature and best blog. All of the nominations are in the Blue category; business to business, professional association, and university.
The finalists were chosen by independent judging panels of highly regarded industry professionals and experts.
Launched in 2009, the Canadian Online Publishing Awards recognize Canada’s best online editorial and design work in publication websites. The winners are due to be announced on October 24 in Toronto.
Three of the nominations are for the work of students who took the Integrated Journalism course last year, which they subsequently published on the school’s student publication, TheThunderbird.ca.
The school has two finalists in the best online-only article or series. The first are three articles for a class project that looked at different aspects of aging. Lisa Hale and Carrie Swiggum examined the challenges for Canada’s prisons as its inmates get older, while Lena Smirnova profiled Tasrist Russians in the city, and Kate Adach told the life-affirming story of a twice-widowed centenarian.
The students are competing with classmate Jamie Williams, who looked at how social media was providing a lifeline to victims of the last year’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
A multimedia story on the revival of the Musqueam language through hip-hop by Natalie Dobbin and Kendall Walters is up for the best video/multimedia award.
The school’s International Reporting Program web project, “Cheap Shrimp, Hidden Costs”, is up for the best online-only site. “Cheap Shrimp, Hidden Costs” showcases a year-long reporting project on the social and environmental impact of intensive shrimp farming.
For this project, ten students in the International Reporting class traveled to Thailand, the largest supplier of shrimp to North America. Prof. Klein was the lead producer, along with co-instructors Trisha Sorrells Doyle and Dan McKinney. Prof. Alfred Hermida was the web project supervisor.
Prof Hermida’s blog on digital media trends, Reportr.net, is a finalist for the best blog award. He won the award in the 2010 Canadian Online Publishing Awards.
