UBC Journalism students and faculty have won five 2023 Canadian Online Publishing Awards (COPA) which recognize excellence in digital media.
Student projects from the visual journalism course won gold for best photo journalism, and silver for best multicultural story and best feel good story.
The reporting on rice farmers in Southeast Asia’s Mekong Basin by students and faculty in the school’s Global Reporting Program won silver for best feature.
The fifth award was a silver for best blog/column for Professors Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young for their op-ed for The Conversation Canada on the fallout from Bill C-18, the Online News Act.
Student projects were also finalists for best feel good story and best video.
Creative and collaborative
“I’m extremely proud of the work of our students and my colleagues. The winning entries are creative, collaborative and on the cutting edge of media production and media analysis,” said Professor Kamal Al-Solaylee, director of the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media.
“They speak to our priorities as a journalism school to innovate how we tell local and global stories, as well as our commitment to combine professional practice with journalism research.”
This year’s success builds on the tremendous showing in the 2022 COPAs where students and faculty took home four gold and two silver awards.
The COPAs, which are now in their 15th year, describe themselves as “the largest digital publishing industry showcase.”
The awards were announced in Toronto on February 8.
Award winners in detail
Gold:
Best Photo Journalism (Consumer category for consumer media)
Silver:
Best Multicultural Story (Academic category for student projects)
- Faith and free food, Shaurya Kshatri
Best Feature Article (Academic category for student projects)
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules, Global Reporting Program: Hanna Hett, Shaurya Kshatri, Megan Wilde, Aastha Sethi, Andrea Crossan, Britney Dennison, Sineat Yon, Ly Vouch Long, Muyhong Chan, and Chihong Chann
Best Video Content (Academic category for student projects)
- Public Utility, Charles Brockman
Best Blog/Column (Media category for news media)
- Bill C-18: Google and Meta spark crucial test for Canadian journalism, The Conversation Canada, Alfred Hermida and Mary Lynn Young
Finalists
Best Feel Good Story (Academic category for student projects)
- Generation COVID, Cameron MacCuish
Best Video Content (Academic category for student projects)
- Rice farmers left in limbo after conservation crackdown in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake, Global Reporting Program: Hanna Hett, Shaurya Kshatri, Megan Wilde, Aastha Sethi, Andrea Crossan, Britney Dennison, Sineat Yon, Ly Vouch Long, Muyhong Chan, and Chihong Chann
