I had the opportunity to read the finalists’ stories in this year’s Online Journalism Awards. I was amazed by the hard work journalists put down to write the best pieces I’ve ever read and although all deserved a prize for the spectacular writing, I took some things into consideration to choose my winner in a few categories.
The General Excellence in Online Journalism have four news sources as their Medium Newsroom Finalists: Austin American-Statesman Sites, ProPublica, Quartz and Reveal. My favorite pieces were written by Quartz and Reveal. The first one wrote about La Croix Sparkling Water and how numbers affect the brand in terms of layout and design. The writing is fun to read, colorful and plays around with the reader by making us participate in trivia questions. On the other hand, Reveal’s piece have a more serious approach as it discuss the bad conditions of a rehab camp for prisoners. Reveal abuse from good investigative journalism in this piece by bringing provocative images and humanity to the story. Although Quartz did a good job, my vote goes to Reveal. The piece is so well-written that produced a mix of feelings inside my head for its characters. The Knight Award for Public Service have four finalists this year and once again, my favorite “All Work. No Pay” piece, by Reveal, is among them. “Hacking Democracy” piece by the Washington Post highlight names from CIA documents linked to the U.S and Russia government in an apparently sabotage in the 2016 U.S. elections. The governmental investigative report is one of the best ones I’ve read this year. It truly focus on the real problem, providing links to previous graphics and investigations by the Post on the issue. Another well-written investigative Piece is “Lost Mothers,” by ProPublica with a NPR contribution. This piece calls for humanity. It tells the story of some of the women who have died from pregnancy-related in the U.S. and have been forgotten. I had to hold my breath while reading it, because I kept thinking how hard it must’ve been to all those women. Last, but not least, the Better Government Association with contributions from WBEZ wrote “Taking Cover” to highlight the accountability of shootings from the police in Chicago. Both news organizations collected good quotes from locals in the community about the recurrent issue. With all being said, I´m going to root for the Post piece. I found an outstanding journalism piece. For the Excellence in Immersive Storytelling Award I´m analyzing a piece from the New York Times and one from a partnership between Al Jazeera and Contrast VR. The Times “Augmented Reality: David Bowie in Three Dimensions” piece not only tells the story of how amazing the performer David Bowie´s costumers were but shows them to the reader in a 3-D interaction within the screen. In contrast, “Yemen´s Skies of Terror” focus on the importance of humanitarian assistance in the civic wars happening in Yemen. It´s impossible to read this piece and not get emotional as reader, so imagine if you are one reporting it. It was hard for me to grade both stories, and although the 3-D interaction on Bowie´s story were great for a better understanding of the journalists’ point of view, I´m choosing Al Jazeera and Contrast VR piece as my favorite. As I´m pursuing a minor in international development and humanitarian assistance I could not close my eyes to such a beautiful and sad story. They truly captured the moment people in Yemen are living. For the University of Florida Award for Investigative Data Journalism there are three small/medium newsroom finalists this year and all of them it´s either from or include a collaboration with ProPublica. “The Taking,” a story from the Texas Tribune showcase an investigative reporting in domain lawsuits filled by the government against property owners in the state of Texas. The great investigation brought comics instead of pictures and it fit perfectly. The same happened in “The Brooke for Bankruptcy” and “Walking While Black.” In the first one, ProPublica identified Memphis as the bankruptcy capital of the U.S. and did an entire investigation on attorneys under Chapter 13 of bankruptcy procedures. The Florida-Times Union together with ProPublica investigated racial discrimination on the law enforcement for pedestrians in Jacksonville, FL. Although the tree pieces are great, I´m staying with “The Taking” as my final decision because I could identify with the story written as one colleague have told me about the problem a few weeks ago. For the Online Commentary Award two opinion pieces are being analyzed. Nicholas Kristoff and his colleagues from the New York Times discussed the poverty and critic situation of the wars in Yemen and Saudi Arabian, and how these events are affecting the population of these countries and its surroundings. On “Seven Steps. 27,000 Lives,” the editorial board of the Boston Globe provided an opinion piece on guns, violence and suicides in the U.S. By analyzing state by state, they gave the reader the choice to explore how laws were being enforced in each part of the country. Although both pieces were about hard topic discussions, the Globe made it easy to follow since its piece does not include hard images, only graphics and data. I had a hard time reading the New York Times opinion because I could not stand the beauty and sadness on the children pictures, so my root for this award goes to the Boston Globe. The 2018 Online Journalism Awards have the best journalism pieces of the year, and even though I´m rooting for some of the finalists, every single story deserves to get an award. I get inspired every time I read a good journalism piece, and after analyzing some categories of this year´s award I´m going to work even harder to one day be able to write as good as the people involved on them.
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AuthorGiovanna Kubota is a 22-year-old Brazilian pursuing a master's degree in Communication at the University of Central Florida. |