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College of Media social justice reporting project wins first place regional award, qualifies for national competition

Last spring, journalism students from West Virginia University Reed College of Media and Morgan State University, a historically black university, traveled together to Selma, Alabama, to collaboratively confront issues of race and representation. Now their social justice reporting project is up for a national award.

Bridging Selma won first place in the Best Use of Multimedia category at the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Region 4 Mark of Excellence Awards. SPJ recognized its 2015 winners at the spring conference April 2 in Cincinnati.

Using Selma as their classroom, and guided by faculty from both universities, student journalists used text, photos, video and virtual reality to tell revealing stories from the town’s past, present and future.

Bridging Selma will move on to SPJ’s national contest where it will compete against winners from all-12 regions. Winners will be notified in late spring and will be recognized at The 2016 Excellence in Journalism Conference held in New Orleans in mid-September.

In addition to the first-place award, the College of Media had six finalists in multiple categories of the regional competition comprised of colleges from Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania. They are:

Best All-Around Television Newscast
WVU News Goes Green, produced by Taylor Lasota

Television Breaking News Reporting
Hazing Charges, by Jamie Robinson
DUI, by Jamie Robinson

Television In-Depth Reporting
Fracking, by Jamie Robinson
Volkswagen Scandal, by Shaleah Ingram

Television Sports Reporting
International Players, by Ally Brandfass

The SPJ awards honor the best in student journalism and are judged by professionals with at least three years of journalism experience. View a release with the complete list of winners online.