Boston bombing coverage and the NSA files highlighted the 2013 Online Journalism Awards at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis in Atlanta, Ga.
Boston University News Service won two awards for its coverage of the Boston Marathon Bombings – one in the category of breaking News/Small; the other in the Student Projects/Large category. The BostonGlobe.com and Boston.com took the award for Breaking News/Large with their Boston Marathon bombing coverage.
“Among body parts and blood on the street, they pushed past their fears and made the story happen,” said a stunned Boston University Professor Michelle Johnson, who oversaw BU’s news coverage.
The Boston Globe also won the Knight Public Service award for their year-long series on Boston’s Bowdoin-Geneva neighborhood.
Other winners included The New York Times, The Texas Tribune and AxisPhilly for ONA General Excellence. The New York Times’ “Snow Fall” project also won in the features category, along with Radio-Canada, AIR, Prairie Public and Zeega.
New York Times graphics editor Archie Tse, who accepted the award for ‘Snow Fall,’ said the team “worked for many months” trying to tell a seamless story.
Steve Goldbloom, a producer for San Francisco’s Independent Television Service, hosted the awards banquet but had some help via an introduction video starring Goldbloom and past OJA host PBS NewsHour’s Hari Sreenivasan, poking fun at the PBS website’s traffic. He also said that Google had provided Google Glass for people under their chairs, which soon became clear wasn’t the case.
“This is an online journalism conference; you’ll be leaving with nothing more than a CNN tote bag,” Goldbloom said.
The Guardian also garnered big applause for their “NSA Files,” winning both the Gannett Foundation Award for Innovative Investigative Journalism and the Gannett Foundation Award for Watchdog Journalism, a first at the OJA’s. The latter netted them a $5,000 prize.
The Guardian U.S. editor-in-chief Janine Gibson thanked Edward Snowden and the American media in her acceptance speech.
“It’s been an extraordinary five months, this really tops it,” she said.
In planned news, the first award of the night went to Denise Hassanzade Ajiri, 2012 MJ Bear Fellow, for Iran Election Watch (small). ProPublica (medium) and NPR (large) rounded out the category with its U.S. election coverage.
It wasn’t all journalism talk. One table filled with journalists from The Boston Globe, Boston.com and the local NPR affiliate, WBUR, watched Game 6 of Major League Baseball’s American League Championship Series between the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox on an iPad.
Winners accepted awards from Rich Beckman, University of Miami Knight chair in Visual Journalism, and Jim Brady, ONA president. The panel of 24 judges, who included journalists from outlets like ProPublica, Mother Jones magazine and the Los Angeles Times, helped select the finalists, of which 12 judges made the final selections in September.
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as well as the Gannett Foundation, contributed almost $38,000 in prize money, which accompanied nine of the 30 awards handed out.
Since 2000, the Online Journalism Awards, hosted by the Online News Association in partnership with the University of Miami School of Communication, has recognized excellence in digital journalism.
Knight Award for Public Service
68 Blocks, The Boston Globe
General Excellence in Online Journalism, Small
AxisPhilly
General Excellence in Online Journalism, Medium
The Texas Tribune
General Excellence in Online Journalism, Large
The New York Times
Gannett Foundation Award for Technical Innovation in the Service of Digital Journalism
D3.js, The New York Times
Breaking News, Small
Triumph, Then Tragedy: The Boston Marathon Bombings, Boston University News Service
Breaking News, Medium
Superstorm Sandy, WNYC
Breaking News, Large
Boston Marathon Bombing, Boston.com and BostonGlobe.com
Planned News/Events, Small
Iran Election Watch
Planned News/Events, Medium
2012 Election Coverage, ProPublica
Planned News/Events, Large
The Re-Election of Barack Obama, NPR
Explanatory Reporting, Small (tie)
Ala Wai Canal: Hawaii’s Biggest Mistake?, Honolulu Civil Beat
Coal in the Northwest, EarthFix
Explanatory Reporting, Medium
America Under the Gun: A Special Report on Gun Laws and the Rise of Mass Shootings, Mother Jones
Explanatory Reporting, Large
Beyond 7 Billion, Los Angeles Times
Topical Reporting, Small
Nieman Journalism Lab
Topical Reporting, Medium
Returning Home to Battle, The Center for Investigative Reporting
Topical Reporting, Large
Life in the Hermit Kingdom: Bringing North Korea to the World, Associated Press
Online Commentary, Small
The Fight to Vote, BillMoyers.com
Online Commentary, Medium
Stuff Nation, Fairfax Media New Zealand
Online Commentary, Large
Ezra Klein, The Washington Post
Feature, Small
#Banlieuelanuit, Radio-Canada
Feature, Medium
Black Gold Boom, Todd Melby, AIR, Prairie Public, Zeega
Feature, Large
Snow Fall, The New York Times
Student Projects, Small
The Pulse of Oakland, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
Student Projects, Large
Triumph, Then Tragedy: The Boston Marathon Bombings, Boston University News Service
Gannett Foundation Award for Innovative Investigative Journalism, Small
In The Name Of The Law, Honolulu Civil Beat
Gannett Foundation Award for Innovative Investigative Journalism, Medium
Big Money 2012, FRONTLINE, American Public Media’s Marketplace, ProPublica
Gannett Foundation Award for Innovative Investigative Journalism, Large
The NSA Files, The Guardian
Gannett Foundation Award for Watchdog Journalism
The NSA Files, The Guardian
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