Just as we saw with our February contest, the March Project:Discover contest brought out the best from hard-working Digital Journalists. It was a tough decision but only one individual could take home the $250 top prize. That said, we’re happy to announce two people will also receive runner-up prizes for their excellent reporting.
To recap March’s contest: Digital Journalists were encouraged to write about stories affecting their community, or a community they visited. We wanted under-reported issues, issues that are of great significance to the particular city or community, and issues that are of important news value. Entries were judged on journalistic merit, unbiased reporting, depth of reportage, accuracy, overall structure and composition. Photo essays were also allowed to be entered into the contest. Project:Discover ran from March 3 to 31, 2010.
DigitalJournal.com received 108 entries for March’s contest.
The winner
Ken Wightman wins the top award for his article on Conservative pundit Ann Coulter’s speaking appearance in London, Ontario. It was far from a ho-hum event, as Coulter made some derogatory statements towards a Muslim audience member, and what resulted was nothing short of a full-scale media frenzy.
As he often is, Ken was first on the scene of this breaking news, giving DigitalJournal.com readers thorough coverage of Coulter’s statements and the controversial Q&A session. He also complemented his article with strong photos of Coulter and shots of the audience.
It should be noted that Ken didn’t just leave the story after one article. He published several more follow-ups detailing the fallout from this fiasco, even getting the scoop on why her appearance was cancelled.
Ken, from London, Ontario, is a long-time journalist and photographer, having published material for several Ontario newspapers. He earned a degree in filmmaking from Ryerson University in Toronto.
Runners up
To be perfectly honest, Digital Journal editors had a tough time selecting just one article to highlight from our contest submissions. Many on-the-ground reports made it to the shortlist, and two in particular stood out, so we’ve decided to honour two articles that deserve major congratulations.
The Digital Journalists will receive $50 each for their great work.
Carolyn E. Price, from Toronto, Ontario, earns an honorable mention for her coverage of a McCain-Palin rally in Tucson, Arizona. Gaining access to this rally, and reporting on the statements from these two high-profile politicians, offered readers inside info on this timely issue. This report was timely, and very newsworthy.
We’d be remiss to forget mentioning the photos going along with her article. Carolyn took some pics (albeit far away) of the main speakers, while also capturing some of the flavour from the event. Great job, Carolyn.
Also taking home an honorary mention, and $50, is Carol Forsloff for her outstanding work on a feature article about Veteran Affairs in the U.S.
She writes, “With the rising number of troops returning from the wars in the Middle East, and more and more veterans diagnosed with trauma problems and complex physical disabilities from brain injuries, the Veterans Administration asked for outside help from contractors over the past several years.”
Carol interviewed one of their counselors who worked under the contract, and the insightful article shines a light on an issue that isn’t going away anytime soon.
We want to thank everyone who took part in the contest. We were amazed at the variety of reportage covering a wide array of topics, all strengthened by bootstrap journalism and unique interviews.
