Multimedia competitions

Online News Association lists 2008 finalists; Roanoke grabs two!

The Online News Association released their finalists today for the 2008 Online Journalism Awards. I am happy to announce that two of our projects garnered spots: Age of Uncertainty was selected for “Multimedia Feature, Small Site” and One Year Later for “Outstanding Use of Digital Technology, Small Site.”

It’s always exciting when lists like these come out because it’s a great opportunity to see high-caliber work that might have slipped unnoticed through my del.icio.us or RSS feeds. So, for those who may not have the time to go through each finalist, here is my list of “Must-See’s” …

* StarTribune.com’s “Bridge Collapse” for Breaking News, Large Site:
The Star Tribune did a superb job covering this news from day one. I just finished reading the entire series, titled “The family that fell.” Wow. This story traces one family’s year-long recovery period in intimate detail. It is a beautiful story and the writer did a remarkable job capturing their fears, frustrations and anger. Two other highlights are the interactive map of 350 bridges in and around Minneapolis as well as the flash interactive, “Thirteen seconds in August,” allowing the user to comb through the wreckage and view photos, video and more information on the victims. Kudos to the Star Tribune’s staff for creating such a thorough package on this devastating event!

* “Border Stories” for Online Video Presentation:
I have to give props to fellow UNCer Sophia Dengo for teaming up to produce this awesome site. She used TYPOlight for her back-end CMS and then her kickin’ Flash skills for the navigation and video player/playlist. Four post-grad students traveled the US/Mexico line and found some pretty intriguing stories. For those journalists out there, watch “The War on News.” All of the videos are bilingual with subtitles … and we all know the difficulties that that entails so bravo to this hardworking crew!

* “South of Here” for Student Journalism:
I also have to applaud the efforts of my fellow UNC journalism students for their most recent multimedia project led by Rich Beckman. They documented “the history, people and communities of Tierra del Fuego in Argentina and Chile, the surrounding waterways and their critical relationship to the environment.” The pictures are breath-taking. Make sure to check out the infographic “Navigating the Horn” (under “Origins”) done by then-student Rebecca Rolfe, and Galen Clarke’s beautiful audio slide show “Alone with the wind.”

I must not forget to mention several noteworthy projects that I have previously blogged about:

* MSNBC.com’s “Battle of the bags: Paper vs. plastic” for Multimedia Feature, Large Site

* LATimes.com’s “Homicide Report” for Topical Reporting, Large Sites

Of course there is a lot of great talent which I did not mention here, so make sure to take some time to check out the finalists. Good luck to everyone and I look forward to learning the winners in September!

Other posts that might interest you:

• Multiple competition deadlines looming … enter now!

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