Students at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University took home eight awards in the collegiate division of Editor & Publisher magazine’s prestigious national 2021 EPPY Award contest – the most of any college or university in the country.
The Cronkite School earned a total of eight awards in four categories — including four first-place prizes. It also swept all three prizes in the “Best college/university investigative/documentary” category with the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism taking first place for “Little Victims Everywhere.”
The judges said: “This is infuriating – the hallmark of a good investigative story. Clearly shows the shocking issues and uses data and human stories to drive home the problem.”
The two finalists in this category were Carnegie-Knight News21, based at Cronkite, for “Unmasking America” and the Cronkite School for the “Life Is…” suicide awareness project.
Alberto Mariani of Cronkite News won both first-place and finalist awards in the “Best photojournalism on a college/university website” category for “A community’s response: Reflections from the White Mountain Apache” and “Last Responders and the call to bury the dead,” respectively. The judges had one word for Mariani’s first-place project: “PHENOMENAL!!!!”
Haillie Parker and Allie Barton of Cronkite News won first place in the “Best feature story on a college/university website” for “Invisible Chapters: Writing the Black community into the stories of libraries.” The judges said: “Excellent videos. Well-designed presentation. Nice weaving of audio, video, photographic and text to tell the story. A topic I had not heard about previously, which is always good.”
Anthony J. Wallace and Megan Marples of Cronkite News garnered a finalist award in this category for “It’s creating a new normal: A Navajo school district and its students fight.”
Allie Barton of Cronkite News also won first-place in the “Best video on a college/university website” category for “Invisible Chapters: Lost Chapters.” The judges said: “Flows very well. Engaging and using video clips of actual events to help tell the story and show facts and not just opinions…Gives off a professional vibe.
“This is an outstanding performance by our students in a very tough and prestigious competition,” said Battinto L. Batts Jr., dean of the Cronkite School. “It shows the level of talent and commitment to excellence that exist here, but more importantly, it illustrates the desire to report and tell stories that might otherwise go untold. I am so proud, and congratulate all of the winners in the EPPY Award contest. The world needs more of your hard work.”
Winners and finalists were announced on Nov 1. This year’s EPPY contest received more than 400 entries and was judged by a panel of notable media professionals with backgrounds in journalism, website design, marketing, advertising, editorial, technology, education and management.