A quote from one of those “out of discipline” books I grab every so often to read for inspiration - “The Art Spirit” by Robert Henri:

To award prizes is to attempt to control the course of another man’s work. It is a bid to have him do what you will approve. It affects not only the one who wins the award, but all those who in any measure strive for it. It is an effort to stop evolution, to hold things back to the plane of your judgment. It is a check on a great adventure of human life. It is negative to the idea that youth should go forward. It is for the coming generation to judge you, not for you to judge it. So it must happen, whether you will it or not.

If you want to be useful, if you want to be an encouragement to the deserving young artist, don’t try to pick him or judge him, but become interested in his effort with keen willingness to accept the surprises of its outcome.

This being the first year of the CICM multimedia contests, I hope we did alright by our entrants.

Contests are something we all have to face in journalism, but the key is not the contests, but the content and the creativity we use to tell stories. And ultimately, if the story is great (like the investigative stories published by the Washington Post that won them 6 Pulitzers), but nothing changes, then that big shiny medal isn’t worth a damn.

The Online News Association is accepting entries for the 2008 Online Journalism Awards, with a May 31 deadline. All the details are here. The sole category for student journalists is here:

11. Student Journalism
This category honors excellence in digital journalism by a student or team reporting on a single story or issue. The work must have appeared originally in a student- or school-based Web site and have been created by full-time student(s) (at the time of publication). Unpublished entries do not qualify. One award

Cost to enter varies depending on web traffic and ONA membership.

With the exception of the 2003 Arizona State Webdevil win, all of the winning student journalism projects have been completed outside student media outlets. I’ve seen some great examples of online journalism coming out of student media over the last year, so hopefully someone will represent this year.

The Associated Collegiate Press has announced their finalists for the 2008 Online Pacemakers.You can go to the web site to see screenshots of the finalists (dennews.com - which I advise - is a finalist).I count nine finalists who are College Publisher clients out of 27 total. Lots of experimentation out there. Congrats to all the finalists.  

UWire is looking for nominations for the top 100 college journalists in the U.S.

UWire’s Ben French writes:

The finalists will be featured in a large special on UWIRE.com, named in an article in “Editor & Publisher” magazine, and be touted via a CBS News segment. We feel this is a great opportunity for aspiring journalists to get their names out there and put an extra notch on their resumes.

Nominations can come from peers, advisers or professors, and the finalists will be selected by UWire staffers. Deadline is April 11. Here’s more details in the FAQ.

It would be nice if some online journalists could make the list. I could name at least three or four off the top of my head from schools around the country.

It gives me great pleasure to announce the winners in our first-ever CICM Online Journalism Contest. Read below for judges’ comments and the winners in each category.

Best Overall Design

1. Mustang Daily - http://www.mustangdaily.net/
They take number one because of their overall organization and abundance of visual elements on the homepage. It has simple navigation below the masthead; well-designed secondary buttons for multimedia, blogs, etc.; dominant, clickable, rotating art; a concise “online features” section highlighted by a subtle background color; well organized section previews complete with the main story of each section containing thumbnails; a unique “yousubmit” button; not to mention a well-placed AP viewer and poll. All of this is found on a homepage that is one of the smallest in length in the competition. The masthead type is a little lacking in proportion, but other than that it’s pretty flawless. Beautiful. Useable. Winner.

2. GW Hatchet - http://www.gwhatchet.com/
Its “New York Times Online” aesthetic is unique to the college field and is even more evident in this competition. The homepage looks a lot like a paper. It uses a serif font, columns and dominant art complete with studio photography and a colored background. It also has an obvious and well-organized section for multimedia. It’s masthead is well designed and the navigation is well-placed with the colored text drawing attention to the web-only content. Below the digital fold is a nice blog preview which links to a well-designed, well-organized blogs section. Also toward the bottom is the area designated for the traditional sections. I would like to see a little more movement with some of the art and maybe a little less of the GW statue (appears 4 times on the homepage).

3. The Shorthorn - http://www.theshorthorn.com/
Third was very tough but I landed on The Shorthorn because of its large rotating art, defined sections and front page video player. However, I would like to see thumbnails with the headlines in the different sections, more attention paid to the placement of the video player and the navigation move below the masthead. Good color scheme and good mix of serif headlines and sans-serif copy.

Best Breaking News Video

1. Shorthorn - gymnasium opening
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWOstABKZDw - This is the only video in the bunch that told a comprehensive visual story. We see a sequence of events that happened (beginning, middle, end). We keep seeing new scenes like the treadmills, basketball court, weight lifting. We get to hear from some students about their thoughts on the new gym. The video could have been improved with even more student voices. The producer should also study the basic shooting rules such as using a tripod and shooting wide, medium and tight sequences.

2. GW Hatchet - Anti-muslim poster
http://media.gwhatchet.com/index.php?id=1019. This video told the most comprehensive story in regards to narration. Using a voiceover was a wise choice to quickly and effectively provide the history of the story that people needed to know to understand what was happening now. The soundbytes from sources at the end provided valuable information and they were intelligent and emotional. I think the video could have been improved if the producer would have focused more on shooting more video during the meeting, and less on recording the speakers during the meeting. I wanted to see the emotion on the faces of the students in attendance.

3. Nevada Sagebrush - Democratic caucus
http://nevadasagebrush.com/blog/2008/01/19/video-the-joe-hosts-democratic-caucus/
- This video did the best at providing a great variety of voices and opinions. I think it could have been improved if the videographer would have focused more on shooting video of the caucus in action. One source said the process was confusing … Instead of just telling me that, also show me video of the confusing process.

VIDEO PACKAGE

No placements

Honorable mention: Daily Mississippian - Street preacher
http://media.www.thedmonline.com/media/storage/paper876/news/2007/03/21/Multimedia/Evangelist.Continues.To.Warn.Students-2783051.shtml.
This is the only video that made an attempt at telling a visual story. The video producer should revisit the basic rules of shooting video, including using a tripod, no pans and zooms, and shooting image sequences of wide, medium and tight shots. I had problems with the video player because there were no controls and it seemed that the audio and video were out of sync.

Advice for others: Video is a medium for showing things, not telling. If you just wanted to report what your sources had said, you can use text very effectively to deliver that information. If you want to use video, you need to show your viewer things. For example, instead of showing the frat presidents talking the whole time, you should have showed the rush events. Instead of showing the professor talking the whole time, you could have showed him teaching a class and showed him logging on to his facebook account.

Best Podcast

1. GW Hatchet
http://media.gwhatchet.com/index.php?id=1014
http://media.gwhatchet.com/index.php?id=1006
http://media.gwhatchet.com/index.php?id=1030

2. Nevada Sagebrush
http://nevadasagebrush.com/blog/2007/10/09/oct-9-2007-an-interview-with-lt-dangle/
http://nevadasagebrush.com/blog/2007/12/03/dec-3-2007-perspectives-editor-jordan-butler-loves-his-quadrangle/
http://nevadasagebrush.com/blog/2007/12/10/dec-11-2007-garrett-hylton-scott-oxarart-and-david-calvert-discuss-luke-babbitt/

They were closely match in quality and variety. While both were very well done, the GW casts had more original reporting, more depth on topic and their effort was more consistently, professional sounding and rewarding. Note their ease-of use for playing the poddies on the Web site.

Best Weblog

1. Mustang Daily - http://blogs.mustangdaily.net/
The writing is lively, personal and contains some perspective. The blogger is at his best when he’s writing about issues related to campus life or the local community, but there is always a sense of personality in the posts.

Best Breaking News Package

1. Nevada Sagebrush
http://nevadasagebrush.com/blog/category/news/2008-caucus-coverage/

A clear first place winner. The staff used every tool available to them to bring the online reader the best coverage possible. Audio, video, slide shows, all presented in a clean and easy to find/navigate page. Great use of large photos and audio podcasts that could be played on the page versus needing to ‘click through’. I would have loved to see the same approach with the video, post it on the main page, like the slides shows and th audio. They created a one stop online experience that I didn’t want to leave. Congrats!

2. GW Hatchet
http://media.www.gwhatchet.com/media/storage/paper332/news/2007/10/11/News/Seven.Students.Take.Responsibility.In.Controversial.Poster.Campaign-3026870.shtml

Clean design, nice Soundslides integration and the two elements; QUICKTAKES: THE TIMELINE and the The Poster Controversy box in the upper right are the two elements that help this package stand out above the rest. They provide the reader a great way to see other elements of the story. This is very important for a breaking news package. Readers will always want more. Well done.

3. Kentnewsnet.com
http://media.www.kentnewsnet.com/media/storage/paper867/news/2007/03/20/News/Fire-Guts.Kent.Home-2781666.shtml

This was a nice response to a local breaking news event. The page had video and photos, always a plus. What would have really helped this package would have been a map of the location of the fire. Overall nice page.

Best Audio Slideshow

1. Daily Eastern News

http://media.www.dennews.com/media/storage/paper309/news/2007/11/16/OnlineExclusives/Slideshow.Eastern.At.Jacksonville.State-3094260.shtml

This slide show has strong integration between the images and the audio. Good use of subtitles for introducing speakers. The audio edit could be much tighter on the coach. Also, some basic game info in the intro, such as score and team rankings, would made this more of a complete report.

2. The Shorthorn
http://shorthorn.uta.edu/new/archives/2007/spring/050207/kuban/index.html

There are some real moments in the photography. The photographer showed a sensitivity in some of the selections, though the overall pairing of the audio and the images is lacking. The subject’s music was a prime opportunity a strong visual pairing, however we don’t hear the music until after those corresponding images have passed by. Overall audio quality is poor, but the content is strong.

Best Overall Web Presence

1. SageBrush - http://nevadasagebrush.com

2. Shorthorn - http://theshorthorn.com

3. Mustang Daily - http://www.mustangdaily.net

Congrats to all the winners!

Feb. 1 is the deadline to get your entries in for the CICM online journalism contest. Details are here.

Also, for advisers and students interested in attending the March 6-8 hands-on multimedia workshop, the early-bird deadline for registration is tomorrow as well. Details here.

Yesterday, we rolled out on the main CICM web pages an entry form for something that I’m extremely excited about - what is the most comprehensive contest for online content produced by student media and student journalists.

Check below the fold for the categories. We’re intent on getting some of the top names in online journalism to judge these contest categories (already got some committed), and excited about getting recognition out to those in collegiate student media who are doing awesome things online. For more details, check out this page. Deadline to submit entries is Feb. 1, 2008. You or your student media organization must be a member to participate. Here’s how to join our organization.

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