Best Social Justice Coverage ( Less than 15,000 Students)Back
Place Name: First Place Contestant Name: Pepperdine University Entry Title: The Graphic Covers Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Entry Credit: Graphic Staff Judge Comment: Good nuanced discussions in the podcasts. The hiring diversity story had a great deal of honest introspection. Code switching was interesting and an unusual topic.
Place Name: Second Place Contestant Name: California State University Bakersfield Entry Title: Social Justice Beat by The Runner, stories and podcasts Entry Credit: Zeltzin Estrada Rodriguez, Joy Gamble, Ellice Richman Judge Comment: The Black History Month and ethnic study classes stories had more depth to them than most similar stories in these contests. The podcasts had thoughtful discussions. Good voices in the African-American racist experiences story. No points for it, but great masthead!
Place Name: Third Place Contestant Name: Claremont Colleges Entry Title: Best Social Justice Coverage Entry Credit: Jenna McMurtry, John Paul Ferrantino, Jasper Davidoff Judge Comment: The divestment stories were a good departure from the typical social justice reporting and were well done. the first one needed comment from the administration and more specifics on the investments. The story about the videotaping of protests and the identification of protesters was very newsy. Made my blood boil. I wondered what the university's policy is on the retention of the video. Good depth on the protest coverage.
Competition Comment: Social justice reporting is more than covering protests and taking pictures of people holding signs. These entries, fortunately, didn't lean on them much. A couple of the stories that stood out were Pepperdine's code switching, which I had not read about elsewhere in the competition, and Pepperdine's story about diversity hiring, which had instructors looking inwardly very honestly in a highly nuanced story. Social justice reporting doesn't have to be all "this is bad." Sometimes issues are more nuanced than that. I like the use of podcasts (some of which seemed overly long for busy students to listen to) as this is a modern way in which people consume information. One nit-picky thing: I don't know why the name of just about every organization has to be followed by an acronym in parenthesis. It's hard to remember what the organization is on subsequent references. Better to use a piece of the name, such as "Advisory Council."
