These 10 Norwegian news projects won international journalism awards this year
if you’re looking for the bleeding edge in digital journalism, you may want to check out Verdens Gang (VG) in Norway.
VG grabbed awards in four of nine categories at this year’s European Digital Media Awards, which is arranged by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA),
In addition, the Society of News Design gave the organization 11 Awards of Excellence during its 34th annual Best of Digital Design competition.
Six of the winning projects relate to last year’s trial of Anders Behring Breivik, a man who killed 77 people in Oslo and on Utøya island July 22, 2011.
Upon hearing this, my journalism professor posed an interesting question. Do major events like the Boston marathon bombing increase a news org’s chances of winning such an award, simply because the story is more challenging? Could a project about the 2013 Daffodil Parade in Orting, Wash., beat a project about a manhunt in Boston, Mass.?
Well, I think CNN has demonstrated that a major event does not generate good reporting on its own—reporters do. I personally believe each of the projects below could have won its award even if the topic had been entirely different. That said, the most difficult challenges often drive us to achieve our highest levels of excellence. And that is no coincidence.
“I never believed that art is merely a form of expression. For me, it’s foremost a means of communication. With pictures, I speak to everyone, regardless of language,” says Eric Drooker, the artist behind the cover of our upcoming issue, “Shadow Over Boston.”
The Guardian launches augmented reality goggles with a left-wing slant.
Interactive inforgraphics about social media users. Can you guess which social network is depicted above?
Are you sure you can handle this story?
“
—
Managing editor, when assigning any complicated story to the only female reporter on staff.
I was always being asked if I could ‘handle’ stories, the submitter writes.
If any women are ever put in this situation, I’d suggest smiling politely and saying what I should have said at the time: “Of course. That’s why you hired me, right?”
3 good WordPress.com themes for student newspapers
When I worked at Pacific Lutheran University’s student newspaper The Mooring Mast, one of our main challenges was finding a way to have a good-looking website that was easy to maintain.
You’d think WordPress.com would have been an easy contender, since it’s very easy to both create a website and publish new content. But all the designs we had to choose from back then looked…well…too blog-like. We needed something that would at least make us look like a news site, so we ended up going with a different solution.
However, WordPress has kept building its library of paid themes over the past five years, and some of their new ones would actually look alright for an online news site.
So without further ado, here are three options your strapped-for-cash editorial board might consider. (For the record, I haven’t tested these.)
1. Modern News ($75)
Modern News is a minimalistic theme that showcases your content in modern, easy-to-read fashion.
Newsy is a versatile business and news-friendly theme that offers up to ten different layouts, four footer columns, custom links and accents colors, and a custom site header. Brand and content-focused editorial teams will love publishing with this theme.
Got lots of magazine-style content and need a stylish frame? The Magazine a great choice for sites that have a lot to say. Choose from many content-friendly soft color schemes, and widgets that support everything from video to in-depth articles to great photography. Magazine is sleek, up-to-date, and always cutting-edge… just like your content.
A while back I wrote about a new (but seemingly popular) phenomenon called brand journalism. I sent the piece to some of my professors a few days later, but none of them had ever heard of it.
Well, it’s still a thing. Here are a few more links that have come my way:
Beppe Grillo, who leads the populist Five Star Movement, has placed the [Italian] political system in terrible disarray. Normally, voters choose between two clear bloc-alternatives which are either red or blue, but now a third power-factor has arrived.
Grillo has won so many votes that, given Italy’s current system, it would be impossible for an established bloc to gain majority in both upper and lower houses of Parliament—which is necessary in order to form a government.
KXAX 5 in Dallas - Fort Worth caused a bit of controversy with a post on Facebook earlier this morning. Here is a screen capture via a friend of mine in DFW:
Daniel is a Journalism graduate of Pacific Lutheran University in Parkland, Wash. He currently works as a marketing assistant with Metro Parks Tacoma and freelances as a web developer for small businesses.
