Te Waha Nui Wins Ossie Award For Best Newspaper

Te Waha Nui Wins Ossie Award For Best Newspaper

http://www.jea.org.au/
http://www.tewahanui.info/

SURFER'S PARADISE (JEA/APN/Pacific Media Watch): Te Waha Nui, New Zealand¹s Auckland University of Technology journalism newspaper, has won this year¹s Ossie Award for best student publication (any medium) in Australia, NZ and the Pacific the paper¹s second prize in a month.

The two-year-old publication won against four finalists from Australia and Fiji. All were print publications, although some included online editions.

Judge Wendy Page, producer of ABC TV¹s Australian Story, said two strong contenders made the judging difficult, but she opted for the "broad appeal" of Te Waha Nui.

"It provides good news stories and good features with broad appeal, and is well written," she said.

"It¹s clearly a huge commitment for student journalists to produce work of this calibre for a fortnightly publication.

"I think the standard is equal to, if not better than, many commercial newspapers.

"Te Waha Nui is not as glossy as some of the other publications, but the substance of the content won the day for me."

Page highly commended a rival contender, The Point, a student-produced inner city community newspaper published by the University of Technology, Sydney.

Last month Te Waha Nui won the NZ Electoral Commission¹s Wallace Award for political reporting during the general election.

The newspaper was edited this semester by Nicholas Moody and the course is led by AUT¹s David Robie and Allan Lee. Robie coordinated two previous publications that have won Ossie Awards Uni Tavur (University of Papua New Guinea) and Wansolwara (University of the South Pacific).

The Ossie Awards, organised by the Journalism Education Association (JEA), are named after the late Australian foreign correspondent Osmar White.

The Ossie for the best occasional publication award this year, also judged by Wendy Page, went to Queensland University of Technology¹s kuRB.

"It is a fabulously polished, well-laid out publication which immediately catches the eye of the reader," said Page.

"But it is backed up with well-written local news stories which would have appeal to many readers beyond the local community."

UTS¹s Queer Vertigo and Griffith University¹s Online News Production were highly commended.

Other awards:
Best print news story:
Winner Phil Han (University of Technology, Sydney)
Highly commended
Erica Lee and Natasha Morell (University of the South Pacific)
Mereoni Vonosere (USP)

Best radio news story:
Winner Sophie Gyles (UTS)

Best TV news story:
Winner Jonathan Peeris and Saane Neilsen (RMIT)

Best print feature (undergraduate):
Winner Michael Atkin (UTS)
Highly commended
Iona Reto (Divine Word University, PNG)
Georgina Hartigan (Macleay College, Sydney)
Mick Daly (QUT)
Yuko Narushima (Charles Sturt University)

Best print feature (postgraduate):
Winner David Swift (Macleay College)

Best photojournalism:
Winner Christina Hermanstad (UTS)
Highly commended
Tahly Stotzer (Edith Cowan University)
Carol Wiley (UTS)

Best radio current affairs (undergraduate):
Winner Divine Word University (PNG)
Highly commended
Adam McFarlane (University of Canberra)

Best TV current affairs (undergraduate):
Winner Barry Hartono and Daniel Gerich (Griffith University)
Highly commended
Caro Meldrum-Hanna and Amra Agovic (Griffith)

Best broadcast current affairs (postgraduate):
Winner (TV) Barnaby Howarth (UTS)
Runner-up (radio) Sarah Davies (Edith Cowan University)

Best story by an international student:
Winner Laura Tenret (University of Western Sydney)

Hunter Institute Response Ability Prize:
Winner Melanie Lees (University of Western Sydney)
Highly commended
Catherine James and Christina Olsen (UTS)
Ben Lewis (RMIT)
Kelly Walton and Hadley Blue (University of Western Sydney)

+++niuswire

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PACIFIC MEDIA WATCH is an independent, non-profit, non-government organisation comprising journalists, lawyers, editors and other media workers, dedicated to examining issues of ethics, accountability, censorship, media freedom and media ownership in the Pacific region. Launched in October 1996, it has links with the Journalism Program at the University of the South Pacific, Bushfire Media based in Sydney, Journalism Studies at the University of PNG (UPNG), the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ), Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, and Community Communications Online (c2o).

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