UW-Milwaukee student journalists writing for Media Milwaukee won 14 Wisconsin College Media Association Better Newspaper Contest awards, including five first-place honors. The student journalists gained recognition in general, investigative and sports reporting; feature writing; sports column; photography and freedom of information.
The Media Milwaukee news site, produced by the Journalism, Advertising and Media Studies Department, won second place in general web excellence.
The JAMS 500 reporting class won first place in general reporting for stories chronicling Milwaukee-area Holocaust survivors, and Dan Zielinski’s photo for that series also took first place.
Five students’ coverage of controversy in the UWM Athletics Department gained first-place honors for sports writing, and Paul Willems’ pursuit of blacked-out Athletics emails received a first-place freedom of information award.
Cole Stevenson’s sports column also won a first place award.
A Wisconsin Newspaper Association presentation and a letter from the governor recognized the JAMS 320 students’ work in finding photos of Wisconsin service members who died in Vietnam. The class won a first-place investigative reporting award in 2016 for its work. The WNA displayed the photos at its annual conference.
The winners
Here’s the complete list of UWM award recipients, their award categories and their stories or topics:
First place
Dan Zielinski; photography; Surviving Hate, Preaching Love
Paul Willems, Tisia Muzinga, Rebecca Papenthien, Miela Fetaw and Kristopher Schimmel; sports reporting; UWM Athletic Department Controversies
Cole Stevenson, sports column, NFL: Nothing’s Free League
JAMS 500 Reporting Class: Jonathan Powell, Shana Wilson, Daniel Zielinski, Amanda Porter, Dylan Deprey, Tyler Nelson, Mary Jo Contino, Bo Bayerl, William Bott, Shannon Kirsch, Stevan Stojanovic, Amanda Melkonian, Amber Bak, Ellie Malone, Sarah DeGeorge, Mike Holloway and Graham Kilmer; general reporting; On Humanity’s Edge
Paul Willems, freedom of information, UWM Athletic Department Blacks Out Emails
Second place
Jonathan Powell, sports column, The Scarlet Letter: C
Stevan Stojanovic, freedom of information, Wisconsin Open Records Complaint Tracking
JAMS Students, general web excellence, Media Milwaukee
Amanda Melkonian, Amber Bak, Shannon Kirsch and Ellie Malone; investigative reporting; Unregulated Risk
Jonathan Powell, feature writing, The Ageless Man
Third place
Jaimie Anderson, Xing Qi, Somer Servais; general reporting; UW Budget
Emily Zantow, Pakou Lee, Rebecca Papenthien; investigative reporting; Inside Milwaukee Gun Court
Dylan Deprey and Tyler Nelson, feature writing, Message of Hope
Honorable mention
Elizabeth LaPointe, feature writing, Milwaukee Veterans are Soothed With Strums
