2024 GOLDEN PRESS CARD: Television | Newspapers (Large) | Newspapers (Small) | Radio | Digital | All Media | Student Journalism | Golden Press Card
Here are the 2024 Golden Press Card winners in the All Media category. The entries were judged by the Oklahoma SPJ Pro Chapter.
ARTS & CULTURE REPORTING (All Media)
First Place
Contestant Name: News Sentinel
Entry Title: A different way of seeing Knoxville’s music scene
Entry Credit: Ryan Wilusz, Brianna Paciorka, Caitie McMekin (and the entire photo staff)
Links: See entry, See entry, See entry
Judge Comments: In depth coverage that was both entertaining and informative. I enjoyed reading each one, and the level of detail was impressive.
Category Comments: Great stories all around and I especially liked the video of the Appalachian film makers. This was a very hard category to judge simply because the quality of all the work was high.
Second Place
Contestant Name: News Sentinel
Entry Title: Knoxville’s concert scene, Dollywood and chicken ‘Wingz’
Entry Credit: Devarrick Turner, Brianna Paciorka
Links: See entry, See entry, See entry
Judge Comments: I like the style of this writer’s writing, and the stories show deep reporting, lots of sources, trends and statistics and more. It’s not just entertaining, it’s business heavy.
FREELANCE WRITING (All Media)
First Place
Contestant Name: Super Lawyers Magazine
Entry Title: And Beyond / First Amendment Defender / Vote of Confidence
Entry Credit: Nancy Henderson
Judge Comments: Wow! What a lede. You had me hooked from the very beginning to the very end. Great reporting and writing and a well done and enjoyable profile.
Second Place
Contestant Name: Tennessee Lookout (entrant is E. Tenn columnist for the Lookout)
Entry Title: Troubled Tennessee
Entry Credit: Mark Harmon
Judge Comments: This columnist isn’t afraid to call it as he sees it and he does his reporting. Well done.
PHOTOJOURNALISM – BEST PHOTOGRAPHER (All Media)
First Place
Contestant Name: News Sentinel
Entry Title: Caitie McMekin’s favorite photos of 2024
Entry Credit: Caitie McMekin
Links: See entry
Judge Comments: In particular for the Elk River walker, which demonstrated the enormous scope of the storm’s destruction but an unspoken resilience in the presence of a survivor amidst it. Her eye for special moments during an event demonstrated in the human centered photos of the marathon runner with a baby and a child’s inquisitive mind during a public event
Second Place
Contestant Name: News Sentinel
Entry Title: Brianna Paciorka’s favorite photos of 2024
Entry Credit: Brianna Paciorka
Links: See entry
PHOTOJOURNALISM – BEST SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY“ (All Media)
First Place
Contestant Name: News Sentinel
Entry Title: Flying high
Entry Credit: Angelina Alcantar
Judge Comments: For capturing in perfect clarity an athlete in midair, while also showing the suspense of that moment visible in the player’s expression.
Second Place
Contestant Name: News Sentinel
Entry Title: Sportsmanship in action
Entry Credit: Saul Young
HORACE V. WELLS JR. COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD (All Media)
First Place
Contestant Name: News Sentinel
Entry Title: Sheriff’s office told DA video of a raid didn’t exist – but it did
Entry Credit: Tyler Whetstone
Links: See entrydidnt-exist-but-it-did/72162497007/
Judge Comments: Fantastic investigative work that pulled in experts from many different fields. This investigative work clearly exposes the problem of oversight and abuse. The reporter showed tenacity and left no stone unturned. I hope this piece spurred a national conversation about oversight and accountability. Good job.
Category Comments: Every single piece entered deserved an honor. The Helene coverage was heartbreaking, but inspiring as well. I especially enjoyed watching the special by WVLT on After Helene and The Johnson City Press’ special on how media covered the event. Both were staggeringly well done. WBIR’s coverage was also outstanding, and the News Sentinel piece about the Starbucks manager was deeply moving and impactful. Finally, I can’t tell you how much in love I am with the piece about Eyes on LaFollet. I’ve been to that community, and this is such a wonderful tradition and recordkeeping effort for small coal towns. Again, every single piece deserved an honor.
Second Place
Contestant Name: The Volunteer Channel
Entry Title: VOTING MATTERS: Covering the Issues that Matter to You
Entry Credit: TVC Staff
Links: See entry
Judge Comments: Such an important special report, especially in an age of disinformation and mistrust. Kudos to the team for putting together a primer that was easy to understand, clearly explained, not biased and thorough. This piece should be included in school curriculum!
BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY REPORTING (All Media)
First Place
Contestant Name: WATE
Entry Title: ORNL Deepfake Detection Technology
Entry Credit: Don Hudson, Bill Greene
Links: See entry
Category Comments: WATE: The story’s timeliness and urgency to inform the public about AI technology’s dangers shines with expert sources, and a local angle. It is also well balanced with research on the benefits of this technology’s rapidly evolving role in society.
Second Place
Contestant Name: News Sentinel
Entry Title: There’s energy behind East Tennessee’s business identity
Entry Credit: Daniel Dassow, Caitie McMekin, Saul Young
Links: See entry, See entry, See entry
PHOTOJOURNALISM – BEST NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY (All Media)
First Place
Contestant Name: News Sentinel
Entry Title: Destruction from the Elk River
Entry Credit: Caitie McMekin
Category Comments: Demonstrated excellent skill in capturing the physical scope of Hurricane Helene’s destruction while also conveying resilience in the hiker’s triumphant walk above the debris.
Second Place
Contestant Name: News Sentinel
Entry Title: Remembrance and reflection
Entry Credit: Saul Young
BEST PODCAST (All Media)
First Place
Contestant Name: News Sentinel
Entry Title: The Scruffy Stuff
Entry Credit: Ryan Wilusz (host), Brianna Paciorka (producer), Allie Feinberg (guest host) Daniel Dassow (guest host)
Links: See entry, See entry, See entry
Category Comments: This is a very informative, creative and insightful podcast for a good variety of three topics — College World Series coverage behind the scenes, the possible Buc-ees of bookstores, and karaoke in Knoxville. I especially was very interested in Brianna Paciorka’s colorful description of covering the College World Series in Omaha. I lived in Omaha, attended many College World Series ballgames at the former Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium. I learned about how she goes about her job of sports visual journalism. Here we learn not only that Tennessee won the national title, we see behind the scenes what went into visual coverage of this historic tournament for the Vols. Excellent podcast that informs and enlightens!
DIGITAL COMMENTARY (All Media)
First Place
Contestant Name: News Sentinel
Entry Title: Airport, CEOS and the pandemic’s legacy
Entry Credit: Daniel Dassow
Links: See entry, See entry, See entry
Judge Comments: I love the style and voice of this writer, who kept me hooked with every sentence, thanks to seamless transitions of paragraphs and thoughts. You have a lot of personality to your writing.
Category Comments: Another wonderful category that was so hard to pick winners. They were all so equally well written.
Second Place
Contestant Name: News Sentinel
Entry Title: The how and why of what we cover
Entry Credit: Joel Christopher
Links: See entry, See entry, See entry
Judge Comments: The first person accounts work so well with these three pieces, and I love how you link to stories that resonate with the topic.
SPORTS BEAT REPORTING (All Media)
First Place
Contestant Name: News Sentinel
Entry Title: University of Tennessee Lady Vols: Cora Hall
Entry Credit: Cora Hall
Links: See entry, See entry, See entry, See entry, See entry
Judge Comments: I love how this writer makes every story come alive. Every character adds to the personality of the team, and she goes way beyond simple sports coverage. I feel like I’m part of the team now too.
Category Comments: Tennessee loves its sports, and with journalists who tell stories like this in their reporting, it’s easy to see why. Every entry was worthy of an honor.
Second Place
Contestant Name: News Sentinel
Entry Title: University of Tennessee athletics: Mike Wilson
Entry Credit: Mike Wilson
Links: See entry, See entry, See entry, See entry, See entry
Judge Comments: From hard news to feature writing, I enjoyed every entry in his writer’s repertoire. The James Pearce feature was especially interesting angle to me. GREAT JOB.
BEST NEWS VIDEO (All Media)
First Place
Contestant Name: News Sentinel
Entry Title: TVA reopens Hibbs Island
Entry Credit: Angelina Alcantar
Links: See entry
Judge Comments: Clever use of editing to allow the subjects of the video to tell the story of what’s going on without needed a reporter’s narration. Clear explanation of the subject matter with good shots of the river and project make this piece a solid entry.
Category Comments: All entries are from one news outlet and all are raw video. Clever and effective use of editing. Would have preferred some narration or at least on-screen graphics to give more background on the situations shown. Reliance on captions outside the video itself should not be a trend.
Second Place
Contestant Name: News Sentinel
Entry Title: Raw video from Nolichucky River flooding
Entry Credit: Brianna Paciorka
Links: See entry
Judge Comments: Great video from the site of dangerous conditions the public needs to know about. Narration isn’t needed to convey the gravity of the situation.
BEST DIGITAL CONTENT (All Media)
First Place
Contestant Name: WVLT
Entry Title: WVLT’s Best Digital Content from Camruinn Morgan-Rumsey
Entry Credit: Camruinn Morgan-Rumsey
Links: See entry, See entry, See entry
Judge Comments: Three excellent examples of news coverage from Camruinn Morgan-Rumsey and WVLT show versatility, effective multimedia, digital content that informs, while dealing with moving timelines and developing facts. Digital news has taken conventional print reporting and thrown it for a loop. The emerging and changing paradigms of digital news content are dealt with here with a good anchor on facts and detail. All three stories submitted on the policy changes for the hospital, the hold on death penalty cases, and the interactive elements used to report on causes of homelessness show a digital newsroom product that other digital news outlets can learn from. The second place stories from Melanie Staten and Beth Kinnane showed one hard news story and two very informative feature products. ALL entries here are excellent! Choosing was a challenge, as I’m sure it was a challenge for all these journalists from all these news outlets to produce these excellent digital stories. You gave the judges a real challenge. Very well done to all!!
Second Place
Contestant Name: Knox TN Today
Entry Title: Top features for KnoxTNToday
Entry Credit: Beth Kinnane, Melanie Staten
Links: See entry, See entry, See entry
CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT REPORTING (All Media)
First Place
Contestant Name: News Sentinel
Entry Title: Coal, clean and seismic energy in East Tennessee
Entry Credit: Daniel Dassow
Links: See entry, See entry, See entry
Judge Comments: In-depth, thorough reporting of environmental issues that uses good interviews, data and clear explanations.
Category Comments: RUNNERS UP: – Microplastics – ‘Bears are gonna be bears’: Why Gatlinburg has seen so many – and why humans are the problem
Second Place
Contestant Name: Johnson City Press
Entry Title: Nolichucky River forever changed
Entry Credit: Kimberly Harr
Links: See entry, See entry, See entry
Judge Comments: A great series about the after-effects of a storm on a significant portion of the local environment. In-depth.