THE 2019
LAUREATES:
JOURNALISM
For reporting that breaks stereotypes or adds important insights about or from young people and/or that successfully targets and involves a young audience with a clear, important impact.
WINNER - "Since Parkland" - The Trace & partners (USA)
SLIVER AWARD - The Children's Radio Foundation (South Africa) and Quds News Network (Palestine)
SPECIAL COMMENDATION - News Network - Danish Broadcasting Corporation (Denmark)
Presentation: News Xchange,
20-12 November, Paris, France Partners:
SINCE PARKLAND, USA
WINNER
This nationwide project that galvanized 214 teenage journalists to tell the stories of the 1,147 young people who had been killed by guns in the United States in the previous 12 months to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the killing of 17 staff and students at Marjory Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The Trace, a newsroom dedicated to gun violence coverage, worked with journalism teachers to coach the student journalists as they wrote portraits of the young people (age 18 and younger) killed by guns in the year since the those killings. The Miami Herald and McClatchy Newspapers built on the student journalists’ work to document patterns in child gun deaths and what might reduce them. NowThisNews served as the project’s exclusive social video partner. In November 2019, The Trace released the second phase of the project: The Hardest Stories to Tell, completing the stories of victims who had not yet been fully profiled.
What the judges said:
We saw a powerful combination of youth empowerment, capacity-building and innovative storytelling, all in one project. The teen journalists should feel incredibly proud for their part in this, as should the coordinating team.
CHILDREN'S RADIO FOUNDATION, South Africa
SILVER AWARD
In the Future Positive project, 270 youth reporters learned to produce and
broadcast radio shows on the personal story of HIV & AIDS and LGBTI issues for young people aged 13-25 across South Africa. These youth radio groups hosted “pop-up” broadcasts at clinics and schools to reach young people often left behind. A 2018 competition, My Body, My Rights, called for essays, poems and audio recordings on sexual reproduction rights. The team then created a toolkit to help others do something similar in other countries.
What the judges said:
This is a great example of a group of young people who used journalism and the opportunities around them to create meaningful change in the stigma surrounding HIV-AIDS.
QUDS NEWS NETWORK, Palestine
SILVER AWARD
A tiny team of young volunteers under the leadership of 16-year-old Izzeddin"Ezz" Alakhras created Quds [Jerusalem] News Network in 2012 through social media to specialize in Palestinian news of relevance to young people. Now it has 12 million followers on Facebook, 1 million on Instagram and 600 000 on Twitter, each scoring the highest in its category for Palestine. Quds now has a staff of 7, five of whom are under age 25 and two under age 30, but still has no office and no operating costs, with all staff working from their homes and never having met.
What the judges said:
Quds has accomplished amazing work under challenging circumstances. They have deservedly built a massive audience by empowering young people to tell the news.
Download the full case in a pdf deck (464 kb)
Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR), Denmark
SPECIAL RECOGNITION
DR set up a cooperative news network and a joint solutions reporting project with teenage journalists around stress at school via multiple channels (Instagram, Snapchat, etc.) involving 350 contributors. The result had 90 000 impressions on the institutional site alone and with podcast and radio elements reaching more than 500 000 people.
What the judges said:
This initiative shows a real effort to make sure the content reflects young people directly, and DR takes them seriously by focusing on the quality of content. It's an easy model to replicate and insure the presence of the young in the national media.