Hearst Multimedia Narrative Storytelling Winners Announced

Winners have been chosen in the Multimedia Narrative Storytelling Competition of the 2022-2023 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. There were 83 entries from 46 schools submitted in the first multimedia competitions of the year.

First Place has been awarded to Drake Presto, a senior from Arizona State University. Presto will receive a $3,000 scholarship for the winning piece “Crisis in Tapachula” and qualifies for the National Multimedia Championship which will be held this June in San Francisco.

The other top finalists are:
Second Place, $2,000 award, Allie Schallert, Western Kentucky University
Third Place, $1,500 award, Lily LaRegina, Pennsylvania State University
Fourth Place, $1,000 award, Calli Westra, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Fifth Place, $1,000 award, Luke Wines, California State University, Long Beach
The top five winning schools receive matching grants.

The sixth-through-tenth place finalists are:
Sixth Place, certificate, Xinning Li, Syracuse University
Seventh Place, certificate, J’sha Gift, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Eighth Place, certificate, Jordan Frye, University of Florida
Ninth Place, certificate, Anna Leachman, Western Kentucky University
Tenth Place, certificate, Anna Von Pechmann, Colorado State University

Western Kentucky University is currently in first place in the Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition with the highest accumulated student points from the first of four multimedia competitions.
They are followed by: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Pennsylvania State University; Arizona State University; California State University, Long Beach; University of Florida (tie); Syracuse University (tie); Colorado State University; University of Montana; San Francisco State (tie); University of Missouri (tie).

The top three intercollegiate winners earn $10,000, $4,000 and $2,000 respectively. The final intercollegiate winners will be announced after the completion of all four multimedia competitions in May.

The multimedia judges are: Jarrad Henderson, senior multimedia producer – investigative and enterprise video team, USA Today; Meredith Hogan, senior creative producer, Red Element Studios; and Robert Scheer, visual journalist, The Indianapolis Star.

The Journalism Awards Program, now in its 63rd year, added multimedia to the competitions in 2010.  The program also includes five writing, one audio, two television, and two photojournalism competitions offering up to $700,000 in scholarships, matching grants and stipends. 105 member universities of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication with accredited undergraduate journalism programs are eligible to participate in the Hearst competitions.