Staffers from The OU Daily earned 18 Gold Circle honors this week in results honoring individual pieces of digital and print student journalism as announced by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.
First-place honors went to:
- In digital media, Jillian Taylor in news writing for a piece on how Oklahoma educators are creating systemic change in how they teach students about the Tulsa Race Massacre.
- In digital media, Mason Young in sports news for his game story on OU’s football team winning its sixth consecutive Big 12 Championship at the end of the 2020 season.
- In digital media, Ray Bahner in the single sports photograph category for an image of OU’s baseball team celebrating an extra-innings victory.
- In digital media, Beth Wallis in the podcast category for the first episode of her At the Seams project on divisive city politics.
- In print media, Jacinda Hemeon in news writing for a piece that ran in Crimson Quarterly magazine exploring calls for reparations to be paid in conjunction with the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre.
Second-place honors went to:
- In digital media, Wallis and Donna Edwards in the podcast category for the fifth chapter of their in-depth podcast Destination Greenwood.
- In digital media, Jordan Miller in the interactive graphic category for her visualization of how OU and Cleveland County’s COVID-19 cases ranked against others in the Big 12.
- In digital media, Will Conover, Collin McDaniel and Xavier Turner in the video feature package category for the episode of Out of Bounds on Spencer Rattler’s redemption.
Third-place honors went to:
- In digital media, Chandler Engelbrecht in sports news for his game story on OU’s football team beating Kansas the week of the 2020 presidential election.
- In print media, Caleb McCourry in sports features for his profile of OU track coach Tim Langford that ran in Crimson Quarterly magazine.
- In print media, Megan Foisy, Rachel Lobaugh and Wallis in the computer generated art/illustration category for their 100 years cover concept for the issue of Crimson Quarterly magazine commemorating the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre.
Certificates of Merit went to:
- In digital media, Wallis, Edwards and Hemeon in the podcast category for their episode of OU Weekly, “Laughing about darkness: Sterlin Harjo and Reservations Dogs.”
- In digital media, Jana Hayes in the in-depth news/feature category for her project on racial disparities in Norman Police Department data.
- In digital media, McCourry in the sports feature category for his coverage of the OU football team’s demonstration against racial injustice in honor of the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington.
- In digital media, Austin Curtright in the sports feature category for his profile of OU basketball player Elijah Harkless.
- In digital media, Hayes in the interactive graphic category for her visualizations of data in her project on racial disparities in Norman Police Department data.
- In print news, Blake Douglas in the news writing category for his piece that ran in Crimson Quarterly magazine about authorities reopening the investigation into the Tulsa Race Massacre.
- In magazines, Douglas in the non-fiction article category for his piece that ran in Crimson Quarterly magazine on what had changed at OU one year after a historic sit-in.
According to the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, honorees were selected from more than 4,100 entrants in 91 categories across collegiate and high school journalism as judged by experienced journalists and educators familiar with the context surrounding student media. Gold Circles were first awarded in 1984.
Separately, The Daily and Crimson Quarterly are up for Gold or Silver Crown honors, which are the highest accolades CSPA bestows for overall excellence in publications. Those results will be released Wednesday, March 30. The Daily has earned Crown honors each of the past six years, the longest consecutive stretch on record in the organization’s history. Crimson Quarterly, which was founded in 2015 and later became an extension of the journalism previously produced by Sooner yearbook, is a finalist for the first time in its history.