THE ‘Dangerous Ground’ website and program of student involvement has been recognised with two awards. And, journalism student Melanie Barrie was highly commended in the annual Ossie awards for student journalism. Well done everyone!
The ‘Dangerous Ground‘ site won a Monash Arts Faculty award, announced by Arts Dean, Rae Frances, and students who contributed to the site won a Journalism Education Association of Australia Ossie award for convergent journalism. The Ossie judge, Our World Today director, Chris Campbell, found that the Monash students involved collaborated in a highly professional manner. He added: ”They have provided the reader with an informing and diverse range of information, but kept such content in line with their vision. The platform gave a good level of interactivity, providing audio, video, and images to accompany stories, as well as a ‘documents’ section to share their resources with the reader.
“Generally, the content was of a high editorial standard, and the research and investigations were highly commendable. The exploration into the subject was deep and thorough, giving a true reflection of investigative journalism content.”
Journalism student Melanie Barrie was highly commended in the ‘Best online story’ category for her story ‘Controversial rates hike to quash development of Highbury’. The Ossie judges found the hyperlocal story highlighted an “important issue pointing to poor decisions by council, the holes in their argument and the impact on development and consumers. Strong use of the medium with pictures, infographics, lots of hyperlinks, and a well-cut video interview”. Well done Melanie!
The Arts Faculty award for ‘Dangerous Ground’ was awarded for programs that enhance student learning. The Dangerous Ground program is part of the investigative reporting unit for Masters and undergraduate students. Investigative students have the option of undertaking a project that scrutinizes environmental regulation in Victoria. After their assignments are returned, these students and others develop the stories and find new ones to be published in a multi-media format.
Image: Editor of ‘Dangerous Ground’, Senior Lecturer Bill Birnbauer with the Arts Faculty Teaching Award.
