National Scholastic Press Association recognizes WSS in Multimedia Story of the Year contest

‘Living life with Rett syndrome’ is a finalist in the Multimedia Feature Story of the Year contest, and ‘Students lead anti-hate protest, work to end discrimination’ is a finalist in the Multimedia News Story of the Year contest.

October 4, 2017

A photo featured in "Students lead anti-hate protest, work to end discrimination"—one of 10 finalists in NSPA's Multimedia News Story of the Year contest.
Caroline Young
Students march toward Iowa City Hall on Nov. 15.

The National Scholastic Press Association recognized two West Side Story pieces as finalists in its annual Multimedia Story of the Year contest. Each piece is one of 10 finalists nationwide in its category. WSS staff is a finalist in the Multimedia News Story of the Year contest for “Students lead anti-hate protest, work to end discrimination.” The WSS staffers who worked on this piece include Cameron Cook ’17, Isabelle Robles ’17, Fenna Semken ’18, Caroline Young ’19 and Angela Zirbes ’18.

Samalya Thenuwara ’18 is a finalist in the Multimedia Feature Story of the Year contest for “Living life with Rett syndrome.” View all of the Multimedia Story of the Year finalists here.

From NSPA's Multimedia Feature Story of the Year finalist piece, "Living with RETT syndrome" by Samalya Thenuwara.
Alyson Kuennen
Simone Taylor ’20 is looking to the side, seemingly at nothing. The picture doesn’t show the commotion that is actually happening. Two videographers were messing about in attempt to fix up a stubborn tripod. To anyone who is concerned, yes the tripod was eventually assembled.

Both the finalists and winners will be recognized at the JEA/NSPA Fall National High School Journalism Convention, Nov. 16-19 in Dallas.

According to a press release from NSPA, competition was intense in all six categories of the 2017 NSPA Individual Awards with 3,500 entries competing. Judges selected 280 NSPA Individual Award finalists, representing eight percent of the entries. Of those finalists, 140 will be announced as winners and presented with plaques indicating their top-five ranking. The winners represent only four percent of the total entries. For a list of previous WSS awards, visit wsspaper.com/awards.