WKU Wins Hearst
Photojournalism Competition

April 02, 2003

Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University has won the photojournalism competition of the 43rd annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program and had five students qualify for the national semifinals.

Shannon Guthrie, a Bowling Green senior, finished second in the picture story/series competition and received a $1,500 award. Lauren Clifton, a Shelbyville senior, was third and received a $1,000 award. WKU's School of Journalism and Broadcasting received matching awards.

Western reclaimed the national photo title with students finishing in the top three in all three contests in the Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition. Western won the Hearst photojournalism competition for 11 consecutive years before finishing second the past two years.

The Hearst Journalism Awards Program is often called the Pulitzer Prize of collegiate journalism.

The rest of the top 10 in the photo competition were San Jose State, North Carolina, Florida, Southern California, San Francisco State, Ball State, Missouri, Penn State and North Texas.

Among the 12 photojournalists submitting additional photos for the semifinal round of judging will be WKU students Guthrie, Clifton, Brett Flashnick, a sophomore from Columbia, S.C., Amanda Odeski, a Dallas senior, and Brian Wagner, a senior from Knoxville, Tenn. Each semifinalist will receive a $1,500 award.

Flashnick and Odeski qualified for the semifinals after finishing second and third in the sports and news competition. Wagner was second in the feature and portrait/personality photography contest.

Six finalists will be selected to compete in the national photojournalism championships June 2-8 in San Francisco.

WKU's Ryan Clark of Louisville won the Hearst feature writing contest and will compete in the national writing championships.

The Hearst Journalism Awards Program consists of writing, photojournalism and broadcast news competitions. In the past three years, Western has won the overall intercollegiate title twice and finished second once.

In the Intercollegiate Broadcast News Competition, Western finished eighth behind Syracuse, North Carolina, Penn State, Northwestern, Montana, Arizona State and Florida. In the Intercollegiate Writing Competition, Western is seventh behind Northwestern, Penn State, Nebraska, Iowa, North Carolina and Kansas with one more contest remaining.

Results from the final writing competition and the overall intercollegiate winner will be named later this month.

For more information, contact the School of Journalism and Broadcasting at (270) 745-4143. More WKU news is available on the World Wide Web at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via E-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

-WKU-