WKU News

WKU’s School of Journalism & Broadcasting has continued a tradition of national success in the Hearst Journalism Awards Program with a fifth-place overall finish in 2019.

WKU has finished in the top eight nationally in the Hearst program for 26 straight years and has won four overall national championships -- 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2018.

Earlier this spring, WKU won the Intercollegiate Photojournalism Competition for the 25^th time in the past 30 years and finished second in the Intercollegiate Multimedia Competition. Three WKU students – Gabriel Scarlett, Skyler Ballard and Kathryn Ziesig -- will be competing for national championships in photojournalism and multimedia June 1-6 in San Francisco.

WKU students have won 15 Hearst individual national championships since 1985 — photojournalism in 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2014 and 2016; multimedia in 2015; writing in 1985; and radio news in 2006.

The top 10 Overall Intercollegiate finishers in the 59^th annual Hearst Journalism Awards Program are: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, first; Arizona State University, second; Pennsylvania State University, third; University of Florida, fourth place; WKU, fifth place; University of Nebraska-Lincoln, sixth place; University of Missouri, seventh place; Indiana University, eighth place; University of Maryland, ninth place; University of Montana, 10^th place.

Often called “The Pulitzers of college journalism,” the Hearst program holds yearlong competitions in writing, photojournalism, radio, television and multimedia for journalism undergraduates. Journalism schools accumulating the most points earned by their students in each category are designated the winners of the Intercollegiate Competitions. This year’s top finishers will be recognized during the National Championships Intercollegiate Awards ceremony June 5 in San Francisco.

The Hearst Journalism Awards Program operates under the auspices of the accredited schools of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication. It is fully funded and administered by The William Randolph Hearst Foundation. Currently, 104 accredited undergraduate schools of journalism in the United States are eligible to participate in the program, which awards up to $700,000 in scholarships and grants annually. 

Contact: School of Journalism & Broadcasting, (270) 745-4144