Finalists Announced for 2016 Online Journalism Awards

A Commpro News Update

Today, the Online News Association announced the finalists for the 2016 Online Journalism Awards, with a wide range of nonprofit, public, academic, major media and emerging technology organizations from around the globe.

Now, more than ten of the awards come with a $53,500 prize, given by the Knight Foundation, the Gannett Foundation and the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The awards honor several mediums: data journalism, visual digital storytelling, investigative journalism, public service, technical innovation, student journalism and general excellence.

"The range of this year's finalists is truly remarkable," said David Smydra, ONA Board member and Online Journalism Awards Committee Chair. "In so many respects -- newsroom size, geography, subject matter, platform, technology, storytelling techniques and more -- judges were extremely impressed by the full scope and achievements of digital journalists across the industry."

A group of over 75 journalists and media professionals screened 1,029 entries and select semi-finalists. Twenty judges representing a diverse cross-section of the industry then determined finalists and winners.

The winners will be announced at the 2016 ONA Conference and Online Journalism Awards Banquet on Saturday, Sept. 17, in Denver.

The finalists, many of whom push the envelope of innovation and excellence in digital storytelling and distribution, are:

Breaking News, Medium

• San Bernardino Terrorist Attack, Los Angeles News Group and San Bernardino Sun
• An Occupation in Eastern Oregon, OPB - Oregon Public Broadcasting
• Emanuel AME Church Killings, The Post and Courier

Breaking News, Large

• Paris Terrorist Attacks, CNN
• San Bernardino Terrorist Attack, Los Angeles Times
• Paris Attacks, The New York Times

Breaking News, Small

• No finalists

Planned News/Events, Small

• Campaign 2016, Council on Foreign Relations
• The New Hampshire Primary, NHPR - New Hampshire Public Radio

Planned News/Events, Medium

• One Year in Ferguson, St. Louis Public Radio
• For Peshawar, The Express Tribune

Planned News/Events, Large

• US Election Primaries, The Guardian US
• The Election, The New York Times

Explanatory Reporting, Small

• Pulp Fiction, Climate Central
• Video Explainers, Grist
• The Population Bomb?, Retro Report
• Unequal Risk, The Center for Public Integrity

Explanatory Reporting, Medium

• The Circuit: Tracking America's Electronic Waste, KCTS9, OPB - Oregon Public Broadcasting and EarthFix
• Killing the Colorado, ProPublica and Matter
• Shocking Force, The Baltimore Sun
• The Price of Admission, The Texas Tribune and REVEAL, from the Center for Investigative Reporting
• How The Iowa Democratic Caucus Works, Featuring Legos, Vermont Public Radio

Explanatory Reporting, Large

• What Is Code?, Bloomberg Businessweek, Bloomberg Digital
• The Upshot, Inequality, The New York Times
• 2050 Demographics, The Wall Street Journal
• America's Great Housing Divide, The Washington Post
• An Exploration Into Medical Errors, Vox.com

Topical Reporting, Small

• Hawaii Behind Bars, Honolulu Civil Beat
• God & Governing: How Texas Legislators' Religious Beliefs Guide Their Lawmaking, The Texas Tribune

Topical Reporting, Medium

• Reliving Agent Orange, ProPublica and The Virginian-Pilot
• Violence in Baltimore, The Baltimore Sun
• Student Voices in a Tumultuous Year, The Chronicle of Higher Education

Topical Reporting, Large

• #OscarsSoWhite, Los Angeles Times
• Missing and Murdered, The Globe and Mail
• The County, The Guardian US

Online Commentary

• Boston Globe Ideas, The Boston Globe
• The Real Miss America, Mashable
• A Conversation on Race, The New York Times

Sports, Small

• Blood and Sport, Retro Report
• Disqualified After Concussions, College Football Players Recruited Back Onto the Field, STAT

Sports, Medium

• Going For Eleven: UConn Women Win The 2016 NCAA Tournament, Hartford Courant
• Becoming Royal, The Kansas City Star - McClatchy

Sports, Large

• BBC Winners - Silvana Lima, BBC World Service
• Sports Visualization, The New York Times

Feature, Small

• The Harbor: This Waianae Homeless Camp Is Not What You'd Expect, Honolulu Civil Beat
• The Doctor, The Atavist Magazine

Feature, Medium

• Inheritance, FRONTLINE
• Unsettled Journeys, The Baltimore Sun
• The Downloaders, Verdens Gang

Feature, Large

• Cosby: The Women, New York Magazine
• The Life and Times of Strider Wolf, The Boston Globe
• Ground Water, The Desert Sun and USA TODAY
• Taken Hostage, The Wall Street Journal

The David Teeuwen Student Journalism Award, Small

• Chasing Lithium, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
• The Wait: Inside the Lives of Asylum Seekers in Germany, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
• Transplanted: How Undocumented Immigrants With Terminal Kidney Failure Fight To Navigate a Health Care System That Doesn't Acknowledge They Exist, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism

The David Teeuwen Student Journalism Award, Large

• NYC Values, NYU Journalism, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute
• This is a Canadian Issue: Reflecting on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action, Ryerson University, School of Journalism
• Bordering on the American Dream, Texas Christian University
• All My Intimate Relations: Stories of Indigenous Sexuality, UBC Graduate School of Journalism

Pro-Am Student Award

• America's Weed Rush, Carnegie-Knight News21 Initiative, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University
• Bridging Selma, Morgan State University School of Global Journalism and Communication and West Virginia University Reed College of Media
• Return to Chernobyl, NYU Journalism - Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and FRONTLINE
• Out of the Shadows, UBC Graduate School of Journalism
• The University of Florida Award for Investigative Data Journalism, Small/Medium
• Surgeon Scorecard, ProPublica
• The Drone Papers, The Intercept
• The University of Florida Award for Investigative Data Journalism, Large
• The Tennis Racket, BuzzFeed
• What Went Wrong in Flint, FivethirtyEight.com
• Focus on Force: An Investigation In Use of Force by the Orlando Police Department, Orlando Sentinel
• Failure Factories, Tampa Bay Times
• The Families Funding the 2016 Presidential Election, The New York Times

Excellence and Innovation in Visual Digital Storytelling, Small

• "Permission to Exterminate" Terror in Central Asia, Coda Story
• Asunción 360, DIVE
• Undercurrent, Steven Johnson School of Media and Journalism, University of North Carolina
• Fatal Extraction: Australian Mining in Africa, The Center for Public Integrity and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
• Excellence and Innovation in Visual Digital Storytelling, Medium

Casualties of the Streets, Austin American-Statesman

• Virtual Reality, FRONTLINE
• Excellence and Innovation in Visual Digital Storytelling, Large
• The Yellowstone Issue, National Geographic
• Buying Democracy, Newsy
• 6x9: A Virtual Experience of Solitary Confinement, The Guardian and The Mill
• Homan Square: An Interactive Portrait of Chicago's Detainees, The Guardian US
• Visual Digital Storytelling from The Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Journal
• Gannett Foundation Award for Technical Innovation in the Service of Digital Journalism

Nearby Tipping, Breaking News

• Atlas, Quartz
• Shorthand, Shorthand
• ArchieML, The New York Times
• Autotune, Vox Media's Product Team, Vox Media, Vox Product
• The Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award, Small
• Exxon: The Road Not Taken, InsideClimate News
• Civilian Deaths in Yemen: A Social Media Investigation, reported.ly
• The Mastermind, The Atavist Magazine
• The Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award, Medium
• The Color of Debt, ProPublica
• Officer Involved, Southern California Public Radio (KPCC)
• Pesticides in Pot, The Oregonian/OregonLive
• The Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award, Large
• Amazon Doesn't Consider the Race of Its Customers. Should It?, Bloomberg News
• Red Cross, ProPublica and NPR
• Insane. Invisible. In Danger., Sarasota Herald-Tribune/Tampa Bay Times
• The Panama Papers: Politicians, Criminals and the Rogue Industry That Hides Their Cash, The Center for Public Integrity's International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Süddeutsche Zeitung and more than 100 media organizations
• Homan Square, The Guardian US
• Knight Award for Public Service
• A Matter of Dignity, Star Tribune
• Clash in the Name of Care, The Boston Globe
• Prisons Reporting, The Huffington Post
• Nuisance Abatement, The New York Daily News and ProPublica

General Excellence in Online Journalism, Small

• De Correspondent, decorrespondent.nl
• KBIA, kbia.org
• The Intercept, theintercept.com
• The Texas Tribune, texastribune.org
• The Trace, thetrace.org

General Excellence in Online Journalism, Medium

• FRONTLINE, pbs.org
• Le Temps, letemps.ch
• ProPublica, propublica.org
• Quartz, qz.com

General Excellence in Online Journalism, Large

• AJ+, ajplus.net
• Bloomberg News, bloomberg.com
• The Huffington Post's Highline, highline.huffingtonpost.com
• The New York Times, nytimes.com
• Vox Media, vox.com