Marketing & Media News South Africa

2021 New Media Writing Prize winners announced

A virtual event was held to announce the winners of the twelfth annual New Media Writing Prize (NMWP) awards, hosted by Bournemouth University. Amongst the accolades was the FIPP Digital Journalism Award, which was presented to Russia's Daria Donina for her work on Trading Places - an important piece of interactive journalism that tells the stories of five refugees from different countries.

“A large part of the overall contest is devoted to the mastery of visual,” says Donina. “Infographics, illustration, design, etc. And although the judges mention the level of storytelling from time to time, the authors and editors can often feel sort of left out – it’s not the story itself that’s been awarded, it’s all about the layout.”

“But equally, visual language is much more comprehensive and understandable worldwide, and I’m happy and proud for the whole team that the first project we’ve submitted gained recognition. In these times of pandemic, it’s easy to feel like you are missing out on real-world events, and that is why such an initiative becomes really revitalising and motivating. So I’m grateful to the judging panel, the University of Bournemouth and FIPP, which I am proud to join.”

The main if:book New Media Writing Prize award of the evening went to UK entry Neurocracy, produced by Joannes Truyens and collaborators, is a sci-fi hypertext game that allows players to freely explore the Wikipedia of the year 2049. The Student Prize was awarded to At Nightfall – The Goldfish, by Melody MOU of Hong Kong, while the new ‘Opening Up’ accolade went to Manzil, by Nivritti Khurana.

Amongst the celebrations, the evening also carried some sadness, as the panel marked the passing of Chris Meade, who was the chair of every previous NMWP awards evening since 2010 and without whom the New Media Writing Prize would not have got past its first year.

This article was originally published on www.fipp.com.

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