Daily Trojan wins 22 state awards


By
 in

(From left to right) Daily Trojan editor-in-chief Allen Pham, associate managing editor Kate Sequeira, managing editor Eileen Toh and associate managing editor Karan Nevatia collect the newspaper’s awards Saturday. (Photo courtesy of Allen Pham)

The Daily Trojan won a total of 22 awards from the California College Media Association Saturday at its annual awards ceremony in La Jolla, including eight first-place honors.

The newspaper took home top recognition in the Best Special Issue/Section category for “Home Away From Home,” a collection of features about housing at USC; Best News Series for “Speck of Green,” which focuses on the University’s sustainability efforts; and Best Podcast for “Engemann’s Attempts to Rebuild Trust,” an episode from the “General Education” news podcast. 

The Daily Trojan also won first place for its editorial board, “We will not allow USC to censor student voices.” The opinion piece was written after a University spokesperson prevented a Daily Trojan reporter from covering a town hall event centered on USC’s presidential search.

Other first place awards included Best Non-News Video (“De España para el mundo”), Best Sports Story (“Just keep shootin’: Bennie Boatwright’s work ethic and patience have him primed for success”), Best Infographic (“USC Teaching Garden”) and Best Interactive Graphic (“A Closer Look: Popular Student Housing Complexes”). 

“We are extremely humbled to be recognized for our work,” Editor-in-Chief Allen Pham said. “Despite the limitations we face as a student-run newspaper, our top priority has always been to telling the stories of our campus and community. Student journalism continues to thrive and we are incredibly proud to be a part of this movement.”

The Daily Trojan placed second in six categories: Best Breaking News Story (“Nikias to resign as USC president after year defined by scandals”), Best Multimedia Presentation (“Home Away from Home”), Best Use of Social Media for A Single Story (“No Longer Welcome”), Best Social Media Platform (Twitter), Best Newspaper Website and Best Mobile Site.

Third-place awards included Best Feature Story (“After Tyndall, USC leaders are restructuring the health center to regain trust”), Best Newspaper Column (“In support of the city’s famed ‘dirty dog’ vendors”), Best Newspaper Inside Page Design (“Accessibility reigns at West Jefferson taco shop”), Best Photo Series (“Ben Shapiro speaks at USC”) and Best Sports Photograph.

The Daily Trojan also received honorable mentions for Best News Video (“Gakusei House: A place to call home”), Best Photo Illustration and Best Arts and Entertainment Story (“Magic on Menlo: The Making of Moontower”).

“Our paper’s proven its prowess in a wide variety of traditional and multimedia categories this year at the CCMAs,” Daily Trojan Associate Managing Editor Karan Nevatia said. “These awards not only make our staff proud, but motivate us to continue to report, write and tell stories at the highest level of excellence.”